The History of Christmas 

One Danish tradition, that not many know of now a days, is that the last of the christmas candy must be finished on the day of the 3 holy kings (6th of January). Certainly a day to look forward to as a child, I did. ❤️

Wishing Gabriel a first Christmas filled with wonder and joy. Cherish these firsts and have a wonderful Christmas.

My family celebrates the "each person with their own tree" tradition. We also go wassailing and caroling. Nice to know the history! Great video.

my family does wassailing (in fact were doing it on Tuesday). my nan has an orchard wich we bless each year. essentially we make lots of noise with drums and flutes, give the chosen tree cake and cider then eat loads of food! it's really good fun

Thank you for all your videos Kat. My grandad has dementia and it's hard to keep him engaged in TV content, even stuff he specifically asked us to record, but he always seems to stay awake and alert when I put on one of your videos for us to watch together

That was a lovely post; thank you very much. Question: when did the British tradition of telling scary stories on/around Christmas begin? With Dickens? Here in the States, it's not a wide-spread tradition.

I will miss your "dulcet tones'" but I can always re-watch your earlier videos as you said. Thanks so much for explaining the "mumming." I always wondered what Loreena McKennitt's "The Mummers' Dance" was about. I think your son is very lucky to have a mother who understands and cares about keeping Christmas. Hope your family has a fantastic Christmas this year. And a great New Years too!

The Christmas cake reminds me of the King cake that is used to celebrate Mardi Gras in Louisiana and here in Texas. The King case has a plastic baby baked into it and whoever gets the slice with the baby hosts next year's Mardi Gras party.

Going door to door Christmas carolling was something that I loved as a kid (both doing and watching) but it’s gone out of style. I’d love for that tradition to come back

I'm from New Zealand, so my Christmas traditions are a bit different! My family would always get together and have a barbecue, and often go to the beach.

So excited to watch this! Wishing you a lovely holiday season with your family!

I’m from Newfoundland and mummers are still a common thing here.

We all wish you lovely family holidays. Sweet firsts! What a year we have had. Thankyou.

Making mincemeat pies is still done in Northern New England using venison. However, it is a tradition that is disappearing quickly as we older folks pass on. Deer hunting season ends at the end of November just in time to make the pies.

Here in the USA, crackers are not a usual part of our Christmas traditions. Our daughter first learned of them from the Harry Potter books. Crackers are also mentioned in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. We became curious. Several years ago, we found some at "The Brit Store" in the Kansas City area and started a "new" tradition at Christmas dinner.

I'm so impressed at your relating the whole history of Christmas in 43 minutes. I thought it would be a tall order but you did it Dr Kat. No fun those Puritans,it must be their descendants who are now behavioural scientists. I was taught by my Mum and Dad that we give presents in emulation of The Three Kings. St Nicholas or his avatars had no place in my childhood Xmas - I'm glad to say,defo a dodgy geezer. My Dad absolutely would NOT have us thinking Santa Claus was real,his reason being kindness,that is he did not want us thinking we would get piles of the latest must have toys when they had no money to buy them. So I think that's GOOD. Actually us kids were not the sort that wanted all the latest etc....and my parents would never have got themselves in debt. We still had fabulous,fun Christmasses.

Even with today's restricted mobility I have found that taking the trouble to call a friend or loved ones is in the spirit of the season. May we all remember the view of Christmas as children do.

Brava ! You had me tearing up at the end , I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thank you

Thank you, always, for your videos. Your cheery personality always makes me smile! All the best for the new year!

I listen to you in the morning as I get ready for work - I will miss you while you are off! Love your channel!!

May you all have a wonderful, safe and Very Merry Holiday season! Love your vids! Look forward to your insights!

Yay....a Christmas gift from Dr. Kat. Merry Christmas from a snowy Montana USA

Hello Dr. Kat. I’ve been meeting to send you a comment for some time. I watch your videos regularly, and enjoy each one. You have such an excellent way of presenting material that is informative, but not pedantic. You mentioned the preparation of mincemeat. I live in Canada, on the East Coast. Here homemade mincemeat is still often made with actual meat. The meat of choice is either ground venison or ground moose meat. My. Mother made it some years when the ingredients were available. I can still remember exactly how it tasted. It was a regular mincemeat, but the addition of the meat gave it a deeper, richer taste. You couldn’t taste the meat itself because of all the spices, apples, and raisins. Thanks again for your videos. I can only guess how much work goes into preparing for each one. Have a wonderful holiday with your family.

Merry Christmas, Dr. Kat, from Pennsylvania USA! I really enjoy your videos!

Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas!!! Thanks for all your great work!!

Oooh, I so can't wait to curl up with a cup of tea and relax and watch this tomorrow! Merry Christmas Kat!!

