May your Christmas be a joyous one!
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Many of the celebrations in the United States that are associated with Christmas were traditions brought by German and English immigrants. Along with the well-known and practiced tradition of a brightly decorated Christmas tree, other traditions brought by these immigrants include Advent calendars, Christmas greeting cards, gingerbread houses and gingerbread cookies.
Christmas in the United States today can be seen as focused around family, travel, shopping and decorations.
Family and travel go together during Christmas in the United States because family members often have to travel fairly long distances to be with each other at one location. The growth of cities that have primarily economic activity, suburbs for residences, as well as the fact of different industries being found in certain geographic locations, are among the reasons that family members often live great distances from each other in separate states.
Christmas and its festivities therefore present a wonderful opportunity for many members of the family to gather in celebration and see each other in an intimate setting. The traveling involved makes the Christmas season a busy time of the year for rail and air travel.
The occasion of seeing many family members at Christmas is also linked to the activity of shopping that is an important feature of Christmas in the United States. The Christmas season officially begins on the Friday after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday and which now ranks second in shopping for a single day to the Saturday before Christmas.
Much of the shopping that is done is to purchase gifts for friends and family. Gifts for family members are usually exchanged after dinner on Christmas day, when everyone gathers in the room with the Christmas tree. Gifts are usually left at the base of the Christmas tree in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day.
Gifts may also exchanged before Christmas at parties held by friends and parties held at workplaces.
Second to gifts, shopping is also done at Christmas for decorations. While the Christmas tree may be the centerpiece of attraction, garlands, wreaths, candles and decorative lighting placed outside on lawns or along rooflines are also used to create a beautiful holiday appearance for homes.
Canadians enjoy Christmas activities that are similar to those celebrated in the United States. That is so because in the 1700s when some German immigrants in the United States migrated to Canada, they continued to practice many of the activities associated with Christmas. The geographical proximity of the two countries also means they share many things, so similarities in Christmas traditions wouldn’t be an exception.
One thing that accounts for the difference between the two countries however, is the Eskimo population in Canada. Eskimos in Canada celebrate a festival during winter and have other traditions that are absent from American Christmas celebrations.
A practice also exists in Nova Scotia in which small groups of masked individuals march around about two weeks before Christmas. These masked groups attract attention by creating stir with much bell ringing and engaging in a noisy caper in an aim to get candy, sweets and goodies from onlookers.
This tradition bears some similarity to Jonkonoo celebrations in the neighboring islands of the Caribbean. Those celebrations also involve masked individuals, including some that appear on stilts that make them as tall as trees. The parade of Jonkonoo regale onlookers with various antics and present a minor scare to some children, who are then calmed with candies and other treats.
In Nova Scotia, onlookers can try to calm the noise and rowdiness just a little if they can correctly guess the identity of the masked person. A correct guess puts an end to the noise as the mask is removed, exposing the individual. For their part, maskers also play nice by friendly nudging answers from children about whether they have been naughty or nice and handing out candies and treats accordingly.
The tradition of Christmas trees in America came from German immigrants who had settled in Pennsylvania. It is believed that the tradition of Christmas trees started in Germany from as early as 700 A.D and was practiced by many Germans in the 1800s. It’s also since that period that Christmas trees have also been available for sale in the United States.
While artificial Christmas trees are popular, many people like to have a fresh Christmas tree in their homes, or outside on their lawns. And similar to all other trees, Christmas trees also have different shapes and qualities that make some types more popular than others.
Along with other decorative Christmas items such as wreaths and garlands, having a Christmas tree in your home is very essential in creating a special atmosphere for the season. It is believed that Christmas trees have been available for sale in America since the 1800s, which is about the same time that the former Woolworth’s department store started selling ready-made ornaments for Christmas trees.
Choosing the right type of Christmas tree is important because Christmas trees are often a focal point for many family activities and traditions. Given the many types of Christmas trees that are available, it is important to think about how the tree will be used. While a tall tree may look very elegant, it may not be suitable if there aren’t many adults around who can reach the tree’s heights. And a very short tree may be dwarfed by other furniture in the room. It’s therefore very important to carefully consider and get a tree that has a suitable height and also one that has sturdy branches to hold heavy ornaments.
Artificial and real Christmas trees can often be bought from the same retail stores these days as local businesses and retail chain stores often sell both types of trees. The best place to get a real and fresh Christmas tree, and also to see a wide variety, is likely a Christmas tree farm however. Using modern technology, both types of trees can also be obtained through online transactions, via telephone as well as by mail-order through catalogs.
Among Christmas trees there are certain types that are always favorites and which are bestsellers. These include: Douglas, Fraser, Noble and Balsam firs, and Scotch, Virginia and white pine trees.
These evergreen trees all have all have one or more excellent features related to shape, color or sheen and fragrance, which makes them favorites for Christmas trees.
