Christmas or Christmas Day , Crīstesmæsse, literally "Christ's mass") is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated generally on December 25 as a religious and cultural holiday by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.
The precise day of Jesus' birth, which historians place between 7 and 2 BC, is unknown. In the early-to-mid 4th century, the Western Christian Church first placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted also in the East. Theories advanced to explain that choice include that it falls exactly nine months after the Christian celebration of the conception of Jesus, or that it was selected to coincide with either the date of the Roman winter solstice or of some ancient pagan winter festival.
The original date of the celebration in Eastern Christianity was January 6, in connection with Epiphany, and that is still the date of the celebration for the Armenian Apostolic Church and in Armenia, where it is a public holiday. As of 2011, there is a difference of 13 days between the modern Gregorian calendar and the older Julian calendar. Those who continue to use the Julian calendar or its equivalents thus celebrate December 25 and January 6 on what for the majority of the world is January 7 and January 19. For this reason, Ethiopia, Russia and Ukraine celebrate Christmas, both as a Christian feast and as a public holiday, on what in the Gregorian calendar is January 7.
The popular celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, Christmas music and caroling, an exchange of Christmas cards, church celebrations, a special meal, and the display of various decorations, including Christmas trees, lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Kris Kringle among other names, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.
White Christmas refers to the presence of snow on Christmas Day. This phenomenon is most common in the northern countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Because December is in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere summer, white Christmases there are extremely rare, except in Antarctica, in the Southern Alps of New Zealand's South Island, and in parts of the Andes in South America.
The definition of "White Christmas" varies. In most countries, it simply means that the ground is covered by snow at Christmas, but some countries have more strict definitions. In the United States, the official definition of a white Christmas is that there has to be a snow depth of at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) on Christmas morning, and in Canada the official definition is that there has to be more than 2 cm (0.79 in) on the ground on Christmas Day. In the United Kingdom, although for many a white Christmas simply means a complete covering of snow on Christmas Day, the official definition by the British Met Office and British bookmakers is for snow to be observed falling, however little, (even if it melts before it reaches the ground) in the 24 hours of 25 December. Consequently, according to the Met Office and British bookmakers, even 3 ft (91 cm) of snow on the ground at Christmas, because of a heavy snow fall a few days before, will not constitute a white Christmas, but a few snow flakes mixed with rain will, even if they never reach the ground. In the United Kingdom the most likely place to see snowfall on a Christmas Day is in North and North Eastern Scotland, in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire or the Highlands.
In most parts of Canada it is likely to have a white Christmas in most years, except for the coast and southern interior valleys of British Columbia, southern Alberta, southern Ontario, and parts of Atlantic Canada - in those places Christmas without snow is not uncommon in warmer years, with the British Columbia coast the least likely place to have a white Christmas.
In the United States, there is often snow on the ground at Christmas in the northern states, except in the Pacific Northwest. Some of the least likely white Christmases that have happened include the 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm, which brought the first white Christmas in 50 years to New Orleans and caused the first recorded white Christmas in Houston, Texas. The 2004 storm also brought the first measurable snow of any kind since 1895 to Brownsville, Texas, and its twin city of Matamoros, Mexico. The Florida winter storm of 1989 also occurred immediately before Christmas causing a white Christmas for cities like Pensacola and Jacksonville. The same storm buried Wilmington, North Carolina and the rest of Southeastern North Carolina under 15 in (38 cm) of snow.
In the United States the notion of a white Christmas is often associated in the American popular consciousness with a Christmas celebration that includes traditional observances in the company of friends and family. White Christmas is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting.
Christmas controversy refers to the dilemma surrounding the celebration or acknowledgment of the Christmas holiday in government, media, advertising and various secular environments. In the past, Christmas-related controversy was mainly restricted to concerns of a public focus on secular Christmas themes such as Santa Claus and gift giving rather than what is sometimes expressed by Christians as the real "reason for the season"—the birth of Jesus. The term "Xmas," a popular shortened form of the word Christmas that originates from the use of the Greek letter chi to represent "Christ" (Χριστός), has been a particular topic of controversy.
