The Christmas Family Tree

Walter Russel Meade:

It’s sometimes hard to know which pieces of Christmas come from the Bible (shepherds, manger, baby, parents, angels, wise men), what comes from paganism (date, trees, mistletoe, lights, logs, presents), what comes from pious legends(animals, crowns for wise men, one of them being black), what from medieval custom (manger scenes, carol singing), what comes from sentimental Victorian literature (named reindeer, flying sleigh, Santa Claus as a fat and jolly elf, Tiny Tim) and what comes from modern commercialism (dreaming of a white Christmas, Rudolf, the little drummer boy, the grinch).