Celebrations during the winter season were common, long before Christmas was celebrated on December 25th. Christmas was a movable feast and was celebrated many different times during the year. Not until Pope Julius I in the 4th century AD choose December 25th because it coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice or "Return of the Sun". The purpose was to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one.

The first decorated tree was at Riga in Latvia, in 1510. In 1521 in Alsace, France (then in the German territory) the tree was introduced to the local courtesans by Princess Hélène de Mecklembourg who brought one with her to Paris after her marriage to the Duke of Orleans. Ten years later, the first printed mentioning of Christmas trees was published. In the early 16th century, Martin Luther is said to have decorated a small Christmas Tree with candles, to show his children how the stars twinkled through the dark night.

With the 17th century came a surge of inventiveness in the field of Christmas decoration. Christmas markets were held in German towns to provide villagers with gifts, food, and holiday trinkets to place on their trees. Bakers made gingerbread in various shapes and molded wax ornaments for the villagers to purchase. The most accurate record of such a fair was by a visitor to Strasbourg in 1601. In his notes, he made mention of a tree covered in wafers, sugar-twists, and paper flowers in all colors. The variety of color is significant because earlier Christmas trees were symbolic of the Paradise Tree in the Garden of Eden. Traditionally, food adorning these trees represented plenty while only two colors of flowers were used, red for knowledge and white for innocence. Tinsel was invented in Germany around 1610. At that time real silver was used, and machines were invented which pulled the silver out into the wafer thin strips for tinsel. Silver was durable, but tarnished quickly, especially with candlelight. Attempts were made to use a mixture of lead and tin, but this was heavy and tended to break under its own weight so was not so practical. So silver was used for tinsel right up to the mid-20th century.

The Christmas pudding originated as a porridge in the 14th century. It was made of beef, mutton, raisins, currants, prunes, wine, and mixed spices. It was eaten as a fasting dish before the Christmas celebrations began. In the 16th century, it became known as plum pudding when spirits and dried fruit were added along with eggs to thicken it. The meat ingredients had also been removed. In 1664, it was banned by the Puritans as a lewd custom unfit for people who followed the ways of God, but was reintroduced by George I in 1714 after he had tried it and thought it was delicious.

Legend has it that in 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral handed out sugar sticks among his young singers to keep them quiet during the long Living Creche ceremony. In honor of the occasion, he had the candies bent into shepherds’ crooks.

From its very beginning gingerbread has been a fairground delicacy. Certain shapes were associated with different seasons: buttons and flowers were found at Easter fairs, and animals and birds were a feature in Autumn. There is also more than one village tradition in England requiring unmarried women to eat gingerbread "husbands" at the fair if they are to stand a good chance of meeting a real husband. Gingerbread-making was eventually recognized as a profession in itself. In the seventeenth century, gingerbread bakers had the exclusive right to make it, except at Christmas and Easter. In 1571, French bakers of pain d'epices (noteworthy recipes that came from Dijon, Reims and Paris) even won the right to their own guild, or professional organization, separate from the other pastry cooks and bakers. In Paris a gingerbread fair was held from the eleventh century until the nineteenth century at an abbey where monks sold gingerbread cut into the shape of pigs.

Galerie de Paris © Copyright 2002 TRG Creations