Christmas Cactus

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Christmas is a festival that appears in the month of December which is the last month of the year. It is a festival which is celebrated by the 'Christian' people. From a long period of time, it has been observed that people of all the religions come together and celebrate this festival. This is a good sign though.

The main reason behind the celebration of the Christmas festival is the birthday of the central figure of Christianity, 'Jesus Christ'. A wonderful atmosphere can be seen around at the time of Christmas festival.

The Christmas festival consists of various things like the attractive decorations, saying prayers, preparing delicious food items at home, exchanging gifts and presents, visiting and meeting our dear ones and much more. We can see people making their Christmas preparations as soon as the month of November comes to an end. Some people save a fair amount of money throughout the year in order to make their Christmas festival special.

For the kids, the Santa Claus seems to be an attractive part of the Christmas festival. The Santa Claus is believed to be a messenger of 'Jesus Christ' who visits the planet at the time of Christmas in order to spread peace and happiness. We can find people dressed up like Santa Claus and standing in the market places, towns etc. and giving Christmas gifts to people of all ages. The kids just love this part of Christmas.

The Christmas trees gain a significant importance at the time of the festival of Christmas. In every house, we can see one Christmas tree beautifully decorated. People decorate these Christmas trees with decorative materials, Christmas bells, scented candles, special Christmas stockings, Christmas elves and much more.

There are various types of Christmas trees. Some people prefer buying these Christmas trees from the Christmas farms while other believe in growing these Christmas trees in their gardens.

Christmas cactus:

To be precise, the cacti are stems segments which are modified. They are known as 'cladodes'. It has been observed that in most of the cacti, the leaves of the cactus are modified into spines that consist of various different functions. These spines and leaves are not present in the Christmas cactus.

The Christmas cactus is a different form of the cactus. It doesn't look like the usual desert cactus. The Christmas cacti consists of leaves that are flattened having margins on it which are the scallop-edged margins. These margins are spineless as well as smooth. The Christmas cactus is one of the popular plants coming under the category of flowering plants. The Christmas cactus offers flowers. These flowers of the Christmas cactus bloom for about 2 to 4 weeks almost exactly at the time of Christmas.

The Christmas cactus is way too different from the desert cactus. They don't require direct sunlight for growth. As these Christmas cactus are not so difficult to grow or take care of, they are passed on from one generation to other in the Christian families. The life of the Christmas cactus is fairly long. The Christmas cactus is a part of family known as the 'Zygo-cactus'. Though the name of these plants is the Christmas cactus, they do not exactly appear like the ones in the deserts. Like all other cacti, the Christmas cactus also forms to be an epiphyte. The flowers of the Christmas cactus constitute of a variety of colors including purple, pink, orange, red, cream, fuschia etc. The Christmas cactus is believed to be a part of the holiday cactus. The holiday cactus also includes the Easter cactus as well as the Thanksgiving cactus.

Plants always find a special place in the garden of a house. The Christmas cactus gains its importance when the festival of Christmas arrives. Some people believe in decorating their Christmas cactus like they decorate their Christmas trees.