Lots of the celebrations in the us that are associated with Xmas were customs brought by German and English immigrants. Along with the well-known and practiced custom of a brightly decorated Xmas tree, other customs introduced by these immigrants include Advent calendars, Xmas Christmas cards, gingerbread homes and gingerbread cookies.

Yuletide in the usa nowadays can be viewed as focused around family, travel, shopping as well as decorations. Family and travel go together during Christmas in the united states because close family often times have to journey quite long distances to be together at one location. The development of towns which have primarily fiscal activity, suburbs for residences, in addition to the fact of numerous industries being located in certain geographic areas, are one of many factors that members of the family frequently dwell great distances from each other in separate states.

Yuletide and its festivities accordingly present an ideal opportunity for many members of the family to gather in celebration and see one another within an intimate setting. The traveling needed helps make the Christmas season a hectic period of the year for rail and air travel.

The occasion of seeing many close relatives at Yuletide is also associated with the activity of shopping that’s an important feature of Yuletide in the united states. The Xmas season officially begins on the Friday after Thanksgiving, generally known as Black Friday and which now ranks second in shopping for a sole day to the Saturday before Yuletide.

Much of the shopping which is done would be to purchase gifts for family. Gifts for family members are normally exchanged after dinner on Yuletide day, when everyone gathers in the space with the Xmas tree. Gifts are typically left at the bottom of the Yuletide tree in the weeks prior to Xmas Day.

Gifts may also be exchanged before Yuletide at parties held by close friends and parties held at workplaces.

Second to gifts, shopping can be done at Yuletide for decorations. Even though the Yuletide tree may be the centerpiece of attraction, garlands, wreaths, candles and decorative lighting set outside on lawns or along rooflines can also be used to generate a beautiful holiday look and feel for homes.

Canadians enjoy Yuletide activities which are akin to those celebrated in the us. That is so because in the 1700s when some German immigrants in the united states moved to Canada, they continued to practice most of the activities linked to Christmas.

The physical proximity of these two countries also means they share a lot of things, so similarities in Xmas traditions would not be an exception to this rule.

The one thing that accounts for the gap amongst the two countries however, may be the Eskimo population in Canada. Eskimos in Canada celebrate a festival during wintertime and offer other customs which are absent from American Christmas celebrations.

A tradition also exists in Nova Scotia in which small groups of masked individuals march around fourteen days before Christmas. These masked people attract attention by creating stir with much bell ringing and engaging in a noisy caper in an endeavor to get chocolates, sweets and gifts from onlookers.

This tradition bears some similarity to Jonkonoo festivities within the neighboring islands of the Caribbean. Those festivities also include masked people, including some that appear on stilts which make them as tall as trees. The carnival of Jonkonoo regale onlookers with a variety of antics and present a minor scare to a few children, who are then calmed with candy and other goodies.

In Nova Scotia, onlookers can try and quiet the noise and rowdiness a bit when they properly guess the name of the disguised person. An accurate guess puts an end to the noise as the face mask is removed, exposing the person. For their part, maskers also play nice by friendly nudging responses from children with regards to if they’ve been naughty or nice and distributing sweets and goodies accordingly.

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The figure known around the world today as Santa Claus is regularly depicted as a rotund man who wears a red suit, runs a toy factory staffed by elves and flies the world once a year with a reindeer-drawn sleigh to deliver toys to good girls and boys who have made it onto Santa’s Nice List.

This image is known by millions of children in every part of the world. But how did it get started?

Our modern Santa was inspired by a real individual who was born in the area of the world now known as Turkey. Nicholas was born around 280 AD and was the only son of Epiphanus and Johanna, wealthy Christian parents who died in an epidemic when Nicholas was young. He was then raised by his uncle, who was the bishop of Patara.

Following the devout Christian beliefs of his parents and uncle, Nicholas gave away his inheritance to the poor and devoted his life to helping children and the poor.

When Saint Nicholas died, the anniversary of his death on December 6 became known as Saint Nicholas Day, a time of feasting and celebrating. But Saint Nicholas’ name and good deeds did not die with him. His legend spread far and wide. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him and because of the many miracles attributed to him, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker.

He was known by several other names, too. He is also known as Nicholas of Myra because he was the bishop of Myra, and his relics are in an Italian city named Bari, so he is also known as Nicholas of Bari.

The Dutch called him Sinter Klaas, a short version of Sint Nikolaas, and brought the name and the legend with them to the United States.

Saint Nicholas became the patron saint of New York City, and was mentioned in a book published by Washington Irving on Saint Nicholas Day.

But it was Clement Moore’s poem, “The Night Before Christmas,” that created Saint Nicholas’ image as “a jolly old elf” with a “little round belly, that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.”

That image was strengthened by political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who used the jolly character in Moore’s poem for a series of cartoons he began drawing in 1863. In the cartoons that appeared in Harper’s Weekly, Nash drew Santa Claus with a beard and fur clothing. These images helped created the modern image of Santa. The illustrator also invented the elves, Santa’s wife and the idea that Santa lived at the North Pole

Today Saint Nicholas’ legacy continues to live in the hearts and minds of children who believe in the kindly gift-giving Santa Claus, who keeps track of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice and then rewards good children with gifts on Christmas Eve.

Parents can continue to keep the legend of Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus alive with printable kids santa letters from Christmas Letter Tips.com.

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