Christmas Gifting Culture

American families have developed numerous family-specific traditions for spending Christmas holidays with grandparents or aunts house. During the Christmas holiday season gifts are exchanged. There are firm family Christmas traditions for timing for exchanging and opening gifts. In some families, late-night Christmas Eve is the preferred time.

For family members and close friends and relatives people choose gifts with lot of love and care and start shopping for them right after Thanksgiving.

Personal gifts range from gadgets, apparel, jewelry, watches, and crockery to gourmet food and wine. Personalized christmas art and craft gifts have been quite popular in recent years

Families who attend midnight services at church open their Christmas gifts when they come home in the wee hours of Christmas morning. Many families open Christmas gifts in their robes and slippers on Christmas morning.

For business associates gifts such as items for the office, liquor or wine are given. Business gifts are normally without any religious connotations, as people may be celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanzaa instead of Christmas.

Christmas Gift Giving History

In ancient Rome people exchanged gifts on New Year's Day as means of saying "Happy New Year" which ranged from jewelry, pieces of gold and silver, pastries, cookies and candies.

When people learned of Three Wise Men who came from the Orient to present gifts to the newborn King from the Apostles, custom was slightly changed. The exchanging of gifts remained but done in imitation of the Three Holy Kings.

The Dutch who settled in New York brought the christmas tradition of annually reappearing Sinter Klaas or Saint Nicholas who finally became the Santa Claus. He rode the reindeer sleigh and entered the house through the chimney and filled the Christmas stockings hung by children with Christmas gifts.

Christmas gift giving and charity

Giving to others or charity is an important part of Christmas. It is the time parents can teach children the joy of giving. Communities across America collect food and gifts for the needy. Schools and church groups arrange visits to nursing homes, where they sing familiar Christmas songs, and bring small gifts for the patients.

Toy collections across the nation receive tons of donations for children in need, orphanages and hospitals. Children learn the meaning of giving by shopping with parents for a toy for a child they don't know.