How many days until Christmas?

The story of Christmas

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth and is one of the two most important festivals in the Christian calendar, alongside Easter. The Bible does not give a date for the nativity. The earliest record of a December 25 celebration in Rome dates from AD 336, and historians have suggested several reasons for the choice, including its closeness to the winter solstice and existing Roman midwinter festivals such as Saturnalia, and an early Christian tradition that linked the date to the Annunciation nine months earlier on March 25.

How Christmas became a global holiday

Many of today's customs took shape in the 19th century. The decorated Christmas tree, a German tradition, became fashionable in Britain after illustrations of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's tree were published in 1848. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) helped popularize a warm, family-centered celebration with generosity at its heart. In the United States, the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas ("'Twas the Night Before Christmas") and the illustrations of Thomas Nast shaped the modern image of Santa Claus, a figure descended from the fourth-century bishop St. Nicholas and the Dutch Sinterklaas. Christmas became a US federal holiday in 1870.

Traditions around the world

• Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas, often marked with an Advent calendar or wreath.
• Christmas Eve is the main celebration in much of Europe and Latin America, with a festive dinner and midnight Mass.
• In the Philippines, the season starts in September and includes nine dawn Masses, Simbang Gabi, before Christmas.
• Orthodox churches that follow the Julian calendar, including in Russia, Serbia and Ethiopia, celebrate on January 7.
• Japan has made a fried-chicken dinner a popular Christmas tradition, and in Australia Christmas falls in summer, often celebrated with a beach barbecue.

Planning your Christmas countdown

Christmas is a fixed date, so it falls one weekday later each year, or two after a leap year. Retailers count the holiday shopping season from Thanksgiving weekend, and shipping carriers publish last-order dates in mid-December. Check our Black Friday and Christmas Eve countdowns to plan your shopping, and kids can follow the sleeps until Christmas.