Main piece:

“We go to bed, and we have to go to bed early so that baby Jesus puts our biggest present under our bed. Yeah, baby Jesus puts the big present under our bed, that’s the big one. Like, if you wanted a GoPro, baby Jesus comes down and puts it under your bed. So you go to bed, and then the next morning is also exciting, so it’s a two day experience. So the 25th, we wake up… I usually wake up at like 5:30-6 to milk my cows, but before that I check under my bed, and like one of my happiest memories was getting a Wii, and I ran into my parents room and I tell them that baby Jesus brought me a Wii. And then that’s pretty much the day.”

Background:

Informant is a first year acting student at the University of Southern California. She was born in Medellin, Colombia, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and at age 12 she moved to Paris and later Hong Kong. She spends her winter and summer vacations with her family in Colombia.

Context:

I asked the informant about how she celebrates Christmas, and this was her response.

When asked how she celebrates Christmas, the informant shared that in her family, the belief is that baby Jesus himself brings you one present, typically the biggest one you asked for, and he leaves it underneath your bed. She still said Santa brings other presents, but the biggest one comes from Jesus.

Commentary:

Unlike the typical belief that Santa Claus comes through the chimney and delivers all the presents under the tree, the informant added onto this and said that for her family in Colombia, baby Jesus himself is responsible for bringing the biggest or most important presents. Santa is still responsible for bringing other gifts (see also “Celebrating Christmas on December 24th”), but her family wanted to emphasize the fact that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus by having him bring the present that they most looked forward to. Christmas seems to get more and more commercialized each year, and this addition is a simple reminder of what the holiday is about at its core.