The custom of sending Christmas cards started in Britain in 1840 when the first 'Penny Post' public postal deliveries began. (Helped by the new railway system, the public postal service was the 19th century's communication revolution, just as email is for us today.) As printing methods improved, Christmas cards were produced in large numbers from about 1860. They became even more popular in Britain when a card could be posted in an unsealed envelope for one half-penny - half the price of an ordinary letter.

Traditionally, Christmas cards showed religious pictures - Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, or other parts of the Christmas story. Today, pictures are often jokes, winter pictures, Father Christmas, or romantic scenes of life in past times.

Mince pies are descended from Christmas pies, which contained a variety of meats as well as fruit and spices.

Christmas pies were very much bigger than the tiny mince pies we eat today. One pie is recorded as having among its ingredients; a hare, a pheasant, a capon, two rabbits, two pigeons, two partridges, the livers of all these animals, as well as eggs, pickled mushrooms and spices. Sometimes these pies could weigh as much as 220 lbs. with iron hands to hold them together while they were baking.

Jack Horner was steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury, and he had to take a pie to King Henry VII as a present from the Abbot. Under the crust were the title deeds of twelve manors sent to the King in the hope that he would not pull down Glastonbury Abbey. It is said that King Henry received only eleven deeds. What happened to the missing deed? That well known nursery rhyme lives on to remind us.

Christmas pies used to be oblong or square in shape. They came to be called ‘crib pies’ because they were similar in shape to the manger. These were forbidden by Oliver Cromwell at the same time as he also forbade Christmas in the mid-seventeenth century, especially those that had a little pastry figure to represent the baby Jesus placed on top. Christmas was re-instated when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, by which time the pies had become round and the pastry "Jesus" had disappeared forever. These came to be known as mince pies and contained ingredients similar to the ones we use today.

As time went on, mince pies became smaller and smaller. Another name for them was ‘wayfarers’ pies since they were given to visitors during the Christmas holiday. It was thought to be lucky to eat twelve mince pies in twelve different houses during the twelve days of Christmas to ensure a happy twelve months for the year ahead.

In ancient times, the mistletoe was thought of as the plant of peace and friendship. If enemies met under a tree on which mistletoe grew, they would lay down their arms and call a truce for the rest of the day. If friends met beneath a tree bearing mistletoe, they would consider their friendship to be blessed with good luck.

Kissing under the mistletoe has come from a custom that was once found only in England. Foreign visitors to England in the sixteenth century were often surprised how often man and woman exchanged kisses in greeting and in parting. Perhaps it was this practice, as well as the belief that mistletoe was a plant of friendship, that led to the Christmas tradition.

A large bough of mistletoe would be picked to form the centre of a huge garland to be hung in a room or hall. Any young woman who stood beneath the garland (or kissing bough) would expect to receive a kiss. It would bring her luck and ensure her of marriage. She also had the right to pluck a berry from the mistletoe for every kiss she received. Once the sprig had no more berries, it was no longer lucky to kiss under it. After Twelfth Night the mistletoe would be burned, otherwise the young men and women who kissed under it might never marry.

In some places one sprig of mistletoe would be put away to be kept all year to bring luck to the household. If a baby was born, a piece of the mistletoe would be placed in the cradle to keep the child from harm. Sometimes a sprig of mistletoe would be given to a cow that had calved to bring good luck to the herd.

An ancient name for mistletoe is ‘the wood of the holy cross.’ Mistletoe was never taken into a church at any time. This was because of a legend that tells how mistletoe wood was used to make a cross on which Christ died. Afterwards, all mistletoe shrank to its present size in shame and anguish. Mistletoe was also very important to the Druids. The Arch Druid was said to cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle every November. It was caught in a white cloth by four virgins and utilised in the ritual sacrifice of white oxen, thought to be an alternative to human sacrifice.

Saint Nicholas, the 4th century saint who inspired our modern figure of Santa Claus, was born near Myra, a port on the Mediterranean Sea serving the busy sea lanes that linked the seaports of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Ships sailing these waters, laden with grain and all kinds of goods, found safety in the port from raging storms and menacing pirates.

SpacerNicholas came from one of the city's wealthy merchant families, but he was not spoiled by his family's wealth. His mother and father taught him to be generous to others, especially those in need. So Nicholas came to see that helping others makes one richer in life than anything else.

SpacerOne day, by chance, Nicholas heard about a rich man in Myra who lost all his money when his business failed. The man had three lovely daughters, all wishing to get married, but he had no money for their marriage. Besides, who would marry them, he thought, since their father is such a failure? With nothing to eat, the man in desperation decided to sell one of his daughters into slavery. At least then the rest of them might survive.

SpacerThat night before the first daughter was to be sold, Nicholas, with a small bag of gold in his hand, softly approached their house, and, tossing the gold through an open window, quickly vanished into the darkness.

The next morning, the father found a bag of gold lying on the floor next to his bed. He had no idea where it came from. "Maybe it's counterfeit," he thought. But as he tested it, he knew it was real. He went over the list of his friends and business associates. None of them could possibly have given him this.

The poor man fell to his knees and great tears came to his eyes. He thanked God for this beautiful gift. His spirits rose higher than they had been for a long time because someone had been so unexpectedly good to him. He arranged for his first daughter's wedding and there was enough money left for the rest of them to live for almost a year. Often he wondered: who gave them the gold?

But by the end of the year, the family again had nothing, and the father, again desperate and seeing no other way open, decided his second daughter must be sold. But Nicholas, hearing about it, came by night to their window and tossed in another bag of gold as before. The next morning the father rejoiced, and, thanking God, begged His pardon for losing hope. Who, though, was the mysterious stranger giving them such a gift?

Each night afterwards the father watched by the window. As the year passed their money ran out. In the dead of one night he heard quiet steps approaching his house and suddenly a bag of gold fell onto the floor. The father quickly ran out to catch the one who threw it there. He caught up with Nicholas some distance away and recognized him, for the young man came from a well-known family in the city.

"Why did you give us the gold?" the father asked.

"Because you needed it," Nicholas answered. "But why didn't you let us know who you were?" the man asked again. "Because it's good to give and have only God know about it."

When the bishop of Myra died, the priests and leading people of the city along with the neighboring bishops came together in their cathedral to select a new bishop. They prayed and asked God to point out who it would be. In a dream, God said to one of them that they should all pray together the next morning. Someone would come through the cathedral door as they prayed. He should be their choice.

It was Nicholas who entered the cathedral the next morning. Immediately, the people of the city named him their bishop, for they knew that this unassuming person, whose good deeds they had learned about, was meant by God to lead them.

As bishop of Myra, Nicholas seemed more aware than ever of people's needs. He would appear all over the city offering help to anyone in difficulty, then quietly disappear without waiting for thanks. He shunned publicity. Still, his reputation as a holy man grew and grew, even spreading to distant cities that had never seen him.

He was especially interested that families had enough to eat and a good place to live, that children got ahead in life, and that old people lived out their lives with dignity and respect. And he always loved the sailors living so dangerously on the sea. Without their ships, people everywhere would be without food and other goods they carried for trade.

Yet it is as a lover of children that Nicholas is best remembered today. While he lived, he gave the little ones he met small gifts-- some candy, a toy. His kindness, which always managed to surprise them, touched their hearts, and they learned from this holy man what a beautiful thing giving is.

In the figure of Santa Claus, whose name and activity Nicholas inspired, we have this saint with us today.

"I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year."
~Charles Dickens.

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.
~W. C. Jones