The Collaborative International Dictionary
Christmas \Christ"mas\, n. [Christ + mass.] An annual church festival (December 25) and in some States a legal holiday, in memory of the birth of Christ, often celebrated by a particular church service, and also by special gifts, greetings, and hospitality. Christmas box.
A box in which presents are deposited at Christmas.
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A present or small gratuity given to young people and servants at Christmas; a Christmas gift.
Christmas carol, a carol sung at, or suitable for, Christmas.
Christmas day. Same as Christmas.
Christmas eve, the evening before Christmas.
Christmas fern (Bot.), an evergreen North American fern ( Aspidium acrostichoides), which is much used for decoration in winter.
Christmas flower, Christmas rose, the black hellebore, a poisonous plant of the buttercup family, which in Southern Europe often produces beautiful roselike flowers midwinter.
Christmas tree, a small evergreen tree, set up indoors, to be decorated with bonbons, presents, etc., and illuminated on Christmas eve.
Wikipedia
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day. Together, both days are considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations in Christendom and Western society.
Christmas celebrations in the denominations of Western Christianity have long begun on the night of the 24th, due in part to the Christian liturgical day starting at sunset, a practice inherited from Jewish tradition and based on the story of Creation in the Book of Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day." Many churches still ring their church bells and hold prayers in the evening; for example, the Nordic Lutheran churches. Since tradition holds that Jesus was born at night (based in Luke 2:6-8), Midnight Mass is celebrated on Christmas Eve, traditionally at midnight, in commemoration of his birth. The idea of Jesus being born at night is reflected in the fact that Christmas Eve is referred to as Heilige Nacht (Holy Night) in German, Nochebuena (the Good Night) in Spanish and similarly in other expressions of Christmas spirituality, such as the song "Silent Night, Holy Night".
Many other varying cultural traditions and experiences are also associated with Christmas Eve around the world, including the gathering of family and friends, the singing of Christmas carols, the illumination and enjoyment of Christmas lights, trees, and other decorations, the wrapping, exchange and opening of gifts, and general preparation for Christmas Day. Legendary Christmas gift-bearing figures including Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Christkind, and Saint Nicholas are also often said to depart for their annual journey to deliver presents to children around the world on Christmas Eve, although until the Protestant introduction of Christkind in 16th-century Europe, such figures were said to instead deliver presents on the eve of Saint Nicholas' feast day (December 6).
"Christmas Eve" (, Noch pered Rozhdestvom, which literally translates as "The Night Before Christmas") is the first story in the second volume of the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol.
Christmas Eve (, Noch' pered Rozhdestvom), is an opera in four acts with music and libretto by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Composed between 1894 and 1895, Rimsky-Korsakov based his opera on a short story, " Christmas Eve", from Nikolay Gogol's Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. The story had been used as the basis for an opera at least three times previously, including for Tchaikovsky's Vakula the Smith (1874). Oliver Knussen writes that "Rimsky is only interested in recreating the atmosphere of the folk-tale, fleshing it out for his stage pageant in a comparable way to Humperdinck in Hansel.
Christmas Eve is a 1947 United Artists comedy film directed by Edwin L. Marin. The movie is based on the story by Richard H. Landau and stars George Raft, George Brent and Randolph Scott. It was rereleased under the title "Sinner's Holiday".
Christmas Eve is the evening or day before Christmas Day, occurring on December 24 in Western Christianity and the secular world.
Christmas Eve may also refer to:
Christmas Eve is a 2015 American Christmas comedy film, directed by Mitch Davis, written by Davis and Tyler McKellar, and produced by Davis and Larry King. The film features a large ensemble cast led by Patrick Stewart, James Roday, Julianna Guill, Jon Heder, Cheryl Hines, and Gary Cole.
Set in New York City, the film tells the stories of various characters as they become trapped in six different elevators on the titular evening.
Usage examples of "christmas eve".
I'd planned to wait until Christmas Eve -- Marianna loved Christmas -- but I couldn't.
He was in his own bed, with the moon shining in at the window, and it was Christmas Eve.
It would be reenacted with humans Christmas Eve, but a local sculptor had created the beautiful statues and several artists had done woodwork for the manger and life-size stable, and others had painted the entire backdrop.
The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman’.
Cag said on Christmas Eve, as Corrigan sat in the study all by himself in the dark.
Hagman said, as if that was the most natural thing in the world for a Rifleman to be doing on Christmas Eve.
He didn't feel like going back to Sanctuary and there was no real need to hunt on Christmas Eve.