History Main / SantaClausmas

[[films:Films -- Live Action]]
* Unsurprisingly, ''Film/SantaClausTheMovie'' makes Santa's toy-delivering mission the heart of the holiday, to the point where a corrupt toymaker imagines he can upstage Santa with his own gift-giving and call it "Christmas II". While the ''elves'' have a quasi-religious holiday they call Season's Greetings, it appears to coincide with the winter solstice.

* Many if not most of the popular ChristmasSongs from the 20th century and beyond pretty much ignore the holiday's religious elements in favor of lyrics revolving around such topics as Santa, snowfall, reindeer, romance, shopping, partying, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjPm0o04lGE hippopotamuses]], etc. It's probably not coincidental that most of these songs were actually written by Jewish composers and lyricists.

* The Christmas strips of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' concentrate on Calvin's attempts to behave so that he gets all the presents he asked for. Semi-averted in one strip that has Calvin doubting the existence of Santa Claus:

* The Whos from ''Literature/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' celebrate a non-sectarian, albeit warm, caring and good-natured, version of Christmas.

* Creator/CSLewis wrote a couple of essays highlighting the commercialization of Christmas [[OlderThanTheyThink in the 1950s]]. In fact, this problem became a subject for concern very soon after the "old-fashioned" Christmas-as-we-know-it was invented in the 19th century. [[NostalgiaFilter Which was still better than the older Christmas traditions of getting inebriated and burning stuff.]] The main reason for the commercialization was to avoid property destruction that the holiday caused before, and which was one reason the Puritans banned it when they ruled England.

* Japan at large practices the commercial holiday of Christmas, but only two percent of the population is Christian. Of course, they practice it [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInJapan somewhat differently than everyone else]]; one of their Christmas traditions is eating UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken, which is treated as something of a "special event" delicacy in Japan thanks to KFC's marketing and Japan's lack of turkeys. UrbanLegend has it that [[TheThemeParkVersion the image of Santa Claus nailed to a cross]] has been witnessed in Japan at Christmastime unironically.

* Japan at large practices the commercial holiday of Christmas, but only 2 percent of the population is Christian. Of course, they practice it [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInJapan somewhat differently than everyone else]]; one of their Christmas traditions is eating UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken, which is treated as something of a "special event" delicacy in Japan thanks to KFC's marketing and Japan's lack of turkeys. UrbanLegend has it that [[TheThemeParkVersion the image of Santa Claus nailed to a cross]] has been witnessed in Japan at Christmastime unironically.

* As noted in the trope description, some nonobservant Jewish families celebrate a family gift-giving and love-sharing holiday on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day instead of during Hanukkah, the logic being that one holiday night is easier to arrange than eight--and if you're not religious, which day you do it is moot anyway. These celebrations may often include Christmas trees and ornaments, Christmas wrapping paper, a turkey feast, and other festive touches that are essentially evoking this trope.

* Many if not most of the popular ChristmasSongs from the 20th century pretty much ignore the holiday's religious elements in favor of lyrics revolving around such topics as Santa, snowfall, reindeer, romance, shopping, partying, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjPm0o04lGE hippopotamuses]], etc. It's probably not coincidental that most of these songs were actually written by Jewish composers and lyricists.

* Many if not most of the popular ChristmasSongs from the 20th century pretty much ignore the holiday's religious elements in favor of lyrics revolving around such topics as Santa, snowfall, reindeer, romance, shopping, partying, etc. It's probably not coincidental that most of these songs were actually written by Jewish composers and lyricists.

Also compare and contrast EveryoneIsChristianAtChristmas, in which characters who haven't shown any Christian tendencies the rest of the year suddenly celebrate a Christian holiday. Compare YouMeanXmas, which addresses this indirectly by depicting a lightly-fictionalized version of a holiday in a setting where the actual one couldn't be expected to exist, rather than by portraying it without its religious elements.

Contrast with DoTheyKnowItsChristmasTime. Also compare and contrast EveryoneIsChristianAtChristmas, in which characters who haven't shown any Christian tendencies the rest of the year suddenly celebrate a Christian holiday. Compare YouMeanXmas, which addresses this indirectly by depicting a lightly-fictionalized version of a holiday in a setting where the actual one couldn't be expected to exist, rather than by portraying it without its religious elements.

[[folder:Film]]

Contrast with DoTheyKnowItsChristmasTime. Also compare and contrast EveryoneIsChristianAtChristmas, in which characters who haven't shown any Christian tendencies the rest of the year suddenly celebrate a Christian holiday. Compare YouMeanXmas, where this is done by addressing a holiday indirectly by having it play out as adapted for a setting that wouldn't celebrate it rather than by portraying it without its religious elements.

