Less than 25% of the population seem to think religion is an important part of Christmas (more) 7 Common Tropes Found in Hallmark Holiday Movies: rekindled romance, bad boyfriends dropped, royalty, family secrets, small towns, aspirational jobs, magic. (
Christmas is celebrated by 93% of Americans. Perhaps it's foundation in the birth of Jesus just spills out into the world. Christmas is a slice of the heaven to come.Peace on earth good will to all men.
African Americans celebrate Christmas, basically none elect for Kwanzaa instead. The woman who recently sued Mariah Carey to stop her from trademarking "Queen of Christmas" is east Asian. I'll grant South Asians are mostly unlikely to be into Christmas (although in the US rather than south Asia itself I don't think they're more likely to care one way or another about it compared to the Chinese).
The woman who filed suit to stop Mariah Carey from trademarking "Queen of Christmas" (and other related phrases) seems to agree with that very generic interpretation of Christmas as meaning anything we want and thus belonging to everybody.
For Christmas, it seems hard to disentangle the aspects that are historically contingent versus the aspects that are "essential" (by essential, I mean that are stable features of the dominant holiday across a wide range of cultures and contexts.)
If you survey Christmas movies, you will see that this is only one of many sacred themes that they include. Most Christmas movies are not celebrating progressive politics. I've suggested above that it is this inclusiveness that is a big part of the key to Christmas success.
"The spirit of Christmas" just happens to align closely with a certain leftist ideology based on income and wealth redistribution. Hierarchy, negotiation, productivity, drive, money, and power are all bad and to be overcome. Love -- a manic state disposed to extreme material giving to your fellow man, especially the poorest -- is the ideal.
To my knowledge, no other holiday dwells on that spirit. To that end Christmas spirit has a secular sacredness and support to it that you wouldn't normally expect a religious holiday to enjoy.
"First, children are given many gifts at Christmas, but on the apparent condition that they believe implausible claims about Santa, and get into a spirit of Christmas."
I don't know what you're smoking, but in my case I never made any conditions, apparent, explicit, latent, implied, or whatever, for giving my children Christmas presents. I just gave them.
I think as others have alluded to, many northern farming cultures have a significant winter feast holiday. Chinese New Year is a little later, but sort of a Christmas/New Year's equivalent.
Christmas--indoor winter feast during the coldest time of the year while supplies are still available.Easter--spring equinox and rejuvenation when planting is happening4th of July--longest day of the year. Outdoor celebration while little work is required in the growing schedule.Halloween/Thanksgiving--Harvest festival, where we eat things that can't easily be stored that grow over the spring and summer
I don't want to speculate too much on why the Winter Feast is often the biggest and most important, but maybe because it's the one that is most inward looking. You don't go outside to celebrate with your community but stay indoors with your family.
I've written a post on this xkcd. My argument is that peak of christmas music is tied to the adoption of television in the 1950s.https://praxtime.com/2020/1...
Yes, data worth explaining. There wasn't much high res music recorded before that period. So people are going as far back in time as feasible to listen to nostalgic xmas song recordings.
Yes, it's an equilibrium, but our modern Christmas is holding its own in contributing to it. Few are lobbying to switch to another holiday. The task is to understand how.
The commercial aspects are indeed big. Lack of comment I think is from people not liking the idea that commerce could be so useful to something so sacred.
In the US you get way time off for Christmas than any other holiday. So the experience of the holiday is just much better than the other holidays. If we got a whole week off for the 4th of July, so that was the best time for big family cross-country get-togethers, then that would be everyone's favorite holiday.
By now it's more a Schelling point than a sacred time. "All the workers want time off at Christmas, because their families have time off then, so the tradition perpetuates itself, so it's the best holiday."
Christmas is celebrated by 93% of Americans. Perhaps it's foundation in the birth of Jesus just spills out into the world. Christmas is a slice of the heaven to come.Peace on earth good will to all men.
African Americans celebrate Christmas, basically none elect for Kwanzaa instead. The woman who recently sued Mariah Carey to stop her from trademarking "Queen of Christmas" is east Asian. I'll grant South Asians are mostly unlikely to be into Christmas (although in the US rather than south Asia itself I don't think they're more likely to care one way or another about it compared to the Chinese).
The woman who filed suit to stop Mariah Carey from trademarking "Queen of Christmas" (and other related phrases) seems to agree with that very generic interpretation of Christmas as meaning anything we want and thus belonging to everybody.
For Christmas, it seems hard to disentangle the aspects that are historically contingent versus the aspects that are "essential" (by essential, I mean that are stable features of the dominant holiday across a wide range of cultures and contexts.)
If you survey Christmas movies, you will see that this is only one of many sacred themes that they include. Most Christmas movies are not celebrating progressive politics. I've suggested above that it is this inclusiveness that is a big part of the key to Christmas success.
"The spirit of Christmas" just happens to align closely with a certain leftist ideology based on income and wealth redistribution. Hierarchy, negotiation, productivity, drive, money, and power are all bad and to be overcome. Love -- a manic state disposed to extreme material giving to your fellow man, especially the poorest -- is the ideal.
To my knowledge, no other holiday dwells on that spirit. To that end Christmas spirit has a secular sacredness and support to it that you wouldn't normally expect a religious holiday to enjoy.
"First, children are given many gifts at Christmas, but on the apparent condition that they believe implausible claims about Santa, and get into a spirit of Christmas."
I don't know what you're smoking, but in my case I never made any conditions, apparent, explicit, latent, implied, or whatever, for giving my children Christmas presents. I just gave them.
Christmas is one of the places where jews vs whites (or perhaps Gentiles in general) really holds.
I think as others have alluded to, many northern farming cultures have a significant winter feast holiday. Chinese New Year is a little later, but sort of a Christmas/New Year's equivalent.
Christmas--indoor winter feast during the coldest time of the year while supplies are still available.Easter--spring equinox and rejuvenation when planting is happening4th of July--longest day of the year. Outdoor celebration while little work is required in the growing schedule.Halloween/Thanksgiving--Harvest festival, where we eat things that can't easily be stored that grow over the spring and summer
I don't want to speculate too much on why the Winter Feast is often the biggest and most important, but maybe because it's the one that is most inward looking. You don't go outside to celebrate with your community but stay indoors with your family.
I've written a post on this xkcd. My argument is that peak of christmas music is tied to the adoption of television in the 1950s.https://praxtime.com/2020/1...
Yes, data worth explaining. There wasn't much high res music recorded before that period. So people are going as far back in time as feasible to listen to nostalgic xmas song recordings.
Yes, it's an equilibrium, but our modern Christmas is holding its own in contributing to it. Few are lobbying to switch to another holiday. The task is to understand how.
Sure, that's an effect. But we have other winter holidays, and this one is different from them.
I think they do in fact really feel the sacred in this secular version of the holiday. They aren't faking it.
The commercial aspects are indeed big. Lack of comment I think is from people not liking the idea that commerce could be so useful to something so sacred.
In the US you get way time off for Christmas than any other holiday. So the experience of the holiday is just much better than the other holidays. If we got a whole week off for the 4th of July, so that was the best time for big family cross-country get-togethers, then that would be everyone's favorite holiday.
By now it's more a Schelling point than a sacred time. "All the workers want time off at Christmas, because their families have time off then, so the tradition perpetuates itself, so it's the best holiday."