The snow is falling, the decorations are up, and the Turkeys are looking nervous. It must be Christmas time again!

Everyone loves the festive time. Children and adults get excited about the surprises that lay in store for them. Parents frantically search for this year’s number one Christmas toy and busy people rush around the shops on Christmas Eve, scooping up whatever they can. Many people buy all of their Christmas gifts on the Internet these days. What could be easier than making a few clicks with the mouse and getting all of your Christmas presents delivered by post? You don’t even need to step out into the cold!

The first Christmas gifts must have been those given to the infant Jesus in his manger by the three wise men, three kings who travelled a long way to deliver their special Christmas presents

For those who celebrate Christmas but do not follow its religious aspects, Christmas gifts first became popular during the Victorian Era. Family members would exchange gifts to celebrate the birth of Christ and remember the gifts that the three kings brought with them. A description of a Victorian family giving Christmas gifts to each other is found in Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’, leading us to believe that it was a popular activity by the time his novel was published in 1843.

In Germany, children get TWO gifts receiving days, one at the beginning of December, for small gifts and one towards the end. In Russia, the special day occurs on New Years Eve. Lucky them!

When do you open your Christmas gifts? In some places in the world they open everything on the night before Christmas. In places such as Holland, they celebrate Christmas at the beginning of December and the whole thing feels much less commercialised. People with young children have to get up very early on Christmas day to watch their youngsters tearing through piles of carefully wrapped gift paper. As they grow up, some swap Christmas gifts and open presents at the Christmas lunch table, or even the dinner table, if they can wait that long!

For all of your Christmas gifts, why not visit All Things Gifts Christmas category today for a wide selection of Christmas gifts and gift ideas for all occasions.