The origins of the Christmas traditions are the most fascinating of any holiday. All our favourite activities can be traced (追溯) back to specific points in history, and knowing how these things came about just makes celebrating Christmas much more wonderful.
The original Nicholas was born in 280 A.D. in the small country of Lycia, which is now part of modern Turkey. Nicholas became first a priest (牧师) and then a bishop (主教) in the early Christian church. The first paintings of him show Nicholas wearing the clothes of a Christian bishop—red decorated with white. When we see Santa’s suit today, we’re still seeing the two kinds of colors.
Nicholas became famous for gift-giving. In the early fourth century, a story began to spread about Nicholas coming at night to the home of three poor girls who did not have money and therefore could not get married. While the girls slept, Nicholas left gold coins in their stockings, which were drying by the fire. That’s how the tradition of Santa filling stockings got its start.
In 1841, Santa first appeared at a department store in Philadelphia. This Santa tried to climb down a chimney to impress the children who were watching, but he got stuck halfway down. In 1890, department store Santas began appearing all over America, especially on the East Coast around Boston. Parents in other countries joined together and hired passenger trains to take their families to see these Santas.
At the same time, Ralph E. Morris of the New England Telephone Company suggested that strings of lights be hung on Christmas trees. After all, lights would be much safer than candles. Our modern-day image of Santa as a fat man is based on ads of the Coca-Cola company in the 1930s. Artist Hans Sundblom used a retired salesman named Les Prentice as his model.
【小题1】What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．Christmas is the most important holiday. |
| B．The traditions of Christmas are based on facts. |
| C．There was not any record of Christmas in the past. |
| D．More and more people begin to celebrate Christmas. |
| A．He set up the first Christian church. |
| B．He was called Santa Claus when he was born. |
| C．His clothes are similar to Santa’s suit in color. |
| D．His image is the same as the modern-day Santa. |
| A．prove that Nicholas used to be a rich man |
| B．tell of the origin of Santa filling stockings |
| C．show Christmas was set up mainly for the poor |
| D．describe a famous story in the early fourth century |
| A．Santa didn’t become popular until the year 1890. |
| B．Candles have never been used on Christmas trees. |
| C．The Coca-Cola company designed the image of Santa. |
| D．Santa began giving gifts by climbing down chimneys in 1841. |
