Christmas True Meaning and Traditions

Christmas True Meaning and Traditions

Christmas has had a long and varied history. It has been celebrated for centuries by different people, at different times, in different places, and in many different ways. Here you will find links to information about the different ways that the holiday we know as Christmas has been celebrated, or not celebrated, over the years.

»Watch video about the history and origins of Christmas

An Ancient HolidaySome of our modern Christmas traditions have much older roots, going back to pagan European traditions.

»See how people celebrated the winter solstice

SaturnaliaSaturnalia was a Roman celebration in honor of the god Saturn.

»Discover what the Ancient Romans celebrated on December 25th

An Outlaw ChristmasThe Puritans didn't believe in the jovial Christmas holiday, so they banned it.

»Find out the penalty for celebrating Christmas

Christmas ReinventedAmericans embraced Christmas in the 19th Century, even inventing some of their own Christmas traditions.

»See how Americans created their own vision of Christmas

A Christmas CarolCharles Dickens' classic tale reflected and influenced changing ideas about the nature of Christmas.

»Learn how Scrooge and Tiny Tim changed Christmas

Enjoy Christmas with Santa Claus at the North pole, an award-winning Christmas web site. Send a letter to Santa Clause or a Christmas card to a friend.

»Santa Claus and Christmas at the Northpole

The True Meaning of Christmas

"The Real Truth About Santa Claus

"Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus!

A famous letter from Virgina O'Hanlon to the editorial of The New York Sun, first printed in 1897.

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor---

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so.

" Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?Virginia O'HanlonVirginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Thanksgiving History - Myths & Facts

Happy Thanksgiving from Drive Thru History! from ColdWater Media on Vimeo.

The First Thanksgiving

They spent two months at sea to reach a strange new world, and barely survived once they got there. Learn how the Pilgrims reached America and lived to celebrate the first Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving - History, origin, and traditions of an American holiday!

1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln

Full text of the October 3, 1863 decree that finally made Thanksgiving an official U.S. holiday.

Black Friday: Biggest Shopping Day of the Year?

Tradition has it that "Black Friday," the Friday after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States. Retail insiders say that is probably not the case.

Cyber Monday: Biggest Online Shopping Day of the Year?

The first Monday after Thanksgiving has come to be known as "Cyber Monday" because it is supposedly the biggest online shopping day of the year. The actual statistics don't back that up.

Does the Tryptophan in Turkey Make You Sleepy?

Theoretically it could, says About.com's Chemistry Guide Anne Marie Helmenstine, but the true lethargy inducer in any Thanksgiving dinner is more likely to be the carbohydrate count.

The First Thanksgiving - Myth vs. Fact

What historians really know about the 1621 harvest feast in Plymouth, Massachussetts and how it evolved into the Thanksgiving holiday we know today.

FDR and Thanksgiving

It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who, in his 1939 Thanksgiving Proclamation, gave the annual holiday its current date: the second-to-last Thursday in November. About's 20th Century History Guide Jennifer Rosenberg explains why he ordered the change.

A Folklorist's View of Thanksgiving

Esaúl Sánchez and folklorist Roger D. Abrahams discuss "the ubiquitious, universal, populist turkey and Thanksgiving."

The History of Thanksgiving

"Travel back to Plymouth and hear from some pilgrims to find out what the original celebration was actually like!" -- From the History Channel.

The Myth of Holiday Suicides

Does the suicide rate in the United States increase over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays? Experts say no. Here are the facts behind the urban legend.

Plymouth Rock

The real story behind the legendary landing spot of the Mayflower in 1620.

The Pregnant Turkey

Netlore Archive: For a Thanksgiving laugh, mom stuffs a roast turkey with a cornish game hen as a practical joke on her naive daughter.

The Presidential Turkey Pardon

Why do U.S. presidents feel compelled to issue an official pardon to a turkey each year before Thanksgiving? Did the "tradition" really start with Harry Truman? Or was it Abe Lincoln?

Thanksgiving in the Melting Pot

Anthropologist Dr. Sidney Mintz discusses holiday customs, food, gender roles, and commercialization.

Thanksgiving Day Myths

By historian Timothy Walch, director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa.

Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving

"If by Thanksgiving, you have in mind the Pilgrim festival, forget about it being a family holiday. Put away your Norman Rockwell paintings. Turn off Bing Crosby. Thanksgiving was a multicultural community event. If it had been about family, the Pilgrims never would have invited the Indians to join them."

A Virtual Tour of the Plimouth Plantation

It's 1627 all the time at Plimoth Plantation, the living history attraction in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that recreates the life of the Pilgrims and their Native neighbors. Take a virtual tour with About's New England for Visitors Guide, Kim Knox Beckius.

Wampanoag History

Detailed history of the Native American tribe without whose assistance the Pilgrims would have had little to be thankful for.

Talking about Stephen King Under The Dome

Stephen King Under The Dome

Under the Dome

By Stephen King

In his on words, Stephen King's Under The Dome On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

Stephen King’s Under The Dome

Book trailers are an interesting recent development in marketing. The very concept doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at first, seeing as books don’t actually have visual scenes to make a trailer out of, but done properly, they can be pretty effective tools for creating buzz around a new novel. And sometimes, they can be pretty cool. The trailer for Stephen King’s new book, Under The Dome, falls squarely into the “cool” category. The novel follows the inhabitants of a small town that is trapped in a huge, clear dome by unknown forces.

