Christ·mas n.  An annual church festival (December 25) and in some States a legal holiday, in memory of the birth of Christ, often celebrated by a particular church service, and also by special gifts, greetings, and hospitality.
 Christmas box. (a) A box in which presents are deposited at Christmas. (b) A present or small gratuity given to young people and servants at Christmas; a Christmas gift.
 Christmas carol, a carol sung at, or suitable for, Christmas.
 Christmas day. Same as Christmas.
 Christmas eve, the evening before Christmas.
 Christmas fern Bot., an evergreen North American fern (Aspidium acrostichoides), which is much used for decoration in winter.
 Christmas flower, Christmas rose, the black hellebore, a poisonous plant of the buttercup family, which in Southern Europe often produces beautiful roselike flowers midwinter.
 Christmas tree, a small evergreen tree, set up indoors, to be decorated with bonbons, presents, etc., and illuminated on Christmas eve.

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 Fern n.  Bot. An order of cryptogamous plants, the Filices, which have their fructification on the back of the fronds or leaves. They are usually found in humid soil, sometimes grow epiphytically on trees, and in tropical climates often attain a gigantic size.
 Note: ☞ The plants are asexual, and bear clustered sporangia, containing minute spores, which germinate and form prothalli, on which are borne the true organs of reproduction.  The brake or bracken, the maidenhair, and the polypody are all well known ferns.
 Christmas fern. See under Christmas.
 Climbing fern Bot., a delicate North American fern (Lygodium palmatum), which climbs several feet high over bushes, etc., and is much sought for purposes of decoration.
 Fern owl. Zool. (a) The European goatsucker. (b) The short-eared owl. [Prov. Eng.]
 Fern shaw, a fern thicket. [Eng.] --R. Browning.

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 Christmas fern
      n : North American evergreen fern having pinnate leaves and
          dense clusters of lance-shaped fronds [syn: canker brake,
           dagger fern, evergreen wood fern, {Polystichum
          acrostichoides]