Christmas Guides & Stories

Christmas is older and stranger than the version we inherited. These are researched guides to where its traditions actually came from — what the evidence supports, what it does not, and what nobody knows.

An illustrated Christmas dinner table with glazed ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, rolls and cranberry sauce in a warmly decorated holiday dining room.

Christmas Dinner Ideas

Christmas dinner has a way of growing before anyone has cooked a thing. A memorable one does not need the most dishes. It needs a menu that works.

An editorial illustration showing Christmas traditions evolving from Roman and medieval midwinter celebrations through the Puritan era, Victorian Christmas and the modern holiday.

The History of Christmas

Christmas did not arrive fully formed. The holiday took shape over many centuries, as a Christian feast absorbed, resisted and reinvented the customs around it.

An editorial illustration tracing Santa Claus from Saint Nicholas and European gift traditions through nineteenth-century American Santa to the familiar modern figure.

The History of Santa Claus

Santa Claus did not spring fully formed from a single story, tradition or advertising campaign. His journey from a mysterious late-antique bishop to the red-suited visitor of Christmas Eve took more than 1,500 years.