Senn, Frank C. (2012). Introduction to Christian Liturgy. Fortress Press. p.118. ISBN 978-1-4514-2433-1. The Christmas tree as we know it seemed to emerge in Lutheran lands in Germany in the sixteenth century. Although no specific city or town has been identified as the first to have a Christmas tree, records for the Cathedral of Strassburg indicate that a Christmas tree was set up in that church in 1539 during Martin Bucer's superintendency. Collins, Ace (April 1, 2010). Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-87388-4 . Retrieved December 2, 2010. a b "In the U.S., Christmas Not Just for Christians". Gallup, Inc. December 24, 2008. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012 . Retrieved December 16, 2012. December 25 was also nine months after March 25, the date linked to Jesus's conception (celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation) and the date of the spring equinox on the Roman calendar. [17]

Online Etymology Dictionary". Archived from the original on January 13, 2012 . Retrieved December 13, 2011.

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Our Lord, too, is born in the month of December ... the eighth before the calends of January [25 December] ... But they [the Romans] call it the ' Birthday of the Unconquered'. Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord? Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, [we may say] He is the Sun of Justice". [24] In America, interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by Washington Irving which appear in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. and "Old Christmas". Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned, [146] and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories. [108] A Norwegian Christmas, 1846 painting by Adolph Tidemand Saint Nicholas, known as Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, is considered by many to be the original Santa Claus [233] Michael Alan Anderson, Symbols of Saints: Theology, ritual, and kinship in music for John the Baptist and St. Anne (1175–1563) The University of Chicago, UMI/ ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, Ann Arbor 2008, pp. 42–46, ISBN 978-0-549-56551-2.

Since the 16th century, the poinsettia, a native plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas carrying the Christian symbolism of the Star of Bethlehem; in that country it is known in Spanish as the Flower of the Holy Night. [204] [205] Other popular holiday plants include holly, mistletoe, red amaryllis, and Christmas cactus. [206] Roll, Susan K. (1995). Toward the Origins of Christmas. Peeters Publishers. p.133. ISBN 978-90-390-0531-6. Holidays at the Museums: Carnegie Museum of Natural History". Carnegiemnh.org. November 26, 2013. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013 . Retrieved December 25, 2013.There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord's birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [May 20] ... Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [April 20 or 21]". [52]

Further information: Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union, Kirchenkampf, and Antireligious campaigns in China A 1931 edition of the Soviet magazine Bezbozhnik, published by the League of Militant Atheists, depicting an Orthodox Christian priest being forbidden to take home a tree for the celebration of Christmastide, which was banned under the Marxist–Leninist doctrine of state atheism. [261] European History Professor Joseph Perry wrote that likewise, in Nazi Germany, "because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize—or eliminate altogether—the Christian aspects of the holiday" and that "Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime's racial ideologies." [166] Bartlett, Robert (2015). Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation. Princeton University Press. p.154.Christmas Strongly Religious For Half in U.S. Who Celebrate It". Gallup, Inc. December 24, 2010. Archived from the original on December 7, 2012 . Retrieved December 16, 2012.