Christmas: one of America’s most popular holidays. Many people celebrate it, even if they are not Christian. Everyone knows the popular Christmas songs like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” or classic Christmas movies, such as John Hughes’ classic “Home Alone.” It is important to note that Christmas is not the only holiday that happens during the wintertime, but what makes Christmas so much more popular?
There are many different religious and cultural holidays that happen in the wintertime, such as Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s, to name a few. FHS senior Ari Levine celebrates Hanukkah and feels that people often think of it as a Jewish Christmas.
“It’s a holiday basically celebrating oil,” Levine said, “So it’s a really minor holiday. It’s not [that] important.”
Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the temple after the Jewish people reclaimed it from their enemies, and oil meant to last one day miraculously lasting eight days. There are other holidays throughout the year that hold more significance to Jewish people, like Passover, which celebrates Israel’s liberation from Egypt, followed by receiving their law. On the other hand, Christmas is one of the most important Christian holidays. It celebrates the birth of Jesus, God’s son, the person the entire religion revolves around.
“People just associate it with Christmas and eight days of presents or something like that,” FHS World literature and writing teacher David Bigelman said. “As opposed to the religious holiday. Gift giving is really not a big part of it.”
With this in mind, Christmas getting more attention than Hanukkah makes more sense. People do not feel the need to tell people about it, but Hanukkah is still widely celebrated.
Kwanzaa, another winter holiday, is an example of another overshadowed holiday. It is harder to find people who celebrate it, and it is less widely advertised than other holidays. People might know that it is a holiday created by a guy named Dr. Maulana Karenga to connect African Americans back to their culture, but it is not as well-known as other holidays.
Christmas does get a lot more attention than the other holidays that are celebrated in the U.S. Christianity has played a large role in our country’s history, and Christmas has become more than just a religious holiday. For example, Santa Claus was a tradition found around the world that became a fundamental part of Christmas. Today he is used in advertising for many companies. Coca-Cola played a big role in standardizing and popularizing modern-day Santa Claus. Christmas trees also serve as another example. They originated as a symbol of life for the winter solstice, and are now widely used as Christmas decorations.
The different and non-Christian traditions that Christmas has makes it easier for all kinds of people to celebrate Christmas. Hanukkah is still religion-related, and Kwanzaa is targeted towards people of a certain descent, but Christmas can still be enjoyed regardless of religion or ancestry, especially with how America has grown to accommodate Christmas into its culture.
“It makes sense why [Christmas] gets the amount of publicity it does,” Levine said.
