Around 336 AD, the date of December 25 seems to have been established as the day of the birth of Jesus, and the tradition of gift-giving was linked to the story of biblical magicians who gave gifts to the baby Jesus; along with another story, that of St. Nicholas, a 4th-century Christian bishop and gift-giver, slowly. Gift-giving began long before Christmas was set as a day to remember the birth of Christ. Although Christmas became a tradition in the 4th century, gift giving during the holidays is of Roman origin.
It was part of a celebration offered to the Roman god Saturn, considered the god of agriculture who provided vegetation and fertility throughout the year. The custom of giving gifts in mid-winter dates back long before the birth of Jesus. Many primitive cultures, such as Roman and Norse, had winter solstice festivals that included gift-giving. Dickens' subsequent Christmas story coincided with a revival of the Christmas holiday in the midst of Victorian culture.
One of the most well-known and religiously preserved traditions of the Christmas season is the giving of gifts. Sometimes these gifts are in the form of money, like a Christmas voucher; other times, in the form of gift vouchers. The custom of giving at Christmas was a natural adoption of these and other seasonal customs, such as the ceremonial lighting of candles, songs of celebration and the celebration of big holidays. The best gift giver, Santa Claus, began to appear in advertisements, and the dreaded Christmas rush began, with stores advertising their Christmas items at the beginning of each year.
Like so many other Christmas traditions, carols have their roots in the pagan rituals appropriated by the nascent Christian Church when, in the 4th century, it officially called Christmas the celebration of the birth of Christ Jesus. The tradition of giving at Christmas is centuries old and reminds people of the magical birth of Christ in a stable long time ago. If newspaper advertisements from the early 19th century that promoted Bibles as Christmas gifts for children are any indication, parents of this time seem to have maintained a similar approach to providing spiritual value to their children. His themes of festive generosity and family reunions accompany a story in which the stingy Ebenezer Scrooge transforms into a kinder man and wakes up on Christmas Day with the urge to make a donation and give gifts.
The hustle and bustle of the season sometimes hide the reasons for the tradition of giving at Christmas. The focus on giving to children may have been promoted later by initiatives to reduce urban street fuss at Christmas, and by parents interested in keeping children away from the corrupting influences of those streets. Although the current Christmas festival is an annual tradition that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, the custom of exchanging gifts is the product of Victorian inventiveness, the joy of ancient Rome and medieval interpretations of early Christian narratives. Understanding why giving gifts to children (and, by gradual extension, to adults) became part of this new Christmas tradition requires expanding the story of Nissenbaum.
That night, the children leave their shoes near a window (similar to the tradition of Christmas socks) to fill them with the gifts they asked for. In part, the result of Protestant resistance to so many holidays in the 16th century can also be attributed to the popularity of Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem The Night Before Christmas and Charles Dickens' 1843 novel A Christmas Carol.
