December 24th, 2022 at 6:47 AM
Santa Claus is DEFINITELY a pretty big part of our culture. Especially for families with young kids (it's a fantasy for a lot of children and most families participate in it). It sort of fades with time, Santa Claus isn't mentioned so much in older households though. Unlike in the movies, adults don't really talk much about it here.
Some folks celebrate Christmas in a non-religious way ("X-mas"), others still celebrate it for its Christian meaning. I come from a family that is half Jewish and half Christian, so we celebrated all of the holidays for both religions (I still do as well). December was VERY busy as you can probably imagine. Churches are also packed on Christmas eve, although we definitely don't drink wine (sometimes I wish we did, it sounds like it'd be fun!) Not everyone goes to Church on Christmas Eve, but probably about 50% of Americans do. Christianity is still fairly popular here, so even though it seems like a lot of our holidays are exclusively secular, there are still a lot of people who celebrate the religious meanings too.
One thing that I don't like about our holidays in America is how much it is centered around consumerism. People like to buy expensive things and people like to receive expensive gifts, and that often becomes the focus instead of the meanings (or the people) behind these holidays. Christmas is definitely worse than most of our other holidays about this. Corporations and businesses definitely take advantage of this too and try to make record profits in the 4th quarter of the year, often even laying off staff to do so. Winter is the worst time to look for a job in America as a result, and some of that is a direct result of the weird consumer cycles that happen around Christmas.
We do definitely love our decorations though! Especially in wealthier neighborhoods, houses will often try to compete with each other a bit (it's all in good fun of course). You can usually find big displays in the cities with massive decorations also. Christmas trees are in almost every household, and even if it's difficult to get one, we all find a way (I've packed them into the back of my Jetta before. Got a few strange looks for it, but hey, it got the job done.
)
Merry Christmas to everyone in Austria as well, hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Some folks celebrate Christmas in a non-religious way ("X-mas"), others still celebrate it for its Christian meaning. I come from a family that is half Jewish and half Christian, so we celebrated all of the holidays for both religions (I still do as well). December was VERY busy as you can probably imagine. Churches are also packed on Christmas eve, although we definitely don't drink wine (sometimes I wish we did, it sounds like it'd be fun!) Not everyone goes to Church on Christmas Eve, but probably about 50% of Americans do. Christianity is still fairly popular here, so even though it seems like a lot of our holidays are exclusively secular, there are still a lot of people who celebrate the religious meanings too.
One thing that I don't like about our holidays in America is how much it is centered around consumerism. People like to buy expensive things and people like to receive expensive gifts, and that often becomes the focus instead of the meanings (or the people) behind these holidays. Christmas is definitely worse than most of our other holidays about this. Corporations and businesses definitely take advantage of this too and try to make record profits in the 4th quarter of the year, often even laying off staff to do so. Winter is the worst time to look for a job in America as a result, and some of that is a direct result of the weird consumer cycles that happen around Christmas.
We do definitely love our decorations though! Especially in wealthier neighborhoods, houses will often try to compete with each other a bit (it's all in good fun of course). You can usually find big displays in the cities with massive decorations also. Christmas trees are in almost every household, and even if it's difficult to get one, we all find a way (I've packed them into the back of my Jetta before. Got a few strange looks for it, but hey, it got the job done.
) Merry Christmas to everyone in Austria as well, hope you have a wonderful holiday!
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