Tag Archives: christmas

Festival: Christmas

Date of Performance: 04/30/2025

Nationality: American

Primary Language: English

Residence: Los Angeles, California

My informant describes the importance of his family’s Christmas celebration every year growing up. He notes that it isn’t necessarily unique, but that his parents made it a point of emphasis in his childhood, and that to this day he fondly remembers the effort they put into making it special for him and his brother. He also notes that while was raised culturally Catholic, he is not particularly religious, and regards the holiday as having more of a personal than spiritual significance in his eyes. His family tradition went as such: every year, they would decorate the tree together on the first of December. His father took care to always buy a real, fresh, pine tree, because he enjoyed the smell of it throughout their house. The biggest day of the Christmas holiday, he describes, was the night before Christmas, when his cousins, who only visited about once a year, would come over with his uncle and aunt, and his parents would cook a large dinner. This was followed by a screening of A Charlie Brown Christmas, after which they were all allowed to open one present before going to bed. The next morning, they would find the milk and cookies they’d left out eaten, and their stockings stuffed with one or two items from their Christmas list. After this, they’d eat the leftovers of the night before, and watch Christmas movies with their parents and family. 

My informant describes this practice with much enthusiasm – I could tell he really enjoyed reminiscing about his childhood. He notes that his parents’ treatment of the Christmas holiday was likely due to his father, who grew up as the child of immigrants, always envying the “classic” Christmas experience he peers had. 

On another note, my informants’ perception of Christmas as less of a religious event and more of a family celebration  is pretty similar to the experience of my other friends. Regardless of if they were raised religious or not, many describe the winter holidays with similar fondness, likely because of globalization and the cultural prominence of the “classic” Christmas holiday. Interestingly, this practice is less community based as it is familial, perhaps reflecting the dominance of the nuclear-family model amongst Western countries and cultures.

Simbang Gabi – Filipino Holiday Festival

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 51
Occupation: IT Help Desk
Residence: Naperville, IL
Language: English

Text:

Simbang Gabi translates to “Night Mass” in Tagalog.

Context:

The performer grew up Filipino in a community of mainly Catholics, then immgrated to the Midwest in 2003 where they joined a “Simbang Gabi” program at their local Catholic church with other Filipino immigrants.

“Simbang Gabi a Filipino tradition that is actually nine days. Basically we go to mass for 9 days in a row before Christmas. It happens at Dawn.” […} “We choose to continue it so the other kids who grew up here would experience our culture and it at te same time our community, it would be a Filipino event that people would congregate to. ” […] “Our Simbang Gabi program would showcase the way we dance, the way we have food, the way we have Filipino games… My sole purpose to do it is for the kids, to continue the tradition, to continue the culture.”

In the Philippines, celebration happens since “the moment we are conscious” and is celebrated by all Catholics (80-90% of Filipinos are catholic). They were told that if they finished all 9 days of Simbang Gabi and they make a wish, it will come true. “It’s like you’re praying or petitioning for something.”

Analysis:

The performer’s version of Simbang Gabi is intriuging because it’s an example of how a Filipino tradition is Americanized and yet celebrates the culture in an “authentic” way despite not being an exact replica of the tradition. Simbang Gabi in the United States is a wonderful example of cross-cultural diaspora as Filipino immigrants “perform identity” and preserve the culture after physically moving and assimilating with American culture.

Simbang Gabi in the Philippines is reflective of Filipino traditions of faith, family, and folklore as it mixes the Catholic influences of Spanish colonizers with communal values of meeting in church daily as well as creating a lasting tradition that defies borders.

Christmas Eve ritual

Date_of_performance: 04/27/2025

Informant Name: MR

Language: English 

Nationality: American

Occupation: Teacher

Primary Language: English

Residence: Pasadena

INTERVIEW:

My birthday is on Christmas eve and by that time everyone has their lights up in suspense for Christmas. When I was younger, my parents and I started a tradition (or ritual) o drive to a neighborhood that were having light shows, and go look at the Christmas lights in the car with holiday music playing. It was always at night, so it was a wonderful way to end my birthday and introduce Christmas. It also was a great way to bring my family together, since my father was working a lot of the time, so I will always cherish those times. I loved the tradition so much, that I now do it with my daughters and son. Every Christmas eve, we would go drive to any neighborhood that is putting on an exciting Christmas light show, turn on the Christmas channel so it matches up with the lights and take in the view as we drive through the neighborhood. Christmas time always ends up becoming a stress with the pressure of getting everyone the gift they want, having dinner with the extended family, that it can be hard to find time to take a minute to breathe and actually enjoy what Christmas is all about. And to me, Christmas is all about being with my family, so having this time during my birthday where I can get my daughters and son together to feel the Christmas spirit, is a tradition that I’m always going to try to keep up as a long as I can.

