Is Christmas Worth the Effort?

 

Who celebrates Christmas and how? 

Christmas, celebrated on December 25th, is a sacred religious holiday, as well as a cultural and commercial phenomenon worldwide. Modern traditions include going to church, decorating a tree, sharing meals with family and friends, exchanging gifts, and waiting for Santa Claus.  According to a December 2019 Gallup poll, about 93% of Americans celebrate Christmas in some fashion.  This figure has remained fairly steady over the past few decades.  

 

How people celebrate varies with 35% describing their Christmas celebrations as "strongly religious" (down 15 points from 2010) and 26% claiming their celebrations are "not too religious" (up 10 points from 2010).  About 32% of people who celebrate Christmas fall in the middle and celebrate Christmas in a "somewhat religious" manner (up 3 points from 2010). Protestants, conservatives and seniors are the most likely to have "strongly religious" celebrations. (More Americans Celebrating a Secular Christmas) 

 

While Christmas is a Christian holiday, non-Christians from many different faiths also take part in Christmas traditions thanks, in part, to commercialization over the years. Overall an estimated 45% of the world's population celebrates Christmas in some way or another. (What Percentage of the World Population Celebrates Christmas?)  

 

Some participating families go all out for Christmas while others keep their activities to a minimum.  There is a small percentage of Americans who don't celebrate Christmas, often because they are not religious, or they follow a different faith altogether. 

 

Historical Christmas Trivia 

For those inclined, History.com provides a detailed History of Christmas with some interesting trivia. Below are some highlights:  

• Each year, 25-30 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States alone. There are about 15,000 Christmas tree farms in the United States, and trees usually grow for between four and 15 years before they are sold. 
• In the Middle Ages, Christmas celebrations were rowdy and raucous—a lot like today’s Mardi Gras parties. 
• When Christmas was cancelled: From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and law-breakers were fined five shillings. 
• Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870. 
• The first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in Captain John Smith’s 1607 Jamestown settlement. 
• Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American minister to Mexico, who brought the red-and-green plant from Mexico to America in 1828. 
• The Salvation Army has been sending Santa Claus-clad donation collectors into the streets since the 1890s. 
• Rudolph, “the most famous reindeer of all,” was the product of Robert L. May’s imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store. 
• Construction workers started the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition in 1931. 

Personal Observance 

As a kid I loved Christmas. The food, the presents, and seeing relatives again!  Of course being a child I didn’t have to prepare any of the food or worry about a healthy diet, and I was totally oblivious to any adult tensions.   

 

As I got older, however, the magic gradually faded away to the point where I'm fairly indifferent to the holidays now.  I don't dread them, but I don’t look forward to them either.  They just are.  There are no kids in my family so that might have something to do with it, and losing loved ones over the years probably didn't help.  I'm also not religious. 

 

It could just be a case of getting out of it what you put in.  I have good memories of past holiday celebrations, but now I like things to be very minimalist.  I still get together with my family, which is much smaller these days, but we haven't exchanged gifts in years and that’s a relief.  We eat, we talk and reminisce, sometimes laugh or cry, and try to avoid arguments.  It's nice. Very secular and low-key.  It works for us.  

 

I don't send out Christmas cards, but I will email a thank you to anyone who sends me one.  I don't mind decorations but I don't feel any desire to decorate myself.  I don't mind the constant barrage of Christmas songs (well, not much).  I try to block out all the commercialization and pressure to buy, buy, buy, and tend to avoid all stores until January, when the crowds thin out.  I also try to keep to my daily routine of diet and exercise.   

 

I don't say all this to rain on anyone's parade.  Everyone should be able to celebrate Christmas (or not) how they want. If you want to host a big gathering, decorate every room in your house and buy lots of presents (hopefully without going into debt) then go for it.  You do your thing, and I'll do mine.   

 

Is Christmas worth the effort?  Only you can answer that.  Where do you fall on the Elf to Scrooge holiday scale? Any traditions you want to share?