Christmas

An illustration shows two old bearded men, one in red shorts and a red Santa hat and the other in green shorts and a wreath headband in a boxing ring

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Father Christmas v Santa Claus: the centuries-long battle for Britain's chimneys. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Who was the REAL Santa?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Christmas history myths DEBUNKED | The origins you never knew. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Tempting treats & festive feats: Christmas shopping down the ages. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Vintage illustration from the poem 'The Night Before Christmas, or a Visit from St Nicholas' of Santa tacking stockings of gifts on the mantle on Christmas Eve; color lithograph by William Roger Snow.

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The ultimate Christmas quiz. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A smoking bishop with oranges and cinnamon

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A Christmas feastHow to make a Victorian smoking bishop. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Georgian Twelfth cake. (Photo by Eleanor Barnett)

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A Christmas feastHow to make Georgian Twelfth cake. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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A Christmas feastHow to make a Stuart mince pie. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Woman in fur coat holding Christmas gifts.

21st Century

QuizWhat should you gift the history lover in your life?

21st Century

27 Christmas gift ideas for history lovers

Santa Claus rides in a sleigh overflowing with toys through the night sky. Two reindeer pull him along on his quest to deliver gifts to the children all over the world. Below is a sleepy town in the middle of winter unaware of the visitor above.

General History

The history of Christmas, plus 10 festive facts you might not know

The Eridge Hunt, Boxing Day 1952

Victorian

A brief history of Boxing Day

Christmas merriment in an old English manor in the 1500s

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How to host a medieval Christmas. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The characters Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, from Charles Dickens's work 'A Christmas Carol'

Victorian

Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas as we know it today?

20th Century

Q&AWhy did NORAD begin tracking Santa Claus in the Cold War?

Secret Santa Getty Dreamstime

General History

What gift would you buy figures from the past? Find out in historical Secret Santa 2022

The real Wenceslas is that he was not actually a king, but Duke of Bohemia.

Medieval

Q&AWho was Good King Wenceslas, and was he actually good?

Perhaps the most charming idea about the origins of the festive tradition of kissing under the mistletoe derives from a Viking myth of Frigg, goddess of love and marriage, and her ill-fated son Balder. (Photo by Jurg Waldmeier/StockFood Creative/Getty Images Plus)

Viking

Q&AWhy do we kiss under the mistletoe?

Pat Smith of Mari Arts and the Mari Lwyd (Photo by Western Mail Archive/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

General History

Welsh Christmas traditions through history

Vintners in an ale house, 1642. From a broadsheet titled ‘Health to All’, artist unknown. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Stuart

Did Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas? The Puritan assault on Christmas during the 1640s and 1650s

Three medieval carol singers, image dated 1911

Victorian

Christmas carols: the history behind 9 festive favourites

John Duval Gluck, Jr, 'the Santa Claus man', pictured left, visiting the General Post Office to promote the Santa Claus Association’s benefit show

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The con man who saved Christmas. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Victorian Christmas card

General Modern

HistoryExtra's Christmas history quiz

Tom Smith's Surprise Cosaques, Christmas Crackers 1878. (Image by Getty)

Victorian

The history of Christmas crackers

Schoolchildren in Liverpool have their Christmas party in an air raid shelter built into a railway arch

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What was Christmas like in Britain during WW2?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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2020 Christmas history podcast quiz. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British from the 11th Brigade 4th division and German soldiers at Ploegsteert in Belgium on Christmas Day 1914. (Photo by The Art Archive/Alamy)

First World War

Did the First World War Christmas truce football match really happen?

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Christmas ghost stories. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The history of Christmas: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Scrooge and Marley's ghost

Victorian

Q&AWhy do we say ‘Bah Humbug’ and what does it mean?

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