Modern-day controversy occurs mainly in western countries such as the United States, Canada, and to a lesser extent the United Kingdom and Ireland, and usually stems from a contrast between the holiday's significant social and economic role in these countries and its strong association with Christianity in an increasingly multiculturally sensitive and religiously diversifying society. In recent decades, public, corporate, and government mention of the term "Christmas" during the Christmas and holiday season has declined[citation needed] and been replaced with a generic term— usually "holiday(s)" or "winter"— to avoid referencing the holiday by name[citation needed]. In addition, popular non-religious aspects of Christmas, such as Christmas carols and Christmas trees, are still prominently showcased and recognized, but are vaguely associated with unspecified "holidays" rather than with Christmas. Also, many retailers are asked to greet their customers with "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" than with the traditional "Merry Christmas".
Supporters of using terms such as "holidays" in place of "Christmas" argue that many of the symbols and behaviors that western societies have come to associate with Christmas were originally syncretized from pre-Christian pagan traditions and festivals that predate Jesus, and thus need not be directly associated with Christmas. Specifically, symbols and behaviors such as caroling, Christmas trees, mistletoe, holly wreaths and yule logs, have pre-Christian origins. It has also been further argued that as western society continues to diversify culturally and religiously, public recognition of a potentially sectarian holiday, such as Christmas, may be seen as non-inclusive or offensive to non-Christians or non-celebrants in general[citation needed].
The expression war on Christmas has often been used to denote Christmas-related controversy in the media. The term gained notability thanks in part to its use by conservative commentators such as Peter Brimelow and Bill O'Reilly beginning in the early 2000s.
The claim among Brimelow, O'Reilly, and some other prominent media figures and personalities was that any specific mention of the term "Christmas" or its religious aspects was being increasingly censored, avoided, or discouraged by a number of advertisers, retailers, government (prominently schools), and other public and secular organizations.
Christmas Day is recognized as an official federal holiday by the United States government, and few have raised objections to this designation; however, many groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, argue that government-funded displays of Christmas imagery and traditions violate the U.S. Constitution—specifically the First Amendment, which prohibits the establishment by Congress of a national religion. The battle over whether religious displays should be placed within public schools, courthouses, and other government buildings, has been heated in recent years.
Supreme Court rulings starting with Lynch v. Donnelly in 1984 have permitted religious themes in government-funded Christmas displays that had "legitimate secular purposes." Since these rulings have been splintered and have left governments uncertain of their limits, many such displays have included secular elements such as reindeer, snowmen and elves along with the religious elements. Other recent court cases have brought up additional issues such as the inclusion of Christmas carols in public school performances, but none of these cases have reached the US Supreme Court.
A controversy regarding these issues arose in 2002, when the New York City public school system banned the display of Nativity scenes, but allowed the display of supposedly less overtly religious symbols such as Christmas trees, Hanukkah menorahs, and the Muslim star and crescent. The school system successfully defended its policy in Skoros v. City of New York (2006).
In December 2007, a controversy arose when a public school in Ottawa, Canada planned to have the children in its primary choir sing a version of the song "Silver Bells" with the word "Christmas" replaced by "festive"; the concert also included the songs Candles of Christmas and It's Christmas with the original lyrics. Also, in 2011, in Embrun, Ontario, near Ottawa, one school has barred the Christmas pageant and replaced it with a craft sale and winter concert scheduled for February, 2012. (Ottawa Citizen, December 2, 2011).
In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland there have been some minor controversies, one of the most famous being the temporary promotion of an extended winter holiday period including not just the normal Christmas festivities but other celebrations (in one year Halloween and the Chinese New Year) as Winterval by Birmingham City Council in the late 1990s. This remains a controversial example of "Christmas controversy" due to its prominent promotion of Christmas, as a religious event clearly called Christmas, as a part of the programme of Winterval events. A City council spokesman observed that:
"...there was a banner saying Merry Christmas across the front of the council house, Christmas lights, Christmas trees in the main civil squares, regular carol-singing sessions by school choirs, and the Lord Mayor sent a Christmas card with a traditional Christmas scene wishing everyone a Merry Christmas"
In November 2009 the city counsel of Dundee was accused of banning Christmas because it promoted its celebrations as the Winter Night Light festival, initially with no specific references to Christianity. Local church leaders were invited to participate in the event, and they did.
Various studies have been performed on the effects of the Christmas and holiday season, which encompasses several feast days, on health. They have concluded that the health changes that occur during the Christmas and holiday season are not reversed during the rest of the year and have a long-term cumulative effect over a person's life, and that the risks of several medical problems increase during the Christmas and holiday season.
