How Many Days Until Christmas?

Christmas: A History Spanning Two Millennia

Christmas on December 25 did not emerge from a single decree or revelation. It developed over centuries, absorbing elements from Roman festivals, early Christian theology, medieval European customs, and later from commercial and cultural forces that reshaped the holiday into the form recognized today across most of the world.

The earliest known reference to December 25 as the date of Christ’s birth appears in a Roman almanac from around 354 AD. But by that point, the date had already been in use in some Christian communities for decades. The Roman feast of Saturnalia, a week-long celebration honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture, ran from December 17 to December 23 and was marked by feasting, gift-giving, and the temporary suspension of social hierarchies. A separate Roman feast, Sol Invictus (the unconquered sun), fell on December 25. Neither of these directly caused the Christian adoption of December 25, but the proximity was not accidental: early Christians in a predominantly Roman world chose a date that already carried cultural weight.

How December 25 Was Chosen

The earliest Christian thinkers debated when Jesus was born, and different communities settled on different dates: January 6 (still used as Epiphany in many traditions), March 25, and December 25 were all proposed. The Calculation Hypothesis, advanced by scholars including Thomas Talley, suggests the date was derived by a different route: early Christians believed the date of Christ’s death and conception were the same (both assigned to March 25 or April 6, depending on the tradition), and that exactly nine months later produced December 25 or January 6.

By the fourth century, December 25 had become the dominant date in the western church, and the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, while not specifically addressing the Christmas date, established a framework that helped unify Christian practice. Eastern churches continued celebrating January 6 (Epiphany) as the primary winter festival, and many still do.

Christmas Traditions Worldwide

Germany: The German Christmas market tradition (Weihnachtsmarkt) is one of the oldest surviving holiday customs in Europe. Markets in Nuremberg and Strasbourg have documented histories stretching back to the 14th century. Stalls sell handmade ornaments, mulled wine (Gluhwein), gingerbread (Lebkuchen), and roasted nuts. Germany is also credited with popularizing the Christmas tree tradition, which spread to Britain when Queen Victoria’s German husband Prince Albert decorated a tree at Windsor Castle in 1848 — an image published in the Illustrated London News that sparked widespread adoption across Britain and, via British influence, across the English-speaking world.

United Kingdom: British Christmas traditions include Christmas crackers (cardboard tubes that snap open with a small bang when pulled at both ends, revealing a paper crown, a joke, and a small toy), the Queen’s (now King’s) Christmas broadcast, mince pies, and Boxing Day on December 26, a public holiday with its own history of charitable giving and, more recently, major retail sales.

United States: American Christmas traditions are a blend of German, British, Dutch, and other immigrant cultures filtered through 19th-century commercial influence. The modern image of Santa Claus was shaped significantly by Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (now commonly called “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”) and later by Coca-Cola’s advertising campaigns in the 1930s featuring a jolly, red-suited Santa. Christmas became a US federal holiday in 1870 under President Ulysses S. Grant.

Japan: Japan has a unique Christmas tradition that owes more to marketing than religion: eating KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) on Christmas Eve. A 1974 advertising campaign by KFC Japan called “Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii” (Kentucky for Christmas) was so successful that it became a cultural institution. Today, Japanese KFC restaurants take advance orders months ahead of Christmas, and customers sometimes wait in lines for hours. Because Japan is predominantly Shinto and Buddhist rather than Christian, Christmas is celebrated as a secular, romantic holiday similar to Valentine’s Day.

Australia and New Zealand: With summer temperatures often exceeding 30°C (86°F) on December 25, Australians have adapted Christmas to the season. Carols by Candlelight services held outdoors are popular nationwide. Seafood, particularly prawns and oysters, features prominently at Christmas meals alongside the traditional roast. Families frequently celebrate at beaches, in parks, or with backyard barbecues. The pavlova — a meringue-based dessert topped with fresh fruit — is a quintessential Christmas dessert in both Australia and New Zealand, though both countries claim to have invented it.

The Advent Calendar: From Religious Observance to Household Tradition

Advent, the four-week liturgical season before Christmas, has been observed by Christian churches since at least the 5th century. The practice of marking each day of Advent with a physical object is more recent. The first printed Advent calendars appeared in Germany in the early 20th century: Gerhard Lang produced illustrated calendars around 1908, and the format spread through the 1920s and 1930s.

The version most familiar today, with 24 numbered windows hiding small chocolates or gifts, became widespread after World War II. By the late 20th century, Advent calendars had fully escaped their religious origins and become a broadly secular retail product. Premium versions now contain whisky, beauty products, LEGO sets, toys, and countless other items — an ironic inversion of the original purpose, which was to help people focus on spiritual preparation rather than gifts.

The Christmas Tree: From Sacred Groves to Living Rooms

The use of evergreen plants in midwinter rituals predates Christianity. Romans decorated their homes with greenery during Saturnalia. Germanic peoples attributed protective properties to evergreen trees, which stayed alive while deciduous trees lost their leaves. The specific practice of bringing a decorated tree indoors and setting it up as a Christmas tree developed in Germany, with the earliest clear documented examples from the 16th century in Strasbourg.

