Christmas from A to Z facts for kids

Christmas tree with presents

The Adoration of the Shepherds by Francesco Landonio, 1750, Italy

Welcome to your most comprehensive Christmas guide! This page is your launchpad to everything about the holiday. Think of it as the biggest, most festive index ever!

Want to know the history of Santa Claus? Curious about Christmas in other countries? You’re in the right place! Below, you’ll find links to all our fun Christmas-related articles. Just click on any topic that sparks your curiosity to go on a holiday adventure.

Dive in and explore the wonderful world of Christmas!

Christmas traditions

• Christmas and holiday season
• Advent calendar
• Advent wreath
• Hanging of the greens
• Nativity scene
• Nativity play
• Christmas carols
• Christmas gift
• Boxing Day
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas card
• Christmas stocking
• Christmas cracker

Christmas gift-bringers

• Santa Claus
• Christmas elf
• Father Christmas
• Sinterklaas
• Christkind
• Joulupukki
• Befana
• Père Noël
• Ded Moroz

History of Christmas

• Saturnalia
• Yule
• Nativity of Jesus
• Saint Nicholas
• Christmastide
• Christmas truce
• Apollo 8 Genesis reading

Christmas decorations

• Christmas tree
  • Artificial Christmas tree
    • Feather Christmas tree
    • Aluminum Christmas tree
• Christmas ornament
• Christmas lights
• Christmas window
• Poinsettia
• Mistletoe
• Holly

Christmas food

• Christmas pudding
• Candy cane
• Christmas cake
• King cake
• Pigs in blankets
• Christmas ham
• Beef Wellington
• Chirstmas cookies
• Stollen
• White Christmas
• Gingerbread
• Mince pie
• Bûche de Noël
• Natillas
• Thirteen desserts
• Gingerbread house
• Szaloncukor
• Panettone

Christmas around the world

• Australia
• New Zealand
• Scotland
• Ireland
• Ukraine
• Russia
• Romania
• Hungary
• Norway
• Sweden
• Finland
• Italy
• Germany
• Poland
• Philippines
• Ethiopia
• Mexico
• Colombia
• Indonesia
• Israel
• Iceland
• France
• Denmark

Christmas classics

Books and Stories

• "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg
• "The Nutcracker" by E.T.A. Hoffmann (1816)
• "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (1843)
• "The Night Before Christmas" ('Twas the Night Before Christmas) by Clement Clarke Moore (1823)
• "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" by Dr. Seuss (1957)
• "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg (1985)
• "The Snowman" by Raymond Briggs (1978)

Movies and TV Specials

• "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)
• "A Christmas Carol" (Various adaptations)
• "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947)
• "White Christmas" (1954)
• "A Christmas Story" (1983)
• "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (1989)
• "The Polar Express" (2004)
• "Elf" (2003)
• "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (1966 animated TV special)
• "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965 TV special)
• "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1964 stop-motion TV special)
• "Frosty the Snowman" (1969 TV special)
• "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" (1970 stop-motion TV special)
• "Home Alone" (1990)

Christmas music

• "Angels We Have Heard on High"
• "Away in a Manger"
• "Deck the Halls"
• "Ding Dong Merrily on High"
• "The First Nowell"
• "Go Tell It on the Mountain"
• "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"
• "Good King Wenceslas"
• "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
• "I Saw Three Ships"
• "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear"
• "Jingle Bells"
• "Joy to the World"
• "O Christmas Tree"
• "O Come, All Ye Faithful"
• "O come, O come, Emmanuel"
• "O Holy Night"
• "O Little Town of Bethlehem"
• "Once in Royal David's City"
• "Silent Night"
• "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
• "We Three Kings of Orient Are"
• "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"
• "What Child Is This?"
• "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks"

Interesting facts about Christmas

• Santa's reindeer are probably all girls! Male reindeer lose their antlers in winter.
• The first Christmas tree decorations were food. Long ago in Germany, people decorated trees with apples, cookies, and nuts.
• The candy cane's shape has a story. Some say a candy maker bent it to look like a shepherd's crook, to remind people of the shepherds who visited baby Jesus.
• In Japan, many people eat KFC for Christmas dinner! It's a popular tradition thanks to a clever old advertisement.
• In Venezuela, on Christmas morning in the capital, Caracas, families roller-skate to early church services.
• In Norway, people hide all the brooms! An old folk tale says witches and evil spirits come out on Christmas Eve looking for brooms to ride. So, families hide their brooms and mops to keep them safe!
• The biggest Christmas stocking ever made was longer than a blue whale—over 106 feet long! It was created by The Children's Society charity in London, United Kingdom in 2007. The stocking held 1,000 presents. The presents were donated to children in need, making the project both a world record attempt and a wonderful act of charity.

Christmas Quotes

• "Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone" (Charles M. Schulz).
• "Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love" (Hamilton Wright Mabie).
• "My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others" (Bob Hope).
• "Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves" (Eric Sevareid).
• "Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand" (Dr. Seuss).
• "It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you" (Mother Teresa).