Yanovski et al. investigated the assertion that the average American gains weight over the season. They found that average weight gain over the Christmas and holiday season is around 0.48 kg (1 lb). They also found that this weight gain is not reversed over the rest of the year, and concluded that this "probably contributes to the increase in body weight that frequently occurs during adulthood".
Chan et al. investigated the increases in A1C and fasting plasma glucose in type 2 diabetic patients, to see whether these increases were steady throughout the year or varied seasonally. They concluded that the winter holidays did influence the glycemic control of the patients, with the largest increases being during that period, increases that "might not be reversed during the summer and autumn months".
The Christmas and holiday season, according to a survey by the ADA, is the second most popular reason, after birthdays, for sharing food in the workplace. The British Columbia Safety Council states that if proper food safety procedures are not followed, food set out for sharing in the workplace can serve as a breeding ground for bacteria, and recommends that perishable foods (for which it gives pizza, cold cuts, dips, salads, and sandwiches as examples) should not sit out for more than 2 hours.
A survey conducted in 2005 found shopping caused headaches in nearly a quarter of people and sleeplessness in 11 percent.
Phillips et al. investigated whether some or all of the spike in cardiac mortality that occurs during December and January could be ascribed to the Christmas/New Year’s holidays rather than to climactic factors. They concluded that the Christmas and holiday season is "a risk factor for cardiac and noncardiac mortality", stating that there are "multiple explanations for this association, including the possibility that holiday-induced delays in seeking treatment play a role in producing the twin holiday spikes".
The Asthma Society of Canada states that the Christmas and holiday season increases exposure to irritants because people spend 90% of their time indoors, and that seasonal decorations in the home introduce additional, further, irritants beyond the ones that exist all year around. It recommends that asthmatics avoid scented candles, for example, recommending either that candles not be lit or that soy or beeswax candles be employed.
According to the Stanford Recycling Center Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Christmas and holiday season than at other times of the year.
Because of the cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere, the Christmas and holiday season (as well as the second half of winter) is a time of increased use of fuel for domestic heating. This has prompted concerns in the United Kingdom about the possibility of a shortage in the domestic gas supply. However, in the event of an exceptionally long cold season, it is industrial users, signed on to interruptible supply contracts, who would find themselves without gas supply.
The U.S. Fire Administration[8] states that the Christmas and holiday season is "a time of elevated risk for winter heating fires" and that the fact that many people celebrate the different holidays during the Christmas and holiday season by decorating their homes with seasonal garlands, electric lights, candles, and banners, has the potential to change the profile of fire incidence and cause. The Government of Alberta Ministry of Municipal Affairs[38] states that candle-related fires rise by 140% during the Christmas and holiday season, with most fires involving human error and most deaths and injuries resulting from the failure to extinguish candles before going to bed. It states that consumers don't expect candle holders to tip over or to catch fire, assuming that they are safe, but that in fact candle holders can do this.
Because of increased alcohol consumption at festivities and poorer road conditions during the winter months, alcohol-related road traffic accidents increase over the Christmas and holiday season.
Blood banks in the United States also need more donations during the holiday season because donations tend to decrease.
Christmas season, also called the holiday season or simply the holidays in the United States and Canada, is an annual festive period that surrounds Christmas and various other holidays. It is generally considered to run from late November to early January. Its relation to Christmas in official use by schools and governments has resulted in controversy in the western countries. It incorporates a period of shopping which comprises a peak season for the retail sector (the "Christmas shopping season"), and a period of sales at the end of the season (the "January sales").
In the Christian tradition, the Christmas Season, is a period of time comprising Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. While the entire season of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany can be seen together, they each have distinctly different roles in the Church year.
Advent, (from the Latin word adventus meaning "coming"), signifies the anticipatory days of preparation and hopeful waiting for Christmas. Advent begins on the Sunday closest to the feast of St. Andrew, (usually around November 27), and continues for the first four weeks leading up to Christmas Day (December 25). The popular Advent Calendar, which is used to count down the calendar days until Christmas Day, originated from this Christian tradition.
