Christmas In American Culture

Christmas is known for many things – feasts, gifts and presents, Santa Claus, decorating the Christmas tree with tinsel and ornate ornaments, but where did all of these traditions come from? America isn’t the only country that has trees or feasts in the winter months, so where did all of this Christmas fun originate, if not from here, and how did it get here to be celebrated in the first place? Well, to find out, you can start with the gifts that you get on Christmas day, and the cards that you read before you even see the present that can be hidden in either a stocking or a box. Or you could begin with the ever popular idea of serving a huge holiday meal with friends and family and having a good time together, enjoying the times after working …show more content…
Well, presents mainly came from England, when the queen gave presents to her husband, Prince Albert, as well as her children, and with the tradition making its way to America by way of boat, which is when people came to move into the new lands and start building a new life. Continuing with the idea that an immigrant passes on different cultures and rituals to other lands though, the cards that are given to friends and family to bestow a blast of Christmas cheer came to America from a German card maker, which sold his cards after he braved the dangers of settling in a new home (“Christmas Traditions Worldwide”). But the stockings are quite a different story, with their beginnings based in both myth and availability, though both are based in a basic grouping; foot ware. See, the myth goes like this; there was a father with three daughters that could not marry, since they could not pay the dowry, so Saint Nick gave the sisters gold coins, saving them from being sold by their father (“Christmas Traditions Worldwide”). After this myth, children that might not have used stockings would instead use shoes, putting them on the mantle or outside, hoping for some treats to be put inside for when they wake up in the morning. Though there …show more content…
For example, there is Saint Nickolas, which might be the previous form of Santa, as Santa is another form of the word ‘saint’, and Claus could be a shortened version of Nickolas, but that is just a theory. Though the idea of Santa is still in many different countries today, we can say that the facet of Christmas that is Santa came from past peoples, who knew of the tradition, and that passed in on to their children, continuing on to this time and which will still