December was probably chosen so the Catholic Church could compete with rival pagan rituals held at that time of year and because of its closeness with the winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere, a traditional time of celebration among many ancient cultures.

It is now believed that Jesus was born between 7BC and 4BC. Around 350 years after Jesus's birth, Pope Julius 1 chose 25 December as the date of the Nativity.

(The years BC are those before the birth of Christ and the years AD are those after Christ's birth, from the Latin Anno Domini meaning 'in the year of our Lord'.)

The celebration of Christ’s incarnation at Christmas is one of the two poles of the Christian year along with Easter. Christmas is not simply a birthday celebration. Rather, its purpose is to recall people to the centrality of the Word made flesh for our salvation. It is Christ’s birth which does, of course, provide the setting for our celebration of Christ’s incarnation. The colour for the season of Christmas is white.

The abbreviation for Christmas to Xmas comes from the Greek alphabet. The use of the letter X is not new, it was widely used from the mid-15th century. X is the letter Chi, which is the first letter of Christ's name in the Greek alphabet.

The correct pronunciation for the word ‘Xmas’ is ‘Christmas’, just as if the word were written out in full. Xmas is NOT ex-mas!

It is likely that the crib (and nativity plays) come to us from Francis of Assisi’s tableau of Christmas 1223 which he celebrated in Greccio in Italy. Members of the congregation sign a giant Christmas card to send each other greetings for Christmas.