Christmas

Christmas is a holiday celebrated in many countries on December 25th. It's sort of a mixture between celebrating Christ's birth and a derivation of multiple Pagan traditions that have evolved into a celebration of winter and gifts. Some celebrators exclude the Christian elements.
Many animals are associated with Christmas. Most of them relate to either the North Pole or to other Euro-American winter animals. Snow is an important theme of Christmas, even in tropical areas, and in many ways Christmas is a tradition that honors the animals of the cold. These animals include polar bears, penguins, and Santa's reindeer. Other animals that are commonly portrayed, but not always known to be Christmas animals include forest deer, passerine birds (ironically, as many of these birds migrate for winter), partridges, doves, walruses, seals, squirrels, mice, dogs and other pets, European robins, etc. Additionally other animals are associated with the Christian side of Christmas, the Nativity scene. These are generally the farm animals that would have been present at Jesus' birth and right after: donkeys, oxen, sheep, camels, etc. In general, the animals sacred to Jesus' birth aren't the sacred in the "Xmas" side of the tradition. That is, camels and donkeys are only sacred for Christ's birthday and have nothing to do with the snow festivities that include Santa Claus and Christmas trees. While the decorations outside of a house may include one or the other or both, there is still a stark difference between these two holidays blended into one. Additionally other countries may have animals that are sacred to their Christmas, such as kangaroos to Australia.
Category:Holidays