This does reflect TruthInTelevision, as nowadays there are plenty of people from Christian cultural backgrounds who are not particularly religious but still celebrate Christmas and Easter with parties and dinners and gifts and candy and decorations, and even some from non-Christian backgrounds who do the same. As you might expect, this secularized version of holiday observance can come in for occasional backlash, both from those Christians who view it as undermining the TrueMeaningOfChristmas and from some non-Christians who see it as perpetuating Christian cultural hegemony.

In Japan, Christmas was imported as an excuse for local UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken franchises to sell their product as an "authentic" American-style seasonal tradition. It worked spectacularly, and now a country that is 2% Christian [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInJapan has a robust Christmas-based economy]], which inevitably means a bevy of Christmas-themed works in Japanese media that have nothing whatsoever to do with the religious aspects of the holiday. Even if the characters are Christian-style devils, or the setting involves explicitly non-Christian spirituality.

This does reflect TruthInTelevision, as nowadays there are plenty of people from Christian cultural backgrounds who are not particularly religious but still celebrate Christmas and Easter with parties and dinners and gifts and candy and decorations, and even some from non-Christian backgrounds who do the same. As you might expect, this secularized version of holiday observance can come in for occasional backlash, both from those Christians who view it as undermining the TrueMeaningOfChristmas and from those non-Christians who see it as perpetuating Christian cultural hegemony.

This does reflect TruthInTelevision, as nowadays there are plenty of people from Christian cultural backgrounds who are not particularly religious but still celebrate Christmas and Easter with parties and dinners and gifts and candy and decorations, and even some from non-Christian backgrounds who do the same. As you might expect, this secularized version of holiday observance can come in for a certain amount of backlash, both from Christians who view it as undermining the TrueMeaningOfChristmas and from non-Christians who see it as perpetuating Christian cultural hegemony.

This does reflect TruthInTelevision, as nowadays there are plenty of people from Christian cultural backgrounds who are not particularly religious but still celebrate Christmas and Easter with parties and dinners and gifts and candy and decorations, as well as some who aren't Christian at all but do the same. As you might expect, this secularized version of holiday observance can come in for a certain amount of backlash on the part of critics, Christian or otherwise, who view it as undermining the TrueMeaningOfChristmas, or perpetuating Christian cultural hegemony, or both.

* Japan at large practices the commercial holiday of Christmas, but only 2 percent of the population is Christian. Of course, they practice it [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInJapan somewhat differently than everyone else]]; one of their Christmas traditions is eating Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is treated as something of a "special event" delicacy in Japan thanks to KFC's marketing and Japan's lack of turkeys. UrbanLegend has it that [[TheThemeParkVersion the image of Santa Claus nailed to a cross]] has been witnessed in Japan at Christmastime unironically.

In Japan, Christmas was imported as an excuse for local Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises to sell their product as an "authentic" American-style seasonal tradition. It worked spectacularly, and now a country that is 2% Christian [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInJapan has a robust Christmas-based economy]], which inevitably means a bevy of Christmas-themed works in Japanese media that have nothing whatsoever to do with the religious aspects of the holiday. Even if the characters are Christian-style devils, or the setting involves explicitly non-Christian spirituality.

-->'''Alan:''' Fair enough.

* The Christmas strips of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' concentrate on Calvin's attempts to behave so that he gets all the presents he asked for. One strip has Calvin doubting the existence of Santa Claus, and then Hobbes asks:
-->'''Hobbes:''' Isn't this a religious holiday?\\
'''Calvin:''' Yeah, but actually, I've got the same questions about God.

* Besides ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'', the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' newspaper comic averts this on at least one occasion, in a [[https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1966/12/18 1966 Sunday strip]] where Linus once again [[AsTheGoodBookSays reads the Nativity account from Luke]] (this time using the Revised Standard translation).

* Besides ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'', the actual ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' newspaper comic averts this on at least one occasion, in a [[https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1966/12/18 1966 Sunday strip]] where Linus once again [[AsTheGoodBookSays reads the Nativity account from Luke]] (this time using the Revised Standard translation).

* Besides ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'', the actual ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' strip averts this on at least one occasion, in a SundayStrip where Linus once again reads the Nativity account from [[Literature/TheFourGospels Luke 2]] (this time using the Revised Standard translation).

* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'':

A depiction of a religious holiday that centers solely around its secular trappings, with the actual religion in question not even cropping up casually. In Western media this is primarily applied to the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter, and occasionally such Jewish holidays as Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah (as is seen in ''Shalom Sesame'', the Jewish American version of ''Series/SesameStreet'').