Ever wonder how the whole tradition of decorating evergreen trees around Christmas got started? Or have you ever thought about who started the tradition of hanging mistletoe this time of the year? Or have you ever mulled over how the whole Santa Claus thing got started?

These and other holiday traditions did not get their start, as some may suspect, with people who celebrated the birth of Jesus of Nazareth every Dec. 25. In fact, these traditions were being practiced well before Jesus was born by the people of Europe, who honored the winter solstice with the celebration known as Yule.

Decorating evergreen trees during Yuletide began as a way to honor Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree, said Casper resident and Yule celebrant Steve Ford.

The people of pre-Christian northern Europe would go into the forest on or around Yule and decorate trees with nuts and fruits. When the Christian conversion of the Norse people began, the trees were taken inside so that those who followed the old ways would not reveal their beliefs, Ford said.

Eventually, Christians celebrating Christmas took up the tree-decorating tradition, and the Yule tree was transformed into the Christmas tree, Ford said.

Also, the Norse people would sometimes put gifts to the gods under the decorated trees, and that is how the tradition of placing gifts under Christmas trees began, Casper resident and Yule celebrant Nella Forest said.

The tradition of hanging mistletoe also came from pre-Christian Europe and was related to fertility during winter, the most barren time of the year, Forest said.

And Santa Claus is just "a very watered down version of Odin," the chief god in the Norse pantheon, Ford said.

Another part of Christmas which has its roots in pre-Christian faiths is the time of the year it is celebrated, Ford and Forest said.

Jesus was probably born sometime in the spring, Ford said. But because there were already feasts, like Yule, that people honored this time of the year, the early Christians decided to celebrate Jesus' birth on Dec. 25 to help convert people to their faith, Forest said.

Despite the fact most descendants of those Europeans who believed in Odin and Yggdrasil do not worship in the manner of their ancestors, there are still some people who celebrate Yule every December.

In Casper, Ford says that he personally knows a few dozen people who celebrate Yule this time of the year, and there are probably many more that he does not personally know.

Different people celebrate Yule in different ways, Forest said.

For herself, Forest and some friends plan on getting together tonight for an "eclectic pagan ritual," which will involve lighting candles and burning sage.

Ford says he usually gets together with a few friends and participates in a ceremony which includes making oaths on a wreath. The oaths are a lot like New Year's resolutions, and the wreath is much like the ones people hang on their doors this time of the year, Ford said.

Following the ceremony, Ford usually enjoys a feast with his fellow believers, he said. Traditional Yule dishes include pork, and the traditional Yule beverages are ale and mead.