History Main / TrueMeaningOfChristmas

* Since 2017, ''ComicStrip/Mutts'' celebrates The Gift of Nothing Day, a holiday that occurs on the 2nd or 3rd Saturday of December, based on the popular children's book "The Gift of Nothing", whose aforementioned Aesop is "a gift filled with nothing but love and family time is better than a regular gift".

* Every story in ''Mickey Mouse's Once Upon A Christmas'' takes a different lesson into account. In "Stuck on Christmas", Huey, Dewey, and Louie learn that Christmas is special because it only happens one day a year and that day should be celebrated and cherished, since Christmas would not be special if it happened every day. In "A Very Goofy Christmas" Max and Goofy learn that Santa exists because he is in the hearts of those who believe in him. In "Mickey and Minnie's the Gift of the Magi" the two learn that having each other together for Christmas is what counts, not the material presents you decide to give each other.
* In ''Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas'' every story also has a different lesson. In "Belles on Ice" Minnie and Daisy learn that Christmas is a time to put difference aside and give each other peace. In the story "Christmas: Impossible" We get the "More fun to give then to receive" message along with the "kindness and respect to others" message. Huey Dewey and Louie destroy Santa's shop after trying to write their own names on Santa's nice list, because Uncle Scrooge tells them they will wind up on the naughty list like him if they don't act carefully and they decide that they surely aren't on the nice list. After helping Santa's elves clean up the shop they find the list but decide to put Uncle Scrooge's name on it because he has been off the list for years. Santa winds up placing the boys on the nice list and giving them presents saying that "There's always room on the nice list for people that think of others first." In "Christmas Maximus" Max learns that Christmas is a time to spend with family, regardless of how odd certain members may be. In "Donald's Gift" Donald learns that everyone has Christmas spirit deep down in the heart. In "Mickey's Dog Gone Christmas" Pluto finds ItsAWonderfulPlot when he runs away from home and learns that Mickey isn't the same without him.

* One of the (yes, [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext oddly out-of-place]]) Christmas specials of the wicked [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII World War II]] allegorical satire ''Manga/HetaliaAxisPowers'' sort of skates around this idea, featuring the titular three main characters going around asking their fellow NationsAsPeople about the treatment of Christmas around the world.

->'''Charlie Brown:''' ''"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!"''\\
'''Linus:''' ''"Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about..."''
-->-- '''Charlie Brown and Linus''', ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas''

->''"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!"''\\
''"Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about..."''

* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' is a major example, if not the UrExample. Scrooge learned to look beyond himself and found joy in bringing happiness to other people who needed it. (Under [[BrokenAesop threat of hellfire]], but still.)
* ''Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi''

* In ''Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas'' every story also has a different lesson. In "Belles on Ice" Minnie and Daisy learn that Crristmas is a time to put difference aside and give each other peace. In the story "Christmas: Impossible" We get the "More fun to give then to receive" message along with the "kindness and respect to others" message. Huey Dewey and Louie destroy Santa's shop after trying to write their own names on Santa's nice list, because Uncle Scrooge tells them they will wind up on the naughty list like him if they don't act carefully and they decide that they surely aren't on the nice list. After helping Santa's elves clean up the shop they find the list but decide to put Uncle Scrooge's name on it because he has been off the list for years. Santa winds up placing the boys on the nice list and giving them presents saying that "There's always room on the nice list for people that think of others first." In "Christmas Maximus" Max learns that Christmas is a time to spend with family, regardless of how odd certain members may be. In "Donald's Gift" Donald learns that everyone has Christmas spirit deep down in the heart. In "Mickey's Dog Gone Christmas" Pluto finds ItsAWonderfulPlot when he runs away from home and learns that Mickey isn't the same without him.

* In ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', Death talks about [[AC: teaching people the real meaning of Hogswatch]] (the Literature/{{Discworld}}'s Christmas equivalent). Albert sarcastically asks which one he means -- burn a big bonfire to bring back the sun? Someone's found a bean in their food so now we have to kill him? Slaughter all the livestock and hope we have enough food to get through winter? Death reluctantly concedes the point and says [[AC: Very well, then. The Hogfather can teach people the ''unreal'' meaning of Hogswatch]]. Then he proceeds to subvert some {{Broken Aesop}}s, by giving rich gifts to poor children instead of letting them be grateful for what they get (which is usually almost nothing), and rescuing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Match_Girl The Little Match Girl]]. It's worth noting that part of the book's [[AnAesop Aesop]] (and that of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' in general) is that the "unreal" meanings of things are actually very important--''including'' the kinds of meanings that Albert sarcastically suggests.

* There are three Christmas Specials surrounding an animal (usually a donkey) that spends most of the special being shunned by his peers and ridiculed but in the end ends up escorting Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. They are Creator/RankinBassProductions' ''WesternAnimation/NestorTheLongEaredChristmasDonkey'', Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''Disney/TheSmallOne'' (directed by Creator/DonBluth), and ''The Little Brown Burro''.

