Festive fads Christmas didn't always look like this

Eugene Byrne wonders what a traditional Christmas is supposed to look like, because everything about it keeps changing ...

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MAYBE you've said it yourself, but if you haven't you'll certainly have heard other people talk of wanting to celebrate a "traditional" Christmas.

But what's "traditional" anyway? Even a passing knowledge of history will quickly pull you up. Christmas trees were only popularised by the royal family in the 19th century. Santa only became a jolly old fellow in a red suit trimmed with white fur in the later 1800s, an image firmed up by Coca-Cola adverts in America during the 1930s.

Christmas stockings? We never used to have them. The idea seems to have come over from America to Britain in the mid-19th century.

Giving presents on December 25th? Sure, but until the later 19th century, many Britons exchanged gifts on New Year's Day.

Recent decades have seen changes to the "traditional" Christmas, too. Mistletoe isn't as popular as it used to be and is probably banned from all office parties now by corporate HR departments nervous of sexual harassment allegations.

(And office parties are hardly ever in the office anymore; one minor reason for this being that the repair bills for damaged photocopiers started to get too much in the 1990s. If you don't know how they got damaged, ask your Dad.)

Christmas carols are going out of fashion, too. If, 30 years ago, you were to ask people which songs they associate with the festive season, they'd mention a load of carols. Nowadays they will reel off a list of former Top 10 hits from the 1970s onwards that you hear in supermarkets from mid-November each year.

Oh Come All Ye Faithful won't get a look in when pitted against Fairytale of New York. And remember it's not Christmas until Noddy Holder says it is. Christmas cards are now mostly for older people.

It's easier and cheaper to wish friends and family the compliments of the season via email, social media or e-cards, with the option of giving money to charity instead of spending it on cards and postage.