Christmas and New Year

Christmas is the one occasion in modern Britain when a large number of customs are enthusiastically observed by most ordinary people within the family. Even people who consider themselves to be antireligious quite happily wish each other a ‘Happy Christmas’ or a ‘Merry Christmas’. They do not self-consciously wish each other a ‘Happy New Year’ instead.

Indeed, the ‘commercialization’ of Christmas has itself become part of tradition. Every November in Oxford Street a famous personality ceremoniously switches on the ‘Christmas lights’ (decoration) thus ‘officially’ marking the start of the period of frantic Christmas shopping. And it certainly is frantic. Between that time and the middle of January, most shops do nearly half of their total business for the year (most have ‘sales’ in early January when prices are reduced). Most people buy presents for the other members of their household and also for other relatives, especially children. Some people also buy presents for their close friends.

The role of Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) and the customs associated with the giving of gifts vary from family to family. Most household with children tell them that Father Christmas comes down the chimney on the night of Christmas Eve (even though most houses no longer have a working chimney!). Many children lay out a Christmas stocking at the foot of their beds, which they expect to see filled when they wake up on Christmas morning. Most families put wrapped presents around or on the Christmas tree and these are opened at some time on Christmas Day.

The general feeling is that Christmas is a time for families. Many of the gatherings in houses on Christmas Day and Boxing Day consist of extended families. For many families, Christmas is the only time that they are all together.

Parties on New Year’s Eve, on the other hand, are usually for friends. Most people attend a gathering at this time and ‘see in’ the new year with a group of other people, often drinking a large amount of alcohol as they do so. In London, many go to the traditional celebration in Trafalgar Square (where there is an enormous Christmas tree which is an annual gift from the people of Norway).

As a well-known Christmas carol reminds people, there are twelve days of Christmas. In fact, most people go back to work and school soon after New Year. Nobody pays much attention to the feast of the epiphany on 6 January (the twelfth day of Christmas), except that this is traditionally the day on which Christmas decorations are taken down. Some people say it is bad luck to keep them up after this date.

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Modern holidays	\|	Other notable annual occasions

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