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What is the True Meaning Of Christmas? A [[StockAesop common]], yet ambiguous theme in {{Christmas Special}}s (episodes, films, stories, etc.), usually answered with AnAesop.

In fiction the "True Meaning of Christmas" is often (though not always) "''better to give than to receive''." That is the most common Aesop, especially in kid's shows, but also sitcoms, etc. It's often [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] with those exact words when MrExposition sums it all up at the end.

Those are probably the five "staple" movies of the Christmas season, in that they get shown year after year after year (on an endless repeating loop too). Yet none of them uses the most common "Christmas special" Aesop.

** Of course, they don't find any real ''meaning'' from any of their peers: [[LoveFreak America]] talks about stuffing his face with food ("We cross out the 'Christ' part to make it more ''extreme''~! Want some Xmas cake?"), [[AnythingThatMoves France]] about some interesting holiday conquests, "godless China" leaves it with, "it kind of sucks" ("[[DoubleEntendre Just like girls]]!"), and "[[BuffySpeak godless-er]] Russia" talks about... [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment something]]. Finally, at the end of the special, the Axis talks to Finland, who they attribute with the creation of the modern holiday and assume must celebrate truest form of Christmas; he tells them he spends Christmas [[SpoofAesop sitting naked in a sauna]].

* In ''Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas'' every story also has a different lesson. In "Belles on Ice" Minnie and Daisy learn that Crristmas is a time to put difference aside and give each other peace. In the story "Christmas: Impossible" We get the "More fun to give then to receive" message along with the "kindness and respect to others" message. Huey Dewey and Louie destroy Santa's shop after trying to write their own names on Santa's nice list, because Uncle Scrooge tells them they will wind up on the naughty list like him if they don't act carefully and they decide that they surely aren't on the nice last. After helping Santa's elves clean up the shop they find the list but decide to put Uncle Scrooge's name on it because he has been off the list for years. Santa winds up placing the boys on the nice list and giving them presents saying that "There's always room on the nice list for people that think of others first." In "Christmas Maximus" Max learns that Christmas is a time to spend with family, regardless of how odd certain members may be. In "Donald's Gift" Donald learns that everyone has Christmas spirit deep down in the heart. In "Mickey's Dog Gone Christmas" Pluto finds ItsAWonderfulPlot when he runs away from home and learns that Mickey isn't the same without him.

* Doubly subverted in ''Film/AChristmasStory''. [[spoiler:The family does end up eating at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day, ''and'' the kid nearly gets his eye put out by the BB gun he wanted...which sounds like an antithesis to the trope. But they learn the Christmas Aesop after all.]]
* Paroided in ''Film/TheHebrewHammer'', where the heroes chuckle over the fact that Damien Claus failed to understand the ''true'' meaning of Channukah. Only for them to realize that none of them have any idea just what the point of the holiday is either.

* ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley'' Christmas episode featured a scene in which Geraldine reminds the parish council about the true meaning of Christmas while they're rehearsing their nativity play (in response to Owen suggesting that it ''wasn't'' the Greatest Story Ever Told compared to, "The one where the couple had burglers break into their house and thought they didn't take anything, but a few months later had their pictures developed and got photographs of the burglers sticking their toothbrushes up their bottoms".)

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'s Christmas Carol'' had fun with this. Ebenezer Blackadder, the only good and friendly member of the Blackadder bloodline (and also an ExtremeDoormat), sees that his descendant would rule all of the universe if he became a spiteful backstabbing miser like his ancestors (instead of being a slave to future Baldrick, which would happen if he were to remain kind and generous). He decides the true meaning of Christmas is that bad people have more fun. However given that it's a Christmas episode there must be a FamilyFriendlyAesop, so this backfires when Ebenezer slams the door in the face of his next visitors, unaware it's the Royal Family who have turned up to publicly reward him for his famous generosity.

* In ''Series/TheFurchesterHotel: A Furchester Christmas'', Elmo and [[RequiredSpinOffCrossover Big Bird]] are worried that Santa doesn't know they're at the Furchester and not on Series/SesameStreet, until Mr Harvey Dull reminds them that Christmas isn't about presents but spending time with friends and family. (And then Santa knows where they are anyway, so [[BrokenAesop that's all right]].)

** Played straight at the end of his [[https://youtu.be/8WXqtqNP9XE?t=1414 review of ''The Christmas Tree''.]] He goes through his house having his staff, his family, and himself all explain that the ''real'' point of Christmas is to have a joyful time giving, spending time with the people you love, and just taking a step back to remember that you aren't the center of the universe all the time. Comically subverted in the end when his parents, who both gave their own heartfelt monoluges, question who the hell the Critic even was.

-->''' Bart's Future Son:''' You've taught us the meaning of Christmas. Which schools are forbidden to tell us anymore.

* ''A ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} ChristmasSpecial'' skirts the edge of the standard "better to give than recieve"--Garfield kicks off the show by dreaming of getting lots of rich presents and is a grouch about having to go to Jon's mother's for the holliday. He's warmed over by Grandma's reminiscing (the warm lap doesn't hurt either), finding old love letters from her departed husband to