MY ANALYSIS:

Christmas traditions are type of traditions that I hear about the most because it is always so surrounded by family and spending time with family that you want to cherish every moment you can get with them before everything starts to get complicated. Her tradition of seeing Christmas lights, is a great tradition to keep up because it gets everyone excited and is something that everyone can look forward to, so it can be easy for this tradition to stay around or even to make Christmas feel more like the old Christmas we felt as kids, sitting in the back seat while old holiday music plays on the radio, falling asleep as Christmas lights pass by the window, small memories like those is what keeps the joy of Christmas alive. The peace of it all, having something you can look forward to in the year, knowing it will always be there for you to help you get through the months or even through the seasonal/winter depression that may come up.

Christmas present fakeout

Nationality: American
Age: 60
Occupation: Computer Security
Language: English

“The tradition was, we would have to go to the store to get batteries or milk or something and we were anticipating Santa coming. And we were like “oh no, we don’t want to miss Santa” because Santa gave presents the day before, on the 24th because we celebrated at home. And then Christmas day, we’d go to my dad’s parent’s house. Well, when we lived out that way. Or I guess now the way we do it is [informant’s family side] 24th and [informant’s spouse’s side] on the 25th. So we’re waiting for Santa Claus and then my mother would say “hey, we need batteries/milk/something”” so we’d all go out and when we came back Santa had visited and the tree was lit and presents were under the tree. As I grew up, it was me taking my siblings to the store. And so the story repeats.  

Context: “When I was little, for Christmas. At least since I was maybe four, until my siblings were in their teens.”

Informant does not tie this to national identity and wondered how their parents did it because informant didn’t believe in Santa.

“I don’t know if we did that with the relatives up north, I think it was just my family doing that. And I don’t remember my parents talking about doing it. I think we did it with the boys but I don’t know. And I don’t know if we’ll do it with the great granddaughter, once she’s cognizant. “

Analysis: This tradition acts as a way to prepare for a larger tradition, that of Santa bringing presents at Christmas. This variation places the gift giving earlier in the evening, not at midnight as some versions have or in the early morning, as it is imperative for a store to still be open. In order to preserve the magic of the gift giving, the magic of the evening is falsely broken. The parent says that they need to go to the store for something right away, leading the children to assume they have to stop the Christmas celebrations and will miss Santa. Of course, this serves as a decoy so that they can return to a magical Christmas-filled house and partake more fully in the festivities then. The idea of this ‘false exit’ is effective, and also allows the older children to keep participating past the age of their belief. They are able to become the one taking younger siblings to the store and therefore become a weaver of the magic themselves, taking a more active role and shifting their satisfaction towards continuing the tradition for younger children. This tradition can span several generations, as the informant mentions, and continuously invites improvisation and variation so that the children can be surprised and delighted by Santa’s visit. 

Ritual – Secret Santa + Gingerbread cookie making

Nationality: American
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

On Christmas Eve my informant and their family bake gingerbread cookies and doing Secret Santa

“Every every my family does Secret Santa on Christmas Eve. The youngest in the family says who they have first and then that person opens their gift and so on. While this is happening we eat the gingerbread cookies we made in the morning together. We use cookie cutters to make them into different shapes and decorate them however we want and each person gets to eat their own creations.”

This Christmas Eve tradition combines a ritual gift exchange with communal food preparation, both serving to reinforce family bonds, creativity, and shared identity. Secret Santa is a gift exchange that functions as a structured, participatory ritual that relies on the act of giving, surprise, and anonymity. In folklore studies gift-giving can be seen as a form of symbolic communication conveying affection, reinforcing social ties, and social obligation. The youngest in the family starting the gift-giving off adds an age-based hierarchy to the ritual, highlighting the importance of youth and continuity in my informant’s family. This ordered giving also introduces a ritual sequence that keeps everything organized and emotionally engaging. The shared activity of baking gingerbread cookies reflects a domestic ritual centered around a traditional way of preparing the food. The personalized decoration and use of cookie cutters makes the baking both creative and communal, promoting self-expression within the structured family framework. Eating the cookies during the gift exchange linked the two rituals together, adding multiple forms of participation to the cohesive festive tradition. The structure, baking in the morning then decorating then eating during Secret Santa, gives Christmas Eve a rhythm that separates this ritual from the everyday. Overall, this ritual tradition is a great example of how folklore functions in the modern family blending ritual and repetition with creativity to create a sense of shared identity and celebration. It’s a lived tradition that focuses on values like connection, generosity, and joy through shared acts.