Deconstruction of: Christmas

Christmas. The word alone can excite boys and girls across the world at the prospect of getting presents. In the United States, the holiday is one of the most celebrated days of the year, right along with New Years. The holiday is all about togetherness and goodwill towards all men (and women). It is a day when you are supposed to be giving and thankful for that which you receive. The holiday also celebrates time with your families and those you care for the most. These bring up feelings of joy and togetherness, making your inner self feel better.

Christmas is traditionally celebrated in many different ways, making it unique from other holidays. Always falling on the 25th of December, people celebrate by gathering around a cut down tree or replica of one, in their house and opening presents. Later on the people celebrating may go to Church to here the story of why we celebrate Christmas (The "birth" of Jesus) and then have a feast. Christmas, though originally a religious holiday, is generally celebrated by anybody that wants to, surpassing every other religious holiday known.

Christmas, like many holidays, has many unique aspects of attire to it. Of course, the most one most frequently seen is the costume of Santa Claus (A marketing spokesman). In addition to this, the colors of red, white, and green are seen frequently, along with blue and gold occasionally. Phrases such as "Merry Christmas", "Ho-Ho-Ho", and "Feliz Navidad" represent both the corporate aspects of the holiday along with the folk. Christmas has a ton of music too, with album after album of Christmas songs available. Normally classical with an emphasis on lyric and vocals, these tracks are so numerous that Christmas has it's own section in many music stores.

Christmas though is a holiday full of contradictions. First off, the thing it is celebrated for, did not occur on that day (Jesus was born in the spring, not the cold of winter). Secondly, Jesus preached about being selfless and helping others, cleansing yourself in a way. Now, people spend weeks in advance buying presents for themselves and everybody that they know.

America tends to have a habit of focusing on the more consumer based aspects of every holiday, and Christmas is the ultimate representation of this. Black friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the kick off to the Christmas season (A.K.A. early winter), and has sales on everything known to man. Millions of Americans buy buy buy everything they see. As a whole, we tend to base our Christmas' on how many presents we got and how expensive they are. Forgotten is the religious origin, all that remains is the shopping and gifts. This is often due to the shallowness that many people have with their own lives, so they choose to focus on material possessions to make them feel better the way that family and togetherness once did.