Christmas

Events

• In 2008, Penny gives Sheldon a napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy for Christmas. She gives Leonard a voucher for motorcycle lessons, while he gives her a game with "101 totally cool science experiments for kids" (0211).

• In 2009, Leonard's mother comes to visit over Christmas (0311).

Childhood memories

Penny and the guys have very different memories of Christmas during their childhood. While Penny loves decorating a Christmas tree and seems to enjoy the festivities surrounding Christmas, Sheldon didn't enjoy "twelve hours in church" with his mother. The Christmas decoration of his family consisted of "a tree, a manger, an inflatable Santa Claus and plastic reindeer on the front lawn" and "so many blinking lights on the house they induced neighbour hood wide seizures". In contrast, in Leonard's family, there was no Christmas tree or presents but instead Christmas wasn't celebrated but studied for its "anthropological and sociological implications on human society". The members of his family presented papers, split into focus groups and critiqued each other (0311).

Sheldon's views

Sheldon does not like Christmas trees because they are a "spider infested fire hazard" (0311) and because they have their origin in the "ancient pagan festival of Saturnalia" (0211):

Sheldon: In the pre-Christian era, as the winter solstice approached and the plants died, pagans brought evergreen boughs into their homes as an act of sympathetic magic, intended to guard the life essences of the plants until spring. This custom was later appropriated by Northern Europeans and eventually it becomes the so-called Christmas tree.

Note: Saturnalia refers to a festival in ancient Rome in honour of the god Saturnus, which took place over a week at the end of December.

When asked to help decorating a Christmas tree in December 2009, Sheldon insists to put a bust of Sir Isaac Newton onto the tree for the following reason:

Sheldon: December 25th, 1642. Julian calendar. Sir Issac Newton is born. Jesus, however, was actually born in the summer. His birthday was moved to coincide with the traditional pagan holiday that celebrates the winter solstice with lit fires and slaughtered guts, which frankly sounds like more fun than twelve hours of Church with my mother, followed by fruit cake.

Note: Sheldon refers to the fact that the exact birth date of Jesus is not actually known and many historians believe it was placed on December 25th in the 4th century to coincide with the Roman festivities surrounding the winter solstice. For more information see The Chronology of Jesus on Wikipedia.