Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: Ten Christmas Stories (Annotated)

Christmas, Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus. English term Christmas ("mass on Christ's day") is of fairly recent origin. the sooner term Yule may have derived from the Germanic jōl or the Anglo-Saxon geōl, which mentioned the feast of the solstice . The corresponding terms in other languages--Navidad in Spanish, Natale in Italian, Noël in French--all probably denote nativity. The German word Weihnachten denotes "hallowed night." Since the first 20th century, Christmas has also been a secular family holiday, observed by Christians and non-Christians alike, barren of Christian elements, and marked by an increasingly elaborate exchange of gifts. during this secular Christmas celebration, a mythical figure named Santa Claus plays the pivotal role.