Christmas timeline

Celebrated all over the world in a variety of ways, Christmas is sure one of the most beloved holidays and marks one of the most exciting periods of the year. Its traditions, decorations and overall spirit animate and give many of us something to look forward to well in advance.

To wish everyone happy holidays, we have created a timeline that illustrates a short collection of Christmas-related facts and traditions.

With its name representing a shortened form of “Christ’s mass”, Christmas has its origins in ancient pagan festivities such as Deus Sol Invictus, Saturnalia and the Kalends, all of which took place at the end of the year. Despite disapproving of the aforementioned celebrations, The Christian Church appropriated them and it was Pope Julius I, the bishop of Rome, who proclaimed the 25th of December as the official celebration date for Jesus’ birthday way back in 350 AD.

Long before Christmas trees came to be associated with the winter holiday, evergreens were revered as symbols of rebirth and eternal life within heathen communities. Initially banned by the Christian councils because of these pagan associations, holly, ivy and other evergreen boughs later became the traditional decorations for Christmas.

The Christmas chronology was created with the Office Timeline extension for PowerPoint, an easy-to-use tool that enables users to easily build stylish timelines or more professional graphics such as project roadmaps or Gantt charts. You can copy the slide for free, and further edit it to include your own data using the free trial of the add-in.

Download the Christmas Timeline for PowerPoint here.