15,697
edits
Changes
m
Admin moved page Where Did Different Christmas Traditions Come From? to Where Did Different Christmas Traditions Come From
However, other religions and cultures influenced traditions and elements surrounding Santa Claus. Wodan, an important Norse/Germanic god, is an inspiration for several aspects of Santa Claus. Wodan would ride in the sky during the period of Yule which is somewhat similar to Christmas. Santa's reindeer live in and around the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia like Wodan. The god also had a long white beard. Santa Claus is, in essence, a Turkish/Germanic/Nordic hybrid.
In 1809, Washington Irving's <i>History of New York</i> merged different traditions of the English Father Christmas and Dutch <i>Sinterklaas</i> that had developed over time to give a more modern version of Santa Claus. What made modern Santa Claus was the 1821 poem that is now know to us as 'The Night Before Christmas,' which characterizes the figure, describes his reindeer, and gives the story of him dispersing presents to children (Figure 1).<ref>For more on Santa Claus and his origins, see: Urban, C. W. (2011).<i> Nicholas: the Fantastic Origin of Santa Claus</i>. Booklocker.com, Inc. </ref>
[[File:1870 ChristmasTree byEhninger HarpersBazaar.jpeg|thumb|left|300px|Figure 2. Christmas trees were first decorated with candle lights.]]
In the US colonies, it began to become popular during the 18th century when wine and other liquors were taxed, but rum was not. Thus, rum began to be a popular alcoholic addition to the egg and milk mix.<ref>For more on eggnog, see: Staib, W., Yun, M., & Wolkow, D. (2013). <i>A sweet taste of history: more than 100 elegant dessert recipes from America’s earliest days</i>. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.</ref>
The fruit cake fruitcake in a modern usage was used as early as the 19th century in Victorian England, where it became popular with the royal family and then the tradition spread to British society and culture, eventually arriving in the US. The tradition, however, may stem from at least the Roman period, when a plum, raisin, and nut recipe is known to have existed, perhaps used in times of celebration.<ref>For more on the fruit cakefruitcake, see: Leach, H. M. K., Browne, M., & Inglis, R. M. (2011). <i>The twelve cakes of Christmas: an evolutionary history, with recipes</i>. Dunedin, N.Z: Otago University Press. </ref>
Christmas pudding likely started its origin as a savory food in England in the Medieval period that included stuffing the meat and pudding into a stomach of a sheep used to wrap the finished product. In the 18th century, plum began to be used to help make it a sweet dish to be made before Christmas and then served on Christmas day. It may have become popularised in Christmas as King George I was described as requesting a pudding made for Christmas and the use of a plum pudding during that time helped associated the pudding with Christmas in subsequent years.<ref>For more on Christmas pudding, see: Ysewijn, R. (2016). <i>Pride and pudding</i>. Murdoch Books.</ref>