Some say King’s best years are behind him; I disagree. That’s not to say I enjoy every last one of his books – hell, the man’s written so many, there’s no way they could all be great. But when he’s on, he’s one of the best writers in modern horror (and sometimes science fiction). To me, it seems that he’s at his best when he gives himself room to breathe, page-wise. The Stand is brilliant; so is It. Both are over 1000 pages. The Dark Tower series, his masterpiece, unfolds over the course of seven increasingly long books. Under The Dome will be 1088 pages long; hopefully, that means we can expect the epic storytelling and surprisingly personal character development the author, at his best, is capable of.Check out the trailer below; it’s short, but it got me kinda pumped for this book. UNDER THE DOME BY STEPHEN KING

VISIONS OF 2012 DOOMSDAY

VISIONS OF 2012 DOOMSDAY

Dear Friend,

Are you tired?

Tired of all the misinformation out there about 2012?

If you've done even one Google search on the topic you know what I'm talking about... SURVIVE 2012

Where well-meaning “experts” went wrong... and why all the governments of the world ultimately decided not to tell you the truth.

What is really going to happen in December of 2012... and exactly how millions will be devastated, and your world will be turned upside down... forever.

How you can safeguard your life... and the lives of your family members. Because you really can survive... and spiritually thrive in the wake of this life-changing event.

VISIONS OF 2012 DOOMSDAY - (1)
VISIONS OF 2012 DOOMSDAY - (2)
VISIONS OF 2012 DOOMSDAY - (3)
VISIONS OF 2012 DOOMSDAY - (4)
VISIONS OF 2012 DOOMSDAY - (5)


The Underground Kingdom of Light - 1
Journey Into The Resistance Movement - 2
Galatic Wars - 3
Liberation of the Planet Earth - 4
Vision 2012 - 5

It will begin suddenly, without warning. Many scandals that will disclose true backgound about how the System works will shake human masses. Disclosures about how international energetic megacompanies earn billions selling oil, preventing at the same time inventions of free energy to come to public. Disclosures about pharmaceutical trusts that earn money with "healing" diseases that are spread with viruses created in hidden laboratories. Disclosures about efficient cures for AIDS, cancer and other diseases that are known for quite some time, unkonwn to human masses. And about world media and censorship there, which is a logical consequence of a fact that few individuals own most worldly known newspaper, media and telecommunication companies. And finally disclosures about a secret world government that has most prominent politicians as its puppets and which creates profit out of wars and human suffering for millenia, a small group of beings that you work for in your jobs and voluntarily give them a significant amount of your monthly salary.

When lists with names, supported with facts will be known, human masses will arise. When facts will be known about what is happening in the stock market and where the money really goes, this will create a world stock market crash and fall of the current monetary system. Riots will begin as a consequence of released emotional energy which was suppressed for so long. In the chaos of those days members of the Resistance movement will reveal themselves to humanity and give guidance and support. They will penetrate to the surface from their undergound realms and bring along technology that will help humanity to get over those critical moments. They will cure most of currently known diseases with their medicaments. With their free energy sources they will end world energy crisis and stop environmental pollution. They will bring information that will open the eyes of people. Finally people will realize that they have lived in quarantine for millenia.

Money will disappear and will be replaced with exchange of goods based upon vibrational economy. The Resistance movement will assist in establishing new world government which will be chosen by humanity with its free will and that will lead humanity based on the principles of the Galactic codex. At that point the energy field of the planet will be cleared significantly. Memories of Atlantis will be returning to people and they will begin to create a New Atlantis, a new civillization of light. Buildings will be constructed in a combination of Atlantean and modern architecture which will be in harmony with nature. Many will be in a pyramidal or half spherical shape. Spiritually developed individuals will begin to gather in New age communities, so called islands of light. Everybody there will follow his vision aligned with the divine plan in deep connection with the universe.

When people will release the past, everybody will experience clarity of mind, emotional aliveness and physical health. The basic cell of society in islands of light will not be a family of personalities (father, mother and children) but a family of souls (twin souls, soulmates and other members of a soul family). People will connect there energetically and telepathically with angels, guides and extraterestrials. Through islands of light a physical connection between the surface of the planet and extraterrestrial civillizations will be established.

There will be teleportation chambers in islands of light through which it will be possible to travel into the Resistance movement, for some people into the Atlantean network and also towards the Pleiadian motherships. When the network of light will be strong and stable enough this will enable mass landings of Pleiadian starships. The Pleiadians will assist humanity during its transition towards the New age and with the process of acceptance of this planet into the Galactic confederation. They will anchor energy columns that will guide planet Earth throuh its transformation during its entry into the inner section of the tachyon belt.

When the critical mass of consciousness will be achieved the first wave of Ascension will occur. Motherships of the Galactic confederation will hover as brilliant white clouds above the islands of light, where teleportation beams will descend and lift the volunteers into the motherships. Those volunteers will reappear on Earth shortly in Ascended state in their rainbow bodies of light. Soon afterwards another critical mass will be achieved and the second wave of Ascension will happen. Masses of Ascended masters that will return to Earth will prepare humanity for the third wave of Ascension and for the Evacuation. Great planetary cataclisms will begin then as a cleansing of the physical matter of the planet. At the moment of most intensive cataclisms a polar shift will happen and that will trigger the third wave of Ascension with final Evacuation. Linear time as we know it will end and Earth will enter a new, higher dimension. This is a moment when the Mayan calendar ends, a moment in 2012.