Christmas is based on the story of Jesus' birth as described in the Gospel according to Matthew (see Matthew 1:18-2:12) and the Gospel according to Luke (see Luke 1:26-56). Roman Catholics first celebrated Christmas, then known as the Feast of the Nativity, as early as 336 ad. The word Christmas was recognized in the English language sometime around 1050 as the Old English phrase Christes maesse, meaning "festival of Christ." Many believe the shortened form of Christmas -(Xmas)- may have come into use in the 13th century. The X stands for the Greek letter chi, an abbreviation of Khristos (Christ), and also represents the cross on which Jesus was crucified.

The exact day of the Christs' birth has never been pinpointed. The Roman Catholic church determined that December 25th would be a good time to declare the Feast of Nativity in order to bestow more Christian meaning to existing Pagan rituals. Over the next several centuries, the expansion of Christianty thorugh Europe strengthened the practice of Christmas throughout the following centuries. The combination of Christian rituals and the existing Pagen beliefs helped to shape all of the traditions now associated with Christmas.

Christmas wasn't celebrated by the early church until the fourth century. In the fourth century, the church decided to try to reclaim the Roman pagan winter solstice festival: the festival of Saturnalia. This December holiday was considered the "birthday of the unconquered sun." Romans celebrated in the streets and passed out gifts. The very first gifts were simple items such as food, twigs from a sacred grove as good luck emblems, small items of jewelry, candles, and statues of gods. To the early Church, gift-giving at this time was severely frowned upon. However, the church found that the tradition of gift-giving could not be slowed and in the middle ages gift giving was finally accepted by the church.

But as Christianity spread many were alarmed by the continuing celebration of pagan customs and Saturnalia among their converts. At first the Church prohibited this kind of celebration. But this soon failed, and over. In time it was decided that the celebration would be modified and developed into a celebration fit for the Christian Son of God.

Some legends claim that the Christian "Christmas" celebration was invented to compete against the pagan celebrations of December. The 25th of December was not only sacred to the Romans but also the Persians whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that time. The Church eventually was successful in taking the merrimentfestivities, lights, and gifts from the Saturanilia festival and bringing them them into to the celebration of Christmas.

Over time, Christians from all over Europe gradually modified their Christmas ceremonies as they encountered new cultures and traditions in the "New World". Many believe that the popularity of Christmas in the "New World" was spurred by Washington Irving's book in 1820, The Keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall. In 1860, American illustrator Thomas Nast borrowed from the European stories about Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, to create Father Christmas (Santa Claus). In 1907, Oklahoma became the last US state to declare Christmas a legal holiday. Eventually, countries all over the world began to recognise Christmas as the day for celebrating the birth of Jesus.