Martin Luther is sometimes credited with adding candles to a Christmas tree to represent stars, though this story appears to be apocryphal. The practice spread through German-speaking communities and was carried to other countries by German immigrants and by royal example. By the end of the 19th century, the decorated Christmas tree was ubiquitous across Europe and North America.

Today, the US Christmas tree market sells 25 to 30 million real trees annually, with a comparable number of artificial trees purchased each year. The economics of Christmas trees support tens of thousands of farms across North America and Europe, with trees typically taking 7 to 10 years to reach sellable height.

Santa Claus: From Saint Nicholas to the Modern Icon

The historical figure behind Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas of Myra, a 4th-century bishop in what is now Turkey, known for extraordinary generosity. Stories of him secretly providing dowries for poor girls by throwing bags of gold through their windows gave rise to the tradition of gift-giving on his feast day (December 6) in many European countries.

Dutch settlers brought the tradition of Sinterklaas (their version of Saint Nicholas) to America, where it merged with British Father Christmas traditions and was further transformed through 19th-century literature and art. Thomas Nast’s illustrations in Harper’s Weekly from 1863 to 1886 established many visual elements of the modern Santa: a rotund, white-bearded man in a red suit entering homes through chimneys and delivering gifts to children.

The Coca-Cola advertising campaign beginning in 1931, painted by artist Haddon Sundblom, depicted Santa as a cheerful, warm grandfather figure and was influential in standardizing the image globally. It did not, as is often claimed, invent the red suit — that detail predates the campaign — but it gave the image worldwide reach.

Christmas Shopping: The Economic Scale of the Holiday

Christmas is the largest annual retail event in most Western economies. In the United States, the National Retail Federation estimates that consumers spend over $900 billion during the November-December holiday shopping season. In the UK, Christmas spending exceeds £80 billion annually. Globally, the figures run into trillions of dollars.

The commercialization of Christmas accelerated dramatically in the 19th century. Department stores in New York, London, and Paris began staging elaborate Christmas window displays in the 1870s and 1880s. Woolworth’s stores popularized inexpensive manufactured ornaments. Mail-order catalogs brought Christmas goods to rural households. The 20th century added television advertising, shopping malls, and eventually e-commerce, each layer intensifying the commercial aspect of the holiday.

Black Friday, the day after US Thanksgiving, became the conventional start of the Christmas shopping season in the 1950s. The term refers to retailers moving from financial loss (“in the red”) to profit (“in the black”) as Christmas shopping began. In recent years, Black Friday promotions have expanded to the entire week of Thanksgiving, and online shopping events like Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day have added new peaks to the retail calendar.

Global Christmas by the Numbers

Christmas is a public holiday in more than 160 countries, making it one of the most widely observed holidays on Earth. In countries without a Christian majority — Japan, South Korea, parts of Southeast Asia — Christmas is observed as a secular cultural event, with gift-giving, decorated trees, and seasonal music, even without the religious dimension.

The global Christmas card industry sends approximately 1.6 billion cards in the US alone each year, though the number has declined with the rise of digital greetings. Christmas card sending in the UK, where the tradition originated in 1843 (the first commercial Christmas card was designed by John Callcott Horsley and sent by Sir Henry Cole), still involves hundreds of millions of cards annually.

The economic ripple effects of Christmas extend far beyond retail: travel, hospitality, entertainment, and the decorations industry all peak in December. Airlines carry roughly 40 percent more passengers in December than in an average month. Cities that host major Christmas markets (Nuremberg, Vienna, Strasbourg, Prague) see tourism increase significantly for the six-week period before December 25.

Christmas shopping timeline

The Christmas shopping season officially begins after Thanksgiving in the US, but the practical shopping window for most households extends from early November through December 23. Shipping cutoffs from major retailers typically fall December 18-21 for standard ground shipping.

Optimal shopping timeline:

• October-November: Research big-ticket items, compare prices, watch for early sales
• Black Friday / Cyber Monday: Good for electronics, appliances, and specific sale items
• Early December: Most selection, prices stable, standard shipping still reliable
• December 15-20: Last window for standard shipping; overnight shipping still available at premium
• December 21-23: Local retail only; many online orders will not arrive in time

The shift toward online shopping has compressed this timeline. Amazon Prime delivery has made December 22 a viable ordering date for Prime members in major markets.

The 12 Days of Christmas

The Twelve Days of Christmas is a Christian observance spanning December 25 (Christmas Day) through January 5, the day before Epiphany (January 6). Historically, this was the Christmas season: the celebration began on Christmas Day and continued for twelve days.

The song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” enumerates gifts given on each day: a partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, and so on through twelve drummers drumming. The song first appeared in print in 1780 in a British children’s book called “Mirth Without Mischief.” The musical setting most people recognize today was composed by Frederic Austin in 1909.

In much of Western culture today, Christmas celebrations are concentrated in the weeks before December 25 rather than the twelve days after it. The commercial Christmas season runs from early November through December 25, reversing the original liturgical sequence.