Wasn't Christmas About Christ?

Christmas, which is one of the biggest holidays in the world, took me by surprise during my first year in the U.S. Anticipating the Christmas celebration, I was pretty sure that this holiday is going to be very glamorous and spiritual, with a lot of festivity, similar to what I saw in old American movies. I wasn’t aware that the celebration of Christmas in America going to be different not only from those movie images, but also from what I used to see in Ukraine. To my great surprise, on Christmas day America met me with empty streets, closed stores and very little religious or spiritual meaning.

The first thing that surprised me about Christmas in America was a very subtle emphasis on religion and the huge commercial interest around this Holiday. Shopping for Christmas has become a very stressful tradition in American society. Hunting for presents for an enormous quantity of relatives takes all the energy out of average American, and it definitely distracts  people’s attention from the real meaning of the holiday. During my first year in America I didn’t know that people usually give presents to their relatives on Christmas. I personally had very little interest in Christmas shopping because the crowds were huge and sales were yet to come. However, things soon became clear to me. My husband’s relatives demanded gift certificates for all their grown up kids when we planned to celebrate Christmas Eve together. Even though the gift exchange was mutual, we spent more money and received a lot of useless things in return. All this made very little sense to me, because their attitude towards Christmas was quite different from those in Ukraine. Nobody in Ukraine thinks about giving away presents. Kids usually receive their presents on New Year’s Eve or during another holiday – Saint Nikolas day. Christmas Eve is an exceptionally sacred and spiritual religious holiday in Ukraine. It is important go to church and take part in the Christmas Eve mass. People abstain from eating meat. They are waiting for the first morning star to appear on the sky, which will signify the birth of Jesus and the end of the Christmas Fast.

The second peculiarity of the Christmas Holiday in the U.S. left my family without holiday dinner and usual activities. Since I came to the U.S. without my parents or relatives, my idea of the perfect Christmas day was to go out to some fun entertainment place. My husband and two –year- old daughter also couldn’t desire a better holiday script.  As we started our Christmas journey along the deserted and freezing Chicago streets harsh reality tore our script into small pieces of unfulfilled expectations. Since we didn’t see any sign of festive life in the Christmas Chicago, our main concern was to stay relatively warm and to find at least one available cozy place to duck inside and celebrate our first Christmas here. To my great disappointment and surprise, everything was closed! Those random people we met on the streets looked strange, lost and possibly not Christians. The last hope to find a warm harbor on that cold December day faded away and perished gradually. As the remnants of hit started to leave our frozen bodies, we rushed to celebrate Christmas in our small apartment. Just like that, with cheap wine and with a pretty limited choice of food, that we purchased from Walgreens, the only store that was open that day, my family spent our first Christmas in the U.S.

The unsuccessful enterprise to celebrate Christmas in the downtown Chicago taught me a lesson and made me realize that Christmas in America is an extremely family oriented holiday. Visiting your family on Christmas in America had been brought to almost a cult level. It is deferent in Ukraine. Ukrainians spend a lot of time with their parents and relatives all year round. Thus, on Christmas people do a lot of activities that involve not only their relatives. On Christmas people usually bring a vegetarian dinner over their godparents’ home.  In the countryside, children are walking from house to house singing Christmas songs (“Coliyadki”) about the birth of Jesus Christ. Children receive treats for their singing from the hosts, which traditionally would bring more prosperity to the household. In conclusion, Christmas celebration in Ukraine involves not only your own family, but also godparents, friends, neighbors and church members.

This year I am going to celebrate my third Christmas in America. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that the different way that Christmas is celebrated in America is going to surprise me ones again. Will I be ready to give Christmas presents to my American relatives, or should I be more concerned about going to church? Even though one in Rome should do as Romans do, I will try to remember what the Christmas Holliday really means. I won’t let traditions to celebrate Christmas according to the Bible go and be long forgotten.  I guess that being an immigrant from a country with different traditions gives me an opportunity to keep balance and be more flexible on Christmas day.