The most favorite Christmas trees basically have a pyramid or cone shape. A pyramid-shaped tree is likely taller and has somewhat of an elegant look. Douglas Fir, which ranks first among Christmas tree favorites, is an example of a pyramid-shaped tree. Other examples are Fraser, Balsam and Noble firs.
A cone shape tree tends to be short with dense branches, which makes them excellent for holding many ornaments and other decorations. Families that have a strong tradition of making their own ornaments, or putting mememtos on Christmas trees may consider a cone-shaped tree.
Virginia and Scotch Pines, Norway Spruce and the Eastern White Pine all have cone shapes.
Another feature that makes Christmas trees appealing is their color. While all trees have a green appearance, a closer look at their needles will reveal differences such as a bright or dark-green, blue-green or yellowish-green hue. The needles may also emit a silvery sheen with the right lighting. Fraser and Noble firs both have needles with a silvery sheen, and the branches of both trees are also used for garlands and wreaths.
Most people choose a fresh Christmas tree for its fragrance, which can be fairly strong or just subtle, giving off just enough of a whiff of scent. Douglas Fir, which is the most popular Christmas tree in homes and public places, is a very fragrant tree. The Balsam fir is also fairly fragrant. The Eastern White Pine is however, a tree that doesn’t have much fragrance.
Whether you have a favorite type of Christmas tree or will choose one from its appearance, there are many choices to satisfy the desire to have a fragrant and well-decorated tree for Christmas.
Commercial activities during Christmas today are often decried as making the season too materialistic. This has caused comments that the religious aspect of Christmas is so overlooked and overshadowed that its celebration seems to be purely pagan. But today’s comparisons aren’t the first there has been some link between Christmas and pagan celebrations. As a religious, church leaders instituted Christmas during winter because that time of year was a popular for the celebrations of many pagan festivals. The hope was that Christmas would also become a holiday that would gain much popularity.
Long before the birth of Jesus Christ, people in various parts of Europe would celebrate light and birth in the darkest days of winter. The winter solstice, when the harshest part of winter was over, was a time of celebration for many peoples because they would look forward to more hours of sunlight during the longer days ahead.
The Norse in Scandinavia celebrated Yule from the winter solstice on December 21 through to January. Men brought home logs that were lighted and a feast would take place until the log was completely burned. Each spark from the fire was believed to represent a new pig or calf to be born in the coming new year. The pagan god Oden was honored by Germans during the mid-winter holiday. Oden inspired great fear in the Germans who believed that Oden traveled at nights through the sky to observe people and make a decision about who would perish or prosper in life. This belief caused most people to stay inside during the period.
In Rome it was the god of agriculture, Saturn, who was honored in a holiday called Saturnalia. It was a holiday that started during the week that led up to the winter solstice and continued for a month with hedonistic celebrations. There was plenty of food and drink and the normal social class rules of who had privilege and power in Roman society were totally disregarded as everyone participated in the festivities. Some Romans also had a feast called Juvenalia to honor children and the birthday of the sun god Mithra was sometimes celebrated by the upper classes.
In the early years of the start of Christianity the main holiday was Easter. It was in the 4th Century that church officials made a decision to have the birth of Jesus celebrated as a holiday and Pope Julius I chose December 25 as the day of Jesus’ birth. The holiday, which was first called the Feast of the Nativity, spread to England by the end of the 6th Century and to Scandinavia by the end of the 8th Century.
Church leaders achieved the goal of having Christmas celebrations, including attendance at church, become popular during the winter solstice, but they were unable to control other pagan-like celebrations during Christmas. Believers would attend church on Christmas and then participate later in raucous and drunken celebrations. But by the Middle Ages, from around the 5th to the 16th Century, Christianity had outgrown paganism as a religion.
The celebration of Christmas in Europe changed in the early 17th Century when Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans gained power in England in 1645. To remove decadent behavior from the society, Cromwell cancelled Christmas as the Puritans noted that the Bible doesn’t mention any date for Jesus’ birth. The lack of this information and specific Biblical references to Christmas is also cited by religious groups like Jehovah Witnesses as the reason they don’t observe or participate in Christmas. Christmas celebrations returned in England around 1649 when Charles II was restored to the throne.
Christmas wasn’t a holiday in early America because the Pilgrims who came to America had even stricter beliefs than Cromwell and the Puritans. Christmas celebrations were even forbidden in Boston from 1659 to 1681. During the same time however, settlers in Jamestown in Virginia were reported to have enjoyed Christmas.
After the American Revolution Christmas again lost popularity and it wasn’t until June 26, 1870 that Christmas was declared a federal holiday. Christmas in the United States gained popularity as a holiday period during the 19th Century. Christmas celebrations also changed at that time to be more family-centered rather than being carnival-like.