WI/AHC: Christmas Stays a Predominantly Religious (Rather Than Commercial) Holiday?

Merry Christmas all.

Something I was wondering about: a lot of people complain that Christmas is a secularized/commercialized holiday with people celebrating gift-giving rather than the birth of Jesus Christ.

What if gift giving were deferred until January 6 (Epiphany/12th Night) which celebrates the Magi/Wise Men's arrival? Or the Feast of St. Nicholas (5 December)?
 
You are going to need to specify cultures. There is a great deal of difference between various countries, even if a great deal of them have gift giving in common. Many cultures do certain celebrations on different days in December, but Christmas Eve and Christmas Day due seem to be the big ones. We also need to think about this from a historical perspective. While going out in December to meet with others multiple times a week might be fine in Italy and coastal Spain, I imagine that it would have been rather more difficult in parts of northern Europe. Best to have the biggest festivities be on one day, when everyone can be together.

Actually, there weren't that many presents at my Christmas last night. A bit of clothing passed around, some knitted blankets, fancy licorice' (not referring to my gifts, I got a shirt and rain jacket I needed), but the big thing was family. And that is what Christmas probably was in those areas where Americans and Northern Europeans got so much of their winter holiday traditions from. Time together with warmth, good company, and watching the wonder in the eyes of children as they open up their gifts.
 
I think the present-day secularized Christmas is more about peace, family, and friendship (at least ideally) rather than the more cynical view of it only being about 'gift-giving' (wasn't Ayn Rand the person, who actually celebrated the commercial aspects of Christmas and advocated it to be some kind of "Celebration of Capitalism?").

For example, my parents and me are all Atheists. We celebrated yesterday by spending the whole day together and reminiscing about our positive memories as a family together, decorated the christmas tree, cooked a tasty dinner, we only gave eachother some sweets as presents, and my Mother and I attended the Roman Catholic midnight mass at the local church for cultural reasons and to sing christmas songs together with others.
 
The post WW1 revolutionary wave engulfs all of Europe and the proletariat across the world rise up and destroy capitalism! In the post-capitalist utopia they build there is no consumerism and Christmas is more of a spiritual thing.
 
I don't think this is possible.

Saturnalia, Solstice etc all predate Christianity (so a POD could butterfly Christianity away) and all involved at the very least symbolic gift giving. When capitalism arrives, it is going to exploit the hell out of anything remotely associated with gifts.
 
I don't think this is possible.

Saturnalia, Solstice etc all predate Christianity (so a POD could butterfly Christianity away) and all involved at the very least symbolic gift giving. When capitalism arrives, it is going to exploit the hell out of anything remotely associated with gifts.

You’d think Capitalism would advocate for bringing back the Twelve Days of Christmas.

12 days of presents seems very capitalistic to me
 
You’d think Capitalism would advocate for bringing back the Twelve Days of Christmas.

12 days of presents seems very capitalistic to me

This reminds me of an episode of Sliders, "Season's Greedings". The main characters visit an alternate universe on Christmas, where big corporations ruled everything, and people not only shopped, but lived in huge malls. One of the main characters sings "12 days of Christmas" to local children to mock overconsumption, and the mall cops take him away for decreasing the mall's profits.
 
You’d think Capitalism would advocate for bringing back the Twelve Days of Christmas.

12 days of presents seems very capitalistic to me
It sort of does, but is more clever about it.
Giving your romantic partner a gift a day over the 12 days is seen as the height of Christmas romance in certain cultures and circles. Makes more sense to make it more individual because it ensures its possibility for the average consumer (whilst not excusing them from the big day itself) whilst also making it something of a brag (with all the competitive buying which comes with it) to other affluent couples.
 
How about if the early Christians set Pascha as the first Sunday of April instead of using the pagan lunar calendar? Then, since we don't know His actual birthday, set it at the first Sunday of October so it's at the opposite end of the year from His birth? The two holidays would be bookends.

The feast day of St. Nicholas , or a tamer version of solstice celebrations, can be the occasion for gifts, and the Nativity would be a strictly religious occasion.

One effect would be that the feast of St. John the Baptist would have to be moved, as he was six months older than Jesus and his feast day would be overshadowed by Easter. Maybe he could be the last Sunday before Lent. It would fit in with preparing the way of the Lord.
 
Make families bigger, people poorer and more religious, and butterfly away american cultural inluence. Merely twenty odd years ago there were warnings of rising threat of commercialization of Christmas. Today it is practically lost case.
 
I suppose that, as christianity declines, "Christmas" keeps its name and spending habits, but the religion itself becomes a minority practice. Then people claiming to act for that faith do something to make the religion strongly disliked.
Result is that the secular christmas is seen as being overly tied to "THEM," and the practices in the secular part of the USA are ditched faster than a discarded tree goes up in flames. Now the only ones who celebrate the holiday are the religious minority.

Edit: For a different type of change, if the IRS changes to the point where most people have their tax refunds on January first, the retail industry will try to move it to January 6, both to extend the season two more weeks, and to get their paws on those tax returns.
 
Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the food on your plate.
I don't think Christian socialism necessarily means forced property redistribution, where "The food on your plate, now belongs to the state". There would be a lot of community stuff though, and I imagine a lot of charitable works and donations. Depends which culture it comes from, and whether it is clergy or laypersons and pastors who organize things.
 
I think the only way the Nativity does not get commercial is if it isn't close to Yuletide/winter solstice.
Although even Easter has commercial elements - chocolate eggs - so it's possible that gets focused on more.
 
You’d think Capitalism would advocate for bringing back the Twelve Days of Christmas.

12 days of presents seems very capitalistic to me


The thing is, with the Christmas "season" &
all its accompanying hullabaloo nowadays
starting around mid-November(& threat-
ening now to squeeze Thanksgiving out of
existence)in a very real sense we already
have the Twelve Days of Christmas.
 
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