“Prior to that, Christmas was not a very important holiday in the U.S.,” Duffy said, attributing the common Christmas symbols of Santa Claus and Christmas trees to Dutch and German immigrants, respectively.
“The secularizing of Christmas has been going on for centuries,” Duffy said. “On one hand, it is a religious holiday but there are also long traditions of people celebrating in ways that do not necessarily have religious meaning, such as drinking, feasting, gift-giving or now Santa Claus.”
Duffy said by the 1840s the emergence of a middle class helped solidify the ideology of a family-centered holiday.
The Waltons’ tradition
Bob and Connie Walton of Monroe have Christmas traditions they’ve been doing for more than 20 years with their children and grandchildren. Bob Walton said when his oldest granddaughter, now 21, was just a toddler, her mother would read “The Night Before Christmas” on Christmas Eve while Walton readied his Santa cap and bells underneath her window.
“I would sneak up under the window, and when she’d finish the story, I’d ring the bells and she’d tell mom, ‘Go to sleep; he’s coming,’ ” Walton said. “She caught me as she got older, about 12 or 13.”
Walton carries on the tradition for his second granddaughter, 11.
Connie Walton said for 37 years, she’s baked sugar cookies with her children and grandchildren. “We bake two to three days before Christmas and give them out as gifts and to teachers. And I’ve bought each an ornament each year, so they have their own when they ... have a tree of their own.”
The Giffins’ tradition
Doris Giffin of Middletown said each Christmas morning around 6 a.m. she and her husband head over to their daughter’s home in Camden to watch the grandchildren open gifts — Blake is 11 and Clara is 8. “They’re eager to get up, so we’re up by 5 a.m. to get there by 6 a.m.
Giffin said after the morning it’s then back to the kitchen to prepare dishes for Christmas dinner.
“We have been doing this for around 11 years and I wouldn’t change it for anything,” she said. “What’s important to me is spending time with the grandchildren.”
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