Christmas, (meaning Christ's Mass, derived from Old English), is the sacred Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Other then New Year's Day, Christmas is the most celebrated holiday in the world, and is observed by billions of people around the globe. It begins at sunset on Christmas Eve, (December 24), liturgically closing Advent, and initiating Christmas, which lasts for twelve days, through January 5. It is also known as Christmastide, Yuletide, and the The Twelve Days of Christmas, as referred to in the Christmas carol of the same name.
Epiphany, takes place on January 6, and commemorates the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus.
In Western Christianity, Catholics, Anglicans, and most Protestants celebrate the Christmas season from Christmas Day (December 25), or from sunset on Christmas Eve (December 24), until Epiphany (January 6). Liturgically, the Catholic Church extends the season of Christmas until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the first Sunday after Epiphany. Eastern Christians who follow the Julian calendar, including some Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholics follow the same dates, but December 25 on the Julian calendar now appears as January 7 on the Gregorian calendar.
Christmas and holiday greetings are a selection of greetings that are often spoken with good intentions to strangers, family, or friends, in nations around the world, during the Christmas and holiday season, spanning an approximate timeframe of late November through January. Holidays generally thought to be included in this season include Christmas, New Year's Day, Hanukkah, Boxing Day, Thanksgiving and Kwanzaa. Some greetings are more prevalent than others, depending on the cultural and religious status of any given area.
Typically, a greeting consists of the word "Happy" followed by the holiday, such as "Happy Hanukkah" or "Happy New Year", although the phrase "Merry Christmas" or "Seasons Greetings" can be a notable exception.
In the United States, the collective phrase "Happy Holidays" is often used as a generic cover-all greeting for all of the winter holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa; however, the phrase is not widespread in other countries.
The greetings and farewells "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Christmas" are traditionally used in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, commencing a few weeks prior to Christmas (December 25) of every year.
The phrase is often preferred when it is known that the receiver is a Christian or celebrates Christmas. The nonreligious often use the greeting as well, however in this case its meaning focuses more on the secular aspects of Christmas, rather than the Nativity of Jesus.
Its meanings and variations are:
As "Merry Christmas," the traditionally used greeting for those from America and the UK, composed of merry (jolly, happy) and Christmas (Old English: Cristes mæsse, for Christ's Mass).
As "Merry Xmas," usually used to avoid the length of "Merry Christmas," with the "X" (sometimes controversially) replacing "Christ." (see Xmas) However, the letter "X" looks similar to the Greek letter, "χ", which is the Greek abbreviation for Christ, although this is not well known.
As "Happy Christmas," an equivalent that is commonly used in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as "Merry Christmas."
As of 2005, "Merry Christmas" remains popular among countries with large Christian populations, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, Philippines, and parts of Western Europe not affiliated with the Eastern Orthodox rites.
It also remains popular in the largely non-Christian nations of China and Japan, where Christmas is celebrated primarily due to Western cultural influences. Though it has somewhat decreased in popularity in the United States and Canada over the past decades, polls from 2005 indicate that it remains more popular than "Happy Holidays" or other alternatives.
In the United States, "Happy Holidays" (along with the similarly generalized "Season's Greetings") has become the most common holiday greeting in the public sphere within the past decade, such as department stores, public schools and greeting cards. Its use is generally confined to the period between United States Thanksgiving and New Year's. American use of the term "Happy Holidays" to replace "Merry Christmas" dates back at least to the 1970s. Use of the term may have originated with the Irving Berlin song "Happy Holidays" (released in 1942 and included in the film Holiday Inn).
In the United States, it can have several variations and meanings:
As "Happy Holiday", an English translation of the Hebrew Hag Sameach greeting on Passover, Sukkot, and Shavuot.
As "Happy Holiday", a substitution for "Merry Christmas".
As "Happy Holidays", a collective and inclusive wish for the period encompassing Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Winter solstice, Christmas Day (The Nativity of the Lord), Boxing Day (St. Stephen's Day), the New Year and Epiphany.
As "Happy Holidays", a shortened form of the greeting "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
The increasing usage of "Happy Holidays" has been the subject of some controversy in the United States. Advocates claim that "Happy Holidays" is an inclusive greeting that is not intended as an attack on Christianity or other religions, but is rather a response to what they say is the reality of a growing non-Christian population. The parody religion, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster interprets the use of "Happy Holidays", rather than more traditional greetings, as support for Pastafarianism.
Critics of "Happy Holidays" generally claim it is a secular neologism. The greeting may be deemed materialistic, consumerist, atheistic, indifferentist, agnostic, politically correct, and/or anti-Christian. It may be associated with the "War on Christmas," with the intent of deliberately diminishing the centrality of Christianity and advancing secularism.[8] However, some Christians, concerned that the 20th-century conflation of St. Nicholas Day (December 6), Christmas (December 25), and Epiphany (January 6) has subsumed the meaning of Christmas itself, have taken to using "Happy Holidays" and "Season's Greetings" throughout the season, reserving "Merry Christmas" for December 25.
Christians are upset because the business and secular worlds are trying to change the ever used phrase Merry Christmas to the less offensive Happy Holidays. The business world and non-Christians are offended that they have to hear and are expected to say Merry Christmas, preferring to use more generic terms as Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings.
I, for one, am a bit weary of the argument. Aren’t you? So I decided that as much as I love to study words, I would see if the battle is really worth all the chagrin. Here’s what I found:
“Christmas” derived from an Old English word Cristesmaesse or “Christ’s Mass,” a day set aside to celebrate the birth of the Son of God Incarnate.
“Holiday” derived from an Old English word Haligdaeg or “Holy-Day,” used to denote religious and sacred days set aside for celebration or worship.
“Season’s Greetings” reminds me the Almighty and Sovereign God promised that “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22 He IS the God of the Seasons.
Across the provinces, residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, at 80 per cent, are most likely to favour the term Christmas.
British Columbians come in at a close second with 78 per cent, followed by 77 per cent of Albertans and Ontarians, and 74 per cent of those living in the Atlantic provinces.
Quebecers, however, are less likely to prefer the term Christmas Season and are more likely to favour using holiday season.
Sixty-one per cent of Quebec residents prefer Christmas, while 39 per cent side with holiday season.
On what the holiday season means to them, a slim majority of 56 per cent of Canadians thinks Christmas is a time for family, down three points from last year.
For many Canadians, Wright said, Christmas is akin to American Thanksgiving, a time when people go home to reconnect with their family.
“It’s not about religion,” said Wright. “The No. 1 reason is really about family.”
Fourteen per cent think Christmas is a time for exchanging gifts this season, up from last year’s nine per cent.
Nineteen per cent think Christmas is a time to reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ, while 12 per cent see the holiday as just “a nice festive season in the middle of the winter.”
Women are more likely to see Christmas as a time for family, with 59 per cent, compared with 52 per cent of men.
Men, at 15 per cent, are twice as likely as women, at eight per cent, to see Christmas as a nice holiday in the middle of dreary winter.
Thirty-five per cent of Atlantic Canadians see Christmas as a time to reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ. The rest of Canada isn’t far behind, but just six per cent of Quebecers agreed, which Wright said could have to do with Montreal’s multicultural population.
The online poll of 1,021 Canadians from an Ipsos Reid online panel was conducted between last Dec. 14 and 19. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Canadians appear to be adamant about their more traditional tastes, with their attitude similar to findings when the question was asked last year.
“I think what we’re seeing here is an interesting renaissance where Canadians, many of them, don’t feel that they are being offensive to someone if they call it the Christmas Season,” explained Ipsos Reid pollster John Wright. “Because the majority of people in this country are Christian, the majority of people in this country believe that it is Christmas.”
Meanwhile, 25% of Canadians say they prefer the more inclusive “holiday season” in describing year-end festivities, in order to be more sensitive toward others’ religions and cultures.
Middle-aged and older Canadians — 73% of 35- to 54-year-olds, and 80% of those aged 55 and older — are more likely to have a preference for the traditional “Christmas Season” term, which Wright said is not surprising.
But younger Canadians also favour calling it the Christmas Season, and significantly more so than last year.
Sixty-six per cent of those polled between the ages of 18 and 34 prefer the phrase Christmas Season, up 10 points from last year.
“Again, I think there’s a bit of a renaissance here,” said Wright. “Who knows what’s happening, except to say that young people are carving out a niche of their own.”
However, younger Canadians also are more likely than older Canadians to prefer the more multicultural moniker of “holiday season.”
Thirty-four per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds prefer the term holiday season, while only 27% of middle-aged and 20% of older Canadians agree, the survey found.
Across the provinces, residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, at 80 per cent, are most likely to favour the term Christmas.
