► What is Christmas ?
Christmas is the Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25th of each year. It is also known as the Feast of the Nativity, the Holy Nativity or Christmastide. Since the early 20th century, Christmas has also been celebrated by non-Christians as a holiday free of religious motifs and centered around the exchange of gifts. In this secular version of Christmas, the mythological figure Santa Claus plays a central role.
Christmas is celebrated every year on December 25 by the majority of Christians around the world. In some countries, the celebrations begin on December 24 on Christmas Eve and continue until the end of December 25. Some Eastern Orthodox Churches, such as the Armenian Church, celebrate Christmas on January 6, which falls on December 25 in the Julian calendar. In some Christian-majority countries, the Christmas holiday is practically combined with the New Year’s holiday.
Some Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar because the Gregorian calendar was established by the Catholic Pope Gregory XIII. However, some Orthodox churches have converted to the Gregorian calendar and celebrate Christmas on December 25.
► What is Christmas Music ?
Christmas music encompasses various types of music that are regularly performed or heard during the Christmas season. The music associated with Christmas can be purely instrumental or, in the case of carols or songs, can include lyrics ranging from the birth of Jesus Christ, gift-giving and merrymaking, cultural figures such as Santa Claus, and other topics. Many songs simply have a winter or seasonal theme, or were included in the canon for other reasons.
While most Christmas songs prior to 1930 had a traditional religious character, the Great Depression era of the 1930s brought a stream of songs of American origin, most of which did not explicitly refer to the Christian nature of the holiday, but rather to the more secular traditional Western themes and customs associated with Christmas. These included songs for children, such as “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, as well as sentimental ballads performed by famous singers of the era, such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “White Christmas”, the latter of which remains the best-selling single of all time as of 2018. Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957) became the best-selling Christmas album of all time, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide.
Christmas music performances at public concerts, churches, shopping malls, city streets and private gatherings are an integral part of the Christmas holiday in many cultures around the world. Radio stations often switch to a 24/7 Christmas music format ahead of the holiday, sometimes starting as early as the day after Halloween, as part of a phenomenon known as “Christmas creep”.