We have become conversant with the normal tales of the Virgin Mary, the sinless birth of the messiah, the strange visit from wise men from an undisclosed location, and the perturbed look on Joseph’s face as he tried to assimilate the whole pregnancy and child delivery scenario. What if there was a fragment of the Christmas story that nobody knew?

The Christmas period has always been a season that characterizes the sharing of gifts, displays of love, celebrations, and wild parties. Christmas festivals are highly extolled by Christians as they celebrate the birth of Jesus as the coming Messiah and son of God.

What is the backstory of Christmas?

Christmas is a popular Christian festival that celebrates the birth of its messiah, Jesus Christ. 25th December has always been chosen by different countries as a public holiday, to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. However, this celebration was not in place until the third century.

According to Roman History, arguments seemed to be splitting up the church concerning the birth, and origin of Jesus Christ. This brought about the formation of the Council of Nicea under the watch of Emperor Constantine to curb the growing worries and confusion, and offer clarity to revolutionary groups that sprang up in the church- Arianism.

The arguments bothered around ‘whose son was Jesus?’

Founder of Arianism, Arius (AD 256 – 336), a Christian Elder in Alexandria, Egypt pushed the narrative that Jesus Christ was just the son of man but gained the place as the son of God by adoption. He maintained the stand that there was only one God, and polytheism is a myth that should not be found in Christianity.

Arius believed that Jesus Christ, the son of God doesn’t hold the same place as God, rather he is a temporal creature exalted to become the greatest of God’s creatures with limited knowledge and life span of existence.

The banters between a polytheistic Christian religion and the Monotheist version proposed by Arius brought major division among the church.

Emperor Constantine thought it wise to put a stop to the growing controversy by gathering the first ecumenical council, consisting of Bishops and elders of the early church.

This council which was held at Nicea, Bithynia had 318 bishops in attendance. To ensure that this meeting was a success, Emperor Constantine paid for the expenses of the attendees and covered all logistics that could arise from the meeting.

Council of Nicea reached a decision affirming the birth of Jesus Christ as the son of God and also enforcing laws that linked the birth of Jesus Christ to 25th December.

This decision was greatly opposed by the Puritan settlers in England. They believed that Christmas had no biblical backup, so it was unreasonable to celebrate it.

This strong refusal grew so strong that Massachusetts Legislature made a law that anyone caught celebrating Christmas will be charged a five-shilling fine, which was much money as of that time.

Oppositions kept growing till the eighteenth century which saw Prince Albert of Germany introducing the planting of evergreen trees for Christmas in England.

Industrialization, civilization, and digital trends helped in strengthening the spread of Christmas as many countries started adopting its practice.

Amazing Facts about Christmas that you never knew.

Top 10 Facts about Christmas you never knew

• A Christmas is considered to be white when a single snowflake is observed falling regularly from the sky on 25th December. This occurrence rarely happens as there is a six percent probability of having a 24hour snowfall.

• Relationship Breakups usually increase during Christmas as couples are scared of shopping and miscellaneous bills.

• There are no ‘three’ wise men in the bible. The specific number wasn’t stated, we only know that they brought three gifts; Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

• The average European Family spends £810 on Christmas. £700 million is estimated to be spent on unwanted Christmas gifts, the average Nigerian spends 33,000 on Christmas gifts apportioning 17% to toys, 22% for footwear, 26% on clothes, 30% on monetary items, 22% on sweet, and 22% on Christmas cards.

• On December 24th, 1777, James Cook, a British explorer, discovered Kiritimati as Christmas Island.

• The largest floating Christmas tree in the world is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil- 268 feet tall.

• Coca-Cola became the first company to use Santa Claus for its adverts. This was during its winter season promotion in 1931, making red and white the generally accepted color for Santa Claus.

• In Poland, Spiders are considered symbols of prosperity and goodness during Christmas. Spiders and spider webs are major items used in decorating their Christmas trees.

• The popular ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ song was originally sung by servants who demanded alcoholic drinks from their masters.

• There are 364 gifts mentioned in the twelve days of Christmas song.

Santa Claus and Christmas

The history of Santa Claus dates back to 280 AD with the actions of St. Nicholas of Myra who was adored for his consistent ritual of giving gifts, kindness, and affection to the members of the society, children, the poor as well as sailors, making Santa Claus one of the oldest Christmas character with an estimated age of 1737 years.

Santa Claus was initially referred to as SinterKlaas (Dutch) but was transformed into an English Phoneme with its first mention on December 23rd, 1773 in Rivington Gazette’s newspaper.

The appearance of Santa Claus has been emulated by major cities of the world depicting and teaching members of the society to share from the little they have.

The issue of the existence of Santa Claus remains a history as it is not yet confirmed if he is real or fake.

The story of Christmas goes beyond the religious tales of a savior of the world but tales to instill love into humanity, to love each other in diversity, embrace unity, show care and affection, and offer a helping hand to someone in need.

The story of Christmas we never knew is that we could be someone's Christ today. It all takes saving a soul today, instilling joy in a home today, clothing the naked, or feeding the hungry, that is the true essence of Christmas.