赠送礼物的传统好像起源于智者（东方三贤人） 自东方携礼物去祝贺耶稣降生。在马太的圣经中这样描述，“来到房里，他们看到了这个孩子和他的母亲玛利亚。他们鞠躬，向孩子致敬。然后，他们打开他们各自的宝盒，送给孩子三份礼物：金冠、乳香和没要”。

 

正如前面提到的，直到十八世纪后期，人们才有相互交换精美礼物的习惯。圣诞老人的故事（后来被编撰的）使得互赠礼物成为圣诞节的主要节目，也让世界之交成长起来的零售行业出现了欣欣向荣的局面。

The tradition of gifts seems to have started with the gifts that the wise men (the Magi) brought to Jesus. As recounted in the Bible's book of Matthew, "On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense¹ and of myrrh."

As mentioned in the previous question, however, no one was really in the habit of exchanging elaborate² gifts until late in the 1800s. The Santa Claus story (described later), combined with an amazing retailing³ phenomenon that has grown since the turn of the century, has made gift giving a central focus of the Christmas tradition.