St Mary's Church, Dymock

The church divides the year into eight main Seasons, each with one or more Major Festivals, that remind us of the important times in the life and work of God and Jesus, and consequently have major significance for his followers, so are usually observed by most Christians.

As well as the Seasons and Major Festivals, the church celebrates several 'Special Days' throughout the year to remember, honour or support our work in God's world. Celebration of the Special Days is usually optional, Christians chose which they want to include. Click here to view the 'Special Days'.

Christmas - Non-Religious Traditions

The non-religious tradions are have come to be more importnat for many than the religious festival and most seem to involve mainly partying and presents. Probably the most universal symbol of Christmas today is the merry man in a red suit and white beard, known by different names in different countries but in the UK and America as Santa Claus or Father Christmas. Both names have come to mean much the same but they have different origins.
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Santa Claus was named after the 4th century Greek bishop Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, who was reported to secretly give free gifts to the poor, especially children, and whose activites came to be celebrated as part of the Roman Catholic practice of venerating (honouring) individual saints on a particular day. The Protestant reformer Martin Luther moved the tradition of giving gifts for Saint Nicholas on his special day in early December to Christmas to help children focus more on Jesus Christ rather than on the saints.
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Father Christmas arose around around sixteen hundreds as a man who celebrates the merriness of Christmas in defiance of the Puritans after the English civil war. The Puritans were a religious group who banned the celebration of Christmas because they saw it as pampering to non-Christian ideas, and Father Christmas was a reaction to their dullness.. He traditionally brings presents to good children at Christmas, which he carries in a large sack, travelling through the sky on a sleigh pulled by reindeer and coming down the chimney to deliver them into stockings or sacks left out for that purpose. (This tradition gets difficult to explain to children in modern houses with no chimney)!

The long tradition of giving presents at Christmas is still the most popular, but more recently some people have begun to give a donation instead to provide something that will enable the person who receives the gift to improve their life enormously and no longer rely on charitable hand-outs. This is very much in line with the teaching of Jesus to 'Love your neighbour as yourself' (Mark 12:31) - it's his birthday we're celebrating after all! (Return to top)

The custom of bringing live branches into the house dates back to pre-Christian times. The idea of bringing a whole tree into the house and decorating it was introduced from Germany by king George III's wife, Queen Charlotte, but it didn't become popular until reintroduced by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert. It was the custom to set up and decorate the tree on Christmas Eve and to remove it the day after Epiphany, anything else was considered unlucky, but growing commercialism means trees are now usually set up well in advance of Christmas, especially trees in public places such as shopping malls or town centres.

Again at the time of the English civil war, Christmas Trees were banned (by the Putitans) as a 'heathen tradition' detracting from the Word of God, but most churches now have a Christmas Tree, either inside or outside the building. Some even have a 'Christmas Tree Festival' with many trees and a range of decorations, often collecting money for viewing them, which is then given to charity.

Another Victorian idea - the first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole, who had introduced the Penny Post in the UK three years earlier! Early cards didn't show traditional Christmas or winter scenes but showed fairies, or humorous and sentimental images of children, or flowers reminding the recipient of spring. Charities now sell cards to help raise funds, after UNICEF sold such a card in 1949. More recently there's a decline in the number of cards posted as the 'e-card' takes over. (Return to Top)

In the UK and Ireland, Christmas Dinner is usually eaten at midday or early afternoon and is similar to a regular Sunday dinner of roast meat and vegetables plus a dessert (sweet course), except at Christmas the meat is most often turkey and the dessert is a rich 'plum pudding' with a brandy cream sauce. In older times, the meat would have been roast boar, but as boars declined, this was replaced with goose. Turkey, a native American bird, was introduced by French Jesuits in the 1700s and has now taken over as the most favoured meat. The constituents of the traditional Christmas meal varies in other countries according to local tradition and the products readily available.

In the UK and Ireland, Christmas Dinner is usually eaten at midday or early afternoon and is similar to a regular Sunday dinner of roast meat and vegetables plus a dessert (sweet course), except at Christmas the meat is traditionally turkey and the dessert is a rich 'plum pudding' with a brandy cream sauce. In older times, the meat would have been roast boar, but as boars declined, this was replaced with goose. Turkey, a native American bird, was introduced by French Jesuits in the 1700s and has now taken over as the most favoured meat. The constituents of the traditional Christmas meal varies in other countries according to local tradition and the products readily available. (Return to Top)