History of Christmas Gifts

Introduction

At "Yours Personally" we understand the importance of Personalised Christmas Gifts.  Our number one seller is of course the Letter from Santa and this year our first customer arrived in June which is the earliest date we have sold a Christmas product on since our inception in 1999.  We know that more and more people are buying their gifts earlier and earlier but the other side of that same coin however, is the number of people who leave buying Christmas gifts right up until the last minute - and yes, it's usually men who seem to fall into this bracket.  It never fails to surprise us how many people are dashing about the High Street on Christmas Eve looking for that last minute bargain for their family and friends.  Of course nowadays there really aren't any excuses for last minute Christmas shopping since we nearly all have access to the internet and a vast array of products.  The internet is safe (despite the scar stories you here in the media), and with various delivery options it has never been easier to shop online.    

Although personalised Christmas gifts have been popular for a long time they have become even more popular with the advent of the computer.  Personalisation for a number of items is relatively easy and whereas it was usually the case that personalisation required orders for hundreds or even thousands of a product, nowadays names can be inscribed, knitted, painted, drawn, printed onto one single item and it can still be very profitable for the merchant.  Personalisation also looks very professional and individual.

The First Christmas Gifts

We hope you enjoyed our first article about the History of Santa and how he brought presents for children at Christmas time.  However, now we want to delve into the history of tradition of giving Christmas gifts to each other.  Like the origin of Santa, the origin of when Christmas gifts were first given is shrouded in speculation.     

One of the first recorded versions of given Christmas gifts goes back over 4000 years where a civilisation around the Mediterranean area had a 12 day festival to celebrate the New Year.  This was called Zagmuth.  However, this was well over 2000 years before the emergence of Christ.  Moving forward a few thousand years we come to the Romans.  They had a celebration around the middle of December each year called Kalends.  This lasted until January and celebrated their God - Saturn.  The Romans would decorated their homes and hang candles on the trees.  They would also visit each others homes and have parties.  And yes, you've guessed it - they would take gifts to exchange with each other.  These gifts would have been simple - good luck charms and the like but it is believed they become more elaborate when food, jewellery and statues of Gods were given. 

By now of course we were coming into the early Christian church and this practise of giving Christmas gifts at this time of year was frowned upon.  However, the tradition continued despite the wrath of the church.

By the Middle Ages a medieval legend suggested that the young Jesus gave presents and this helped to establish Christmas Day for Christians to give Christmas gifts.  Once again though it was things such as nuts, fruit, clothing etc that were used as gifts - a far cry from the expectations of the modern child.

In fact it wasn't until the late 19th century when giving presents became serious.  We have already discussed the way Santa Claus appeared around this time to give Christmas gifts to children, and it was then that grown ups too began to give elaborate presents to teach other.   This has grown and grown until today where the perhaps the Christian message of Christmas has been reduced and the most important act is the giving (or acquiring) of Christmas gifts and presents.