North America is a vast area with many different ethnic backgrounds and each bring some of their own Christmas customs and Christmas traditions. Christmas in North American is on December 25, which is the anniversary of Christ's birth and extends to January 6. Some people call this period the Twelve Days of Christmas while others call it Christmastide.
In North America, it is the most significantly celebrated event of the year. Along with Christmas being a religious holiday, it is also a widely celebrated festive event. People celebrate this wonderful holiday season by getting together with family and friends, exchanging gifts and eating their Christmas meal together.
Until the nineteenth century in North America, people did not celebrate many of the modern Christmas elements. To many groups, Christmas became a very boisterous event with immense feasts and often drunkenness. In some parts of North America, merrymakers dressed in costumes went door to door to get drinks and food.
Normally among families, they did not exchange Christmas gifts but some of the wealthy gave modest gifts of money and small presents. With the industrial economy expanding, this helped build a new middle class that valued family and home life. Christmas became increasingly important because many believed it would honor children and draw families closer together. Giving gifts to loved ones and children replaced drunken public festivals and Christmas became a family holiday.
New Christmas customs and Christmas traditions were adopted as Christmas evolved in North America. Dutch settlers brought the Santa Claus legend, with European origins, to North America. Santa Claus was a distinguished, tall, religious figure who rode through the air on a white horse. It was in North America that Santa developed into a jolly, fat, old gentleman.
In 1823, a poem written by Clement Clark Moore, and published by a New York newspaper, introduced Santa as a kindly saint. In a sleigh pulled by reindeer, he could fly over rooftops. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Thomas Nast, and American illustrator, strengthened the legend further by drawing and doing portraits of Santa Claus. The modern Santa made toys, assisted by elves, and delivered them to all the good boys and girls.
The Germans transformed the Christmas tree, considered a pagan symbol of fertility in the 17th century, into a Christian symbol. Legend has it that it was Martin Luther, founder of German Protestantism, who saw starlit fir trees and moved by their beauty, brought one inside. The custom spread quickly and German immigrants brought the Christmas tree to North America where it became a very popular tradition. People decorated their trees with tin angels, paper chains, candles, blown-glass ornaments and other decorations.
It was John Callcott Horsley, an English illustrator, which made the first modern card in 1843 depicting a family Christmas celebration and reading "A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You." In 1875, Louis Prang mass produced a beautiful, colored Christmas card that became extremely popular. This started the Christmas custom of giving Christmas cards to each other.
Because many of the North American inhabitants emigrated from different parts of the world, numerous Christmas customs and Christmas traditions mingled, to create modern Christmas folklore and celebrations. In the southwestern parts of the United States, many Mexican Americans have festivals or posada which recreates Joseph and Mary's search for a place to stay to give birth to Jesus. Hanukkah and Kwanzaa concur with the Christmas season.
The Hawaiian Christmas starts with a Christmas tree ship, which brings Christmas fare. Santa Claus arrives in a boat and people eat their Christmas dinner outdoors in Hawaii because the weather is so hot and sunny.
Most Americans celebrate by exchanging Christmas gifts, greetings, and visiting family, and friends. Many families go to Midnight Mass or Candlelight Service on Christmas Eve. A typical Christmas dinner is turkey, ham, duck or goose served with gravy and cranberry sauce. Pumpkin pie and Christmas cookies usually follow the meal.
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