Christmas Has Changed Over Time Research Paper

There are several Symbols associated with Christmas, Santa Claus, Snow or cold weather, Wreaths, garland , wrapping paper and a Christmas tree. Society does not look at Halloween costumes or a hot sunny day and think of Christmas, although when I noticed that some retailers have Halloween, thanksgiving and Christmas décor out, it does not seem to mesh well. But retailers are showing society these symbols getting them thinking about what’s coming soon.

It is curious that as children, humans have the ability to observe and remember details of specific situations and instances yet lack the ability to describe them. Truman Capote, as a grown man, took advantage of his vivid memories and composed the short work, "A Christmas Memory." The story begins in late November, a month symbolic of all the years gone by that Capote could remember beginning preparations for Christmas fruitcakes.

The exchange of gifts between family members and friends is the commercial aspect of the holiday which has been embraced by shop-owners of large and small businesses. Spending money

With the wreaths and Yule logs that come standard with this holiday comes a caring from deep in the hearts of people unbeknownst to them at any other time of the year. At the sight of the Christmas decor and the flames roaring at the hearth, a warmth envelops the heart, one with which no flame, however hot, could compete. We see in our gift-wrap and our greeting cards and our holiday stockings an entirely new persona occupying this world we live in, reprieving us from the daily heartaches we all know as familiar.

Ah Christmas, it is said to be the most wonderful time of the year. In the United States Christmas is a time of giving and receiving, spending time with your family, and in most Christian families, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is hands-down the most highly commercialized holiday celebrated by Americans. In fact, according to CBS news, the average American will spend $700 on gifts this holiday season, totaling for a whopping $465 billion spent nation-wide. From mall Santas as far as the eye can see, to hearing Christmas music in every retail store you enter. Christmas is a time of high spirits and high spending in the U.S.

Everyone should give to the less fortunate “I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will no shut out the lessons that teach. Oh tell me I may sponge away sponge away the writing on this stone!”.

Amel Saleh’s argument that the holiday season is too materialistic, is a well defended statement because she appeals to all three rhetoric appeals, and uses solid evidence to defend her position. Her essay gives insight to how gifting giving has lost its true value, . In Amel Saleh’s essay, it states, “Despite the fact that the United States holds 4.5 percent of the world’s population, we consume 40 percent of the toys. According to Psychcentral.com, a first grader is able to recognize 200 brands and obtains 70 new toys a year. ” This is an example of the author using logos, since America consumes 40 percent of the world’s toys, logically kids would be able to identity a variety of toy brands. It makes parents stop and analyze themselves on

Scrooge always used to think that Christmas was “a time for paying bills without money” (3) and that is was a “humbug” (3). Now he feels Christmas is a time for giving thanks to all the people around him. Enjoying time with family and having fun, even if it meant spending money. “He was so fluttered and glowing with good intention… ‘ A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world’” (63). He now feels the love and happiness of the holidays he never felt before. Scrooge ignored all the hate people were giving him after his change. He would usually just laughed along with them. He knew what he was doing was right, and he continued doing it for the rest of his

Few characters in Christmas literature personify the antithesis of the season like Ebenezer Scrooge. Penned in 1843, Charles Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol" has been told and retold. It has become a fixture of the season. So ingrained in our culture, is this story, that everyone knows the name "Scrooge" and the negative connotation that accompanies it. But what if, instead of just a cranky old miser, Ol ' Ebenezer Scrooge was more of a rather observant social commentator? In order to defend my rather peculiar thesis, let me set forth the particular meaning of Scrooge 's famous catch-phrase as exhibit number one. At the beginning of the tale, the infamous old miser, when told, "Merry Christmas" vehemently replies, "Bah! Humbug!" Now, I am quite sure that even though this phrase has found its way, perhaps permanently, into our cultural vocabulary, many of us are not actually aware of its meaning. The word humbug is "deceptive, false, or insincere behavior." Scrooge 's main problem with Christmas then is the lack of sincerity. This then provides a key insight to Scrooge 's hatred of Christmas. He earnestly believes that the so called, "Christmas Spirit" is just a hoax. It is no more than an attempt to deceive and receive, if you will. Scrooge places his life and faith, therefore, in the fortune that he has amassed because he knows that money has no ulterior motive. Scrooge believes that he is the only one honest enough to admit that good will toward one

In Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation by Francis Flynn and Gabrielle Adams, they talk deeply about the amount of gifts that people buy. For instance millions of Americans are always buying items and gifts every single day. It is especially this way during the month of December when shoppers “spent over $30 billion at retail stores”(Flynn and Adams 5). The massive amount of shopping for gifts for people who may not even like them is considered a bad habit to economists. People buy things for people who wouldn’t normally buy those things to begin with. It represents a waste in resources and is “referred to as ‘the deadweight loss of Christmas’” which is because people tend to overspend on gifts

Girls were screaming and yelling. There was a demonic sign hung up in the hallway of the girl's restroom and the toilet was filled with red. This sounds pretty scary; too bad it was just a hoax. This was my cousin's and I’s prank and I believe that pranks are the greatest way of spending your time over Christmas break. In fact, the girls affected were freaked out; they even wanted to send us home, but too bad for them because we got permission to pull the prank. This goes to show that you can have a lot of enjoyable times with pranks.

My 2017 Christmas break was really good, but I didn’t do very much. We didn’t have much of a Christmas dinner, we had a Christmas day brunch. Much of our family wasn’t there because of a bad incident in our family. I also went to see lots of Christmas lights with my mom and day and the other half of my family.

As aforementioned, the initial true meaning of Christmas is religion - one that has now been muchly downplayed. Of course at first glance religion is only an important element of Christmas for those who are actually religious, for which then religion plays the dominant role of what Christmas is to them. However, religion means to show obligation to something through faith, it could be argued that the majority of society is actually religious. We follow a society which has

Karma is a Sanskrit word which means means action, work or deed; it also refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect).

Religious beliefs soon formed new values as the importance of gift giving became a ‘tradition’ among religions. In most religions helping others who could not help themselves was already a steadfast belief. As people’s values of wanting to help and give to others started to intertwine with the calendar holidays many people started to look for newer and better gift ideas for their loved ones and soon strangers as well. Christian’s predominantly could be found buying minuscule little gift items, such as notebook paper, pencils, and ribbons, for the homeless children, their families and the poorer community that could not provide for themselves during the holiday seasons.