The history of Christmas

Explore these expert history articles on the history of Christmas, from why we decorate Christmas trees, to who invented Christmas crackers. Plus, everything you ever wanted to know about how Christmas has been celebrated throughout the ages, from medieval feasts to Tudor festivities…

The characters Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, from Charles Dickens's work 'A Christmas Carol'

Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas as we know it today?

Tom Smith's Surprise Cosaques, Christmas Crackers 1878. (Image by Getty)

The history of Christmas crackers

Sam Willis and James Daybell. (Photo by David Hampton, Background by Dreamstime)

A curious history of Christmas

A Victorian Christmas

What was Christmas like in the Victorian era?

A 15th-century miniature from 'La Vraye Histoire du Bon Roy Alixandre'. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

6 Christmas party tips from the past

A c1880 Christmas card shows a frog committing murder

Carrots, goblins and killer frogs: an unexpected history of Christmas

The history of Christmas food, historical recipes and more

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Victorian Christmas: 3 recipes to try at home

Land girls on an Essex turkey farm round up the turkeys for the last time. (Photo by Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

A brief history of turkeys, plus why we eat a turkey dinner at Christmas

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Pod Peter Hart WL

First World War

Life in the trenches: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Shapes for pies from T Hall, The Queen's Royal Cookery, 1713.

The taste of Christmas past: 4 historical festive recipes

BROWSE MORE HISTORICAL RECIPES

Tom Smith's Surprise Cosaques, Christmas Crackers 1878. (Image by Getty)

The history of Christmas crackers

A vintage colour postcard, possibly produced to send Christmas greetings from the frontline, somewhere on the Western Front, during the First World War, c1918. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

First World War

Christmas 10 ways Christmas was celebrated during the First World War

Turkeys, bred in Norfolk, cover the facade of a London butcher's shop, 1929. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Shop ’till you drop: a brief history of Christmas shopping

Tudor advent calendar

24 facts about Christmas in the Tudor period

Christmas carols: the history behind 9 festive favourites

A brief history of Boxing Day

John Duval Gluck, Jr, 'the Santa Claus man', pictured left, visiting the General Post Office to promote the Santa Claus Association’s benefit show

The con man who saved Christmas

A 19th-century depiction of the first meeting of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

History quiz: Christmas with Henry VIII and his wives

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Zwarte Piet: the history behind the Christmas controversy

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Festive QI facts: 8 things you (probably) didn’t know about the history of Christmas

Christmas merriment in an old English manor in the 1500s

How to host a medieval Christmas

Santa_Surveillance_s Glen McBeth

Q&A Why did NORAD begin tracking Santa Claus in the Cold War?

Secret Santa Getty Dreamstime

General History

What gift would you buy figures from the past? Find out in historical Secret Santa 2022

The real Wenceslas is that he was not actually a king, but Duke of Bohemia.

Q&A Who was Good King Wenceslas, and was he actually good?

Q&A Why do we kiss under the mistletoe?

General History

Welsh Christmas traditions through history

Young woman sitting besides christmas present, smiling, portrait

20 Christmas gift ideas for history lovers

Vintners in an ale house, 1642. From a broadsheet titled ‘Health to All’, artist unknown. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Did Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas? The Puritan assault on Christmas during the 1640s and 1650s

A Victorian Christmas card

HistoryExtra’s Christmas history quiz

Letters to Santa: the winners