Entitled: "Preparing Christmas greens. Making wreaths." Wood engraving showing four women and a boy making wreaths, and scene of people cutting Christmas trees. Christmas wreaths are made from real or artificial conifer branches, or sometimes other broadleaf evergreens like magnolia or holly, along with pinecones and sprays of berries, and Christmas ornaments. A bow is usually used at the top or bottom, and an electric or unlit candle may be placed in the middle. Christmas is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ and a widely observed cultural holiday, celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide, which ends after the twelfth night. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season. Illustration by Thure de Thulstrup created for Harper's Weekly, December 25, 1880.