Wishing you, Jaime and Gabriel A Very Merry Christmas🎅 and A Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year Dr. Kat. Thank-you for another year of fun and fact filled videos. I'm now going to watch the Lady Rochford documentary ♥️

Evening Dr Kat,its 10pm on Christmas Eve&I'm so late catching up with this vid,sorry hun.im a fairly new subscriber,only a few months,thank u RU-vid algorithm😻💖my degree is in Ancient History&Egyptology but that woz 30yrs ago(yep I'm getting on a bit😋)I just love ur channel.the way u explain history is absolutely brilliant,thank you 4 all ur hard work.Merry Christmas,Happy New Year&hve a fantastic time with ur family🤗🤗I'm really looking 4ward 2 watching&learning with everything u hve planned 4 next year🎅🎅🎅🎅xxxxx

🎄🎄🎄Merry Christmas to you and family!🎄🎄🎄 I have truly adore your channel and your content is always informative, entertaining, and a delight to watch.😁

Delightful! Thoroughly enjoyed it. So interesting to see where the traditions come from and how yours in the UK differ from some of our American customs. I’d love to have a time machine to travel back a few decades to enjoy the holidays with loved ones who are now in heaven.

I wishing Dr Kat and all your family Nollaig Shona Duit ( Irish for Merry Christmas to you )

Thanks❤

Belated happy solstice, as well as a much-improved 2022, to Dr. Kat and my fellow readers.

Have a wonderful family yule, Dr Kat. Your son is at such a wonderful age for Christmas and all the shiny crinkly and delicious goodness. Enjoy every second! Thank you for your company (and shared opinions and prejudices and honesty about the probabilities of history - I'm a revoltingly opinionated and mildly maverick archaeologist myself) through some of my darkest weeks this year as well as during the more joyous times. I love that you talk about these historical personages as though they're familiar old friends with their merits and flaws and basic humanity intact because thats how I feel about them too. Its like running into someone with whom you have mutual friends and settling down fir a cosy affectionate gossip. Your gods bless and keep you, and looking forward to seeing more of you in 2022. Much yuletide love xxx

Merry Christmas, Dr. Kat! Or should I say Happy Christmas!?

Almost lost. The uproarious "office party". Mr. Fezziwig style. We had so much fun. Sometimes a little wild, but... such was a tradition.

Happy Christmas, Dr Kat! Very close to 100K!

Very interesting, because I've never heard of a Christmas pantomime, and here in the USA we don't have Christmas crackers - I thought you meant something akin to a Ritz cracker until you explained it further. Merry Christmas to you and yours, Dr. Kat!

It’s interesting hearing from Australia. Here our Christmas is in the middle of Summer (as someone who hates the cold more than anything I prefer this), so our Christmas is a blend of tradition and adding our own twist. I compare this to Christmas in Japan (I lived with a Japanese family for a year on exchange in high school), Christmas in France (when I was about 13), and then Christmas in Prague and Germany one year as a university student. That year I actually had a ‘white Christmas’. How Christmas is celebrated over the world is interesting. Thank you for the video and season’s greetings. 🎄

Method to ' the madness ' x MERRY CHRISTMAS

I’m enjoying your discussion as I sit by the river and wait for a catfish to take the bait. Thank you.

The Christmas cake sounds like King cakes in Louisiana. Whoever finds the baby Jesus becomes “king” of the party

Happy Christmas, Dr. Kat!

Ooo I’m going to subscribe Right Now!! Congratulations on your channel and documentary contribution …. Merry Christmas to you and your family 🎄🤶🏼🎅🏼🍷

Yummm, the feasting xx

As always I deeply enjoyed this presentation lovely job

Congrats Dr Kat on your first Christmas as a new mom.

Happy Holidays to you and your family.🎅🤶

but what is your favorite version of "A Christmas Carol" ? mine are, the Alistair Sim version, the Albert Finney Musical, and the Mister Magoo version, also a musical Merry Christmas, Kat!

For us in America the Puritans were a major player in the development of our country, how did England view them? Were they liked people? Were they considered weird or people that should be cast out? If you could do a video on that it would be awesome.

Happy Holidays Dr. Kat!

One Christmas tradition from my childhood that has fallen away for many years, and now seems to be coming back, is the little bag of chocolate coins.

I enjoyed that very much. A very merry Christmas and New Year to you and your family, Dr. Kat. And to all on this page.

I’ve been trying to remember where I’d seen you before, other than RU-vid! Thanks for letting us know ✨

Merry Christmas to you and your family. A Virgo baby - well, we’re the best😉. Thanks for all the videos. I really enjoy them.🎄🎄🎄

Have a great Christmas and New Year, Dr. Kat

I hope the Lady Rochford documentary will somehow be made accessible on RU-vid. It can only be viewed if you're in the U.K.

Merry Christmas

And I will check out 5 on demand👍

Merry Christmas to you and yours, also! Thank you for your ever interesting posts, and I'm heading right over to Lauren Learns History to check out your video with her - unfortunately it looks like you have to be in the UK to be able to watch Lady Rochford - but one day I'll catch that I'm sure 😊

3:13 begins the content.

I hope we can see the Lady Rochford documentary in the US soon.

Wishing you and yours the Best of Christmas Wishes. xxx

Lovely post, Merry Christmas to you and your family. I'm so glad we aren't like puritans anymore.

Anyone interested in a thorough scholarly analysis of the Dec. 25 date, please see the excellent Religion at Breakfast episode: Did Christmas Copy the Sun God's Birthday?

Have been downloading every VPN here stateside to watch the show on UK tv but to no avail. VPN used to work for channel 5. I do hope someone records & uploads to RU-vid

Saturnalia also exchanged gifts.

I love these videos

I hope this isn’t a repeat. Could the meat in minced meat refer to the nut meats in it? I’ve always hoped this was the case. 😬😊

My mom does altar guild for the Episcopal church (which is what the Church of England became in the US after the revolution) and technically you’re still not supposed to get married or have funerals during purple seasons (Advent and Lent) and it pissed her off when it gets ignored. Not for liturgical reasons, but because she has to take down the purple hangings and put them back up again.

Happy Christmas/Merry Christmas, which ever is more appropriate. I re-introduced the Yule log, last year. Before that I had a candle the was shaped like a log, standing on end, that I would light each year until it was used up. So I tried an actual Yule log, but my goal was for it to burn for one night. With the help of a fire starter, it worked and was lovely. I will do the same this year, and hopefully each year to come.

I'm surprised to have realized by the end that this video was over 40 minutes long! I enjoyed it so much that it practically flew by. Thank you, Dr. Kat. I wish you and your family a merry Christmas and wonderful new year. ^_^

Happy Christmas to you and your family!

I remember my nephews at that age - when they were more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents 😂

my mother never liked the whole "encourage your kids believe in Santa and then tell them the truth and expect them to be fine" concept, so she told us that the "character" of Santa was "based" on an ancient greek bishop "who was very nice and love children". as a result, I never really believed in Santa (though my sisters took a little longer to put two and two together)

Giggles! "If something is fun, there should just be more of it!" Ha! Love it. Thanks for this fantastic video. Brava! 👏

Merry Christmas to you and your family (our babies were born at the same time so I hope you're enjoying the toddler spirit this Christmas 😅). I'm from Australia and we now have big seafood lunches and pinocoladas for breakfast (by the pool!). So I especially love listening to the European version :-) here's hoping you reach 100k, I've got all my fingers crossed for you xox

Merry Christmas! I remember when almost all the stores would have their windows painted in all kinds of Christmas scenes, from Frosty to Rudolph or even Jingle Bells. Wish that would come back.

I grew up in the 1960s in a house in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan built by Clement Clarke Moore. He is best known today as the author of "A Visit From St Nicholas" ("T'was the Night Before Christmas"). That poem basically invented the modern American "Santa Claus", drawing on both Dutch and English traditions. The house was the rectory of the local Episcopal parish, and we always had big celebrations centered around that blasted poem. I was sick of Santa Claus by the age of four.

Here in the Caribbean, our traditions have been influenced by the various parts of Europe. In my island of Trinidad there is a huge Spanish influence in many of our traditions, and there are some French elements and of course Victorian era traditions as well. We have parranderos a group singing Christmas songs in Spanish that used to visit house to house, in my childhood my paternal grandmother's relatives would come in the early morning hours, all the songs were about the nativity and the annunciation, that tradition now has been restricted to villages where there are mostly Spanish descendants. We have the parang bands at shows that we pay to see or at malls etc. We make a cake called a black cake which is a variation of a Christmas pudding. Enjoy the the festive season with your little boy and your loved ones! Happy Christmas and a bright and wonderful 2022.

I have always enjoyed your videos and the history uou bring alive fir us, BUT... since your candid and insightful sharing of your long history with dyslexia my admiration and respect have soared sky high. Thank you for sharing your story and achievements which will surely inspire many who struggle on their own journeys. Thank you! I just subscribed!!

1642-60 must have felt like forever! Thank you for another fab History lesson, Dr. Kat!

Really enjoyed watching this Kat! Thanks so much for the lovely mention, a joy to collaborate, as always ☺️ Happy Christmas! xx

Thank you Dr Kat for explaining the Christmas Cracker. We Americans encounter this in literature, among British friends and in all those productions by the BBC, but this is the first time I've actually learned what it is. A wonderful video! Happy holidays to you.

The best shallow-filled mince pies has to be Sainsbury’s. I get them every year. The fresh ones. Delicious is an understatement 😋

Literally as soon as this video ended I watched Lady Rochford - that was a good documentary and I was excited to see you featured! I do hope you are given the chance to appear in more!! I love this video too - have a very merry Christmas!

Precious, your child’s first Christmas. Enjoy. And would love to be part of a live broadcast. I am in Prince George, Virginia, USA. Have been sharing your broadcasts to family and friends and on Twitter and Facebook. Going for your 100,000 subscribers.

The Messiah was certainly not born in December, for many reasons. "Christmas" was never celebrated by the earliest believers, who were Jewish. Most likely it took place during the feast of Sukkot. Most Americans probably don't realize that the Puritans were "against" the church of England's teaching and holidays. The puritans did not celebrate Christmas, Easter or other church holidays. They were taken from pagan origins, so of no religious significance to them.

Our tradition in our family was always open 1 present on xmas eve and had to wait for anything else till xmas day. :) Unfort. I think your right Kat, xmas is for children. Adults only bring their longggg years of problems. lol

In Newfoundland Canada, Mumming is still done!!!!!

I absolutely LOVED this bit of Christmas history. So festive! Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Christmas and Christianity are cut from the same idlings of controlling fairy tales. The math that conjured between Easter and Christmas is so weak, there is so much more to the story that leads the birth of a Jesus to other times of the year. Santa Claus is much better documented through the ages. I have always wondered why we dismiss a Santa figure so easily, this person is giving and loving and joyful. Today he shows up and hangs out in our malls and brings such joy to all of us who watch our little ones be mesmerized by him. On the other hand there is God, who never shows up, really doesn't seem particularly interested in sparing our world any of the horrendous travesties that are happening. Personally I think Santa Claus is doing a much better job of spreading hope and love and joy to people. As a matter of fact no one minds that there are many versions of Santa all over the world. Beliefs in that there is only one God has started and fueled wars and bitterness between people all over the world! Why is that? I really don't need an answer.

You should know that the Traditional Catholics and Eastern Orthodox still observe Advent as a time of penance. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox are the more stringent. It is sad that here in America and increasingly across the Christian world, the Christmas Season has subsumed Advent and is celebrated from the fourth Thursday in November (American Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday) until December 25th. I have even seen people dumping their dead Christmas Tree on the huge pile of dead Christmas Trees at our local recycling spot in the evening of Christmas Day, as though they could not wait to get rid of all the fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la even before the sun set on the 25th. My family celebrates Advent, and we don't even start decorating for Christmas until Dec. 22nd, and we display our Christmas lights and tree and feasts and Christmas fun well into January....... and , I think our neighbors think we are nuts, but we love it!

I would like to wish you a very merry Christmas, and I hope you spend all the time you can with your family over the holidays. In my community, here in Nova Scotia, Canada, we have mincemeat with plenty of meat in it. Barrington Township was first settled in 1763 by British Loyalists and Planters. We were rather isolated until recent times and retained many of the traditions of that period, including mummers. Some of your Victorian traditions, like crackers, are rather new to some of us older folks.

I found history dull at school up until the age of 14 when we got a new history teacher who didn’t believe in teaching by rote My new teacher Mr Kelly Ó Murchadha would of course give us dates and facts but then he’d get us to write short plays about about the topic we were studying. We’d then (in small groups) act them out in front of the class. He taught that me history touches every part of our daily lives just like politics does. I fell in love with political and social history. I’m now studying my M.A in public history(I’d already got a 1st in political history for my undergraduate graduate degree) if I get my M.A I hope to get a PhD in Irish political history and become a researcher. This dumb blonde lad from the poorest part of Dublin had his life changed by one fantastic teacher/historian. Luckily I got scholarships to attend Trinity I or my ma or Da could’ve afforded Trinity’s fees. I’m from the slums and I want to shine a light on those long gone who lived a more impoverished life than myself but were and still are my people,whatever country they came from. Your channel is so important, I’ve even got the Dean of students Dr Catherine McCabe watching your channel. Happy new year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Dr Kat! I hope you get even more airplay in 2022.

Dearest Dr. Kat, as much as I eagerly await each new video you upload, I would rather you spend this time with Jamie (sp?) and Gabriel, especially since the little one may be just old enough to enjoy rhe sights and sounds this season. Hoping you and your family have a lovely Christmas and a healthy, happy 2022!

I think every generation believes the Christmases of their own childhoods were more magical than those of the current era, whatever era it happens to have been. They're not considering that everything changes at least a little bit from year to year and everything always feels more magical when you're a child.

I loved this! Thank you. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

When I lived in Kent, the local children used to sing a delightful traditional carol, that went: "Weeshooamericrim, weeshooamericrim, weeshooamericrim, annapannayir, can we have some money, please?"