What started the tradition of Christmas presents?
Religion & Liberty Online

What started the tradition of Christmas presents?

Every year we hear the same laments about Christmas presents. Economists are fond of saying gift-giving is inefficient and wasteful, while many Christians complain that it is driven by commercialism.

But how did the tradition start? How did the idea of gift-giving at Christmas move from the marketplace to the home? In this short video, Ryan Reeves explains the history of Christmas presents.

Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).