你真的了解圣诞节吗?

They’re the essential bits of Christmas. Squeezing a fir tree into your living room. Eating an odd-looking bird. Welcoming an intruder who breaks in by coming down the chimney. Gazing at your fifth mince pie of the day and finally wondering what on Earth might be in it.
他们，是圣诞节最核心的部分。让一棵冷杉树挤满你小小的起居室；吃一个外形奇怪的鸟兽；欢迎一个从烟囱闯进你家的“入侵者”；盯着第五块咸肉饼，好奇里面究竟会有些什么。

How many of us stop to think how it all began? Let’s have a look where our festive traditions come from.
有多少人会停下来想自己为什么要这样做？你真的懂圣诞吗？现在就来验证一下吧。

Father Christmas
圣诞老人

Red robes, white beard, waist-slapping jollity and booming ho-ho-hos. He’s been around for ever, hasn’t he?
身穿红色长袍，面长白色长胡，欢乐地拍打自己胖胖的腰部，发出“呵呵呵”的声音，他就是一直以这种形象陪伴我们成长，不是吗？

Actually only since 1935, when Haddon Sundblo, a Madison Avenue advertising man, created Santa Claus for a Coca-Cola campaign.
直到1935年，麦德逊大道（美国广告业中心）的广告人Haddon Sundblo为了可口可乐运动创造了圣诞老人。

In previous lives he was thinner and paler, a character based on a 4th Century Asian bishop called Nicholas, who became the patron saint of children in most of Europe.
先前他效仿四世纪一个叫的Nicholas亚洲主教，把自己弄得既瘦又苍白。在欧洲大部分地方，孩子们都把这位主教看成是自己的保护神。

It was in Holland, where they called him Sinterklaas, that he earned his reputation for giving stuff away. A small pair of wooden shoes would be left by the fireplace and he would fill them with sweets.
在荷兰，因为他经常派礼物给人们，赢得了不少名誉，人们称他为圣尼古拉。如果人们在火炉旁放置一对小小的木鞋子，他就会把它们塞满糖果。

What about Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer? Debt-ridden shopworker Robert Mays invented him in 1947 as the hero of a bestselling book that made him a fortune.
那红鼻子驯鹿鲁道夫又是怎么来的？负债累累的店员Robert Mays在1947年创造了它作为畅销书的主角，因此赢得了丰厚的回报。