Gifts

Roman Gifts

Medieval Gifts

Royal Gifts

Gifts: Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Gifts

Gifts: Saint Nicholas’s Day Gifts

Gifts: Boxing Day Gifts

Gifts: German Christmas Gifts

Gifts: Julklapp

Gifts: Santa Claus, Christmas Trees, and Gifts

Gifts: Conclusion

Europeans have exchanged midwinter gifts with one another since ancient times. Until relatively recently, however, most of these gifts traded hands around New Year’s Day rather than on Christmas Day. As Christmas became an increasingly important holiday, people began to exchange gifts on Christmas rather than on New Year’s Day (see also Christmas in Nineteenth-Century America; Christmas in Victorian England).