Christmas is not celebrated they same way throughout the United States. Different regions had different settlers in the history, all bringing in different traditions and different cultures. In modern day America, there are still many variations of Christmas celebrations visible.
In Pennsylvania, the Moravians celebrate Christmas with a “Love-Fest”, a special service when Moravians share a simple meal together in church. After the meal there is a candle service at which candles are passed out to everyone in the church while children sing a special hymn.
In Alaska, children wander from house to house carrying a colored lantern in the shape of a star on a long pole, while they sing Christmas carols.
In Arizona, Christmas is celebrated according to Mexican traditions with a ritual called Las Posadas. Families join a procession to visit each other’s houses to admire the nativity cribs. It represents the search of Joseph and Mary searching for a room to stay.
In Florida, it is tradition to decorate the houses with thousands of Christmas light. The Osborne family topped it all with three million lights that could be seen from an airplane from 80 miles distance. Since 1995, the display has moved to Disney World, Orlando, after the Supreme Court ordered it to be shut down permanently at their Little Rock home. It now features more than 5 million lights.
In Palmer Lake, Colorado, a 500-feet Christmas Star is lit during the month of December on the side of Sundance Mountain.
In Washington, a large tree near the White House is decorated as the National Christmas Tree.
In San Filipe Pueblo, New Mexico, the community holds native animal-masked dances after the Xmas Eve sermon, according to ritual dances that the American Indians held during the winter solstice.
Even though the Americans hold on to different traditions in different regions, they also have created new traditions. One of them is “the more, the merrier”. Americans like pre-arranged Christmas gatherings with many people. Also tree decorating and gift giving is baked into all cultures. Commercialization of Christmas resulted in more common traditions throughout the United States and the rest of the world.
August 15th, 2009 at 12:24 am
I never realized that the spread of different options in America was so vast. Normally all you hear or see are the houses that are covered in thousands of Christmas lights. Always look amazing but in many countries that I have seen at Christmas this tradition is often followed but generally only by those that are on the wealthy side. I must say whenever I see lots of small lights in trees or similar in restaurants I always think of Christmas and I guess that has come from the excessive lighting traditions in various areas.
October 9th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Super-duper Christmas site!
December 10th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
You not going to believe this but I have spent all day looking for some information about Christmas decorations. I wish I knew of this site earlier, it was a essential read and really helped me out. Cheers.