History of Christmas Decoration

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Christmas is the time to enjoy the celebrations and spend quality time with family and friends. The festival brings happiness, hope and joy in every individual's life. Christmas is celebrated all over the world traditionally. There are many things associated with Christmas like feasts, family get together, midnight mass at church and so on. Christmas decoration is an integral part of Christmas celebration. During Christmas, families come together and decorate the house. It is the time to show off your creativity and aesthetic sense. It is a great time for family bonding and every member participates in the activity. The history of Christmas decoration is quite old and can be traced from pre-Christian era.

There are various things like lights, ornaments, wreaths, Christmas tree, nativity scenes etc. used for decoration during Christmas. It has been a tradition to decorate with twigs, branches and leaves of evergreen trees from pre-Christian era. The tradition of decorating houses with evergreen tree was observed by Romans as well as Jews during winter festivals. Ivy and holly leaves were significant and part of Christmas decoration in England from fifteenth century. Holly was used to protect homes from evil spirits and people believed red berries and thorns of holly were used as a crown for Jesus during crucifixion.

Nativity scenes are part of home as well as church decorations. Nativity scenes are part of Christmas decoration from almost tenth century in Rome. St. Francis of Assisi made nativity scenes popular throughout Europe. Nativity scenes represent the scene of Christ's birth. The scene has figurines of infant Jesus, Mother Mary and Joseph with animals, etc. It can be decorated in various manners and its size also varies. Christmas tree is part of Christmas decoration. The roots of origin of Christmas tree can be traced in Germany. Queen Victoria made Christmas tree famous in England and slowly its popularity spread across Europe. The trees were decorated with candles, fruits, candies, etc. in the earlier times. The modern Christmas trees are decorated with lights and ornaments.

Special ornaments in form of stars, angels, bells, candy canes etc. are hanged on the Christmas tree. These ornaments were in older times made at home. Today, all the types of Christmas ornaments are available in market to decorate Christmas tree. Christmas tree too are available in two types. One type is real Christmas tree and other type is an artificial Christmas tree. Both the types are used in Christmas decoration.

The houses are decorated with wreaths made from evergreen twigs like holly, ivy and mistletoe. These wreaths are available in various shapes, colors and sizes. In earlier times, these Christmas wreaths were made at home but today, they are easily available in local markets, shopping malls and Christmas tree shops. The wreaths are hanged on walls, at the entrance door, in the lobby to welcome the guests and protect home from bad spirits.

Christmas decoration is an old tradition where people come together and decorate home with hlp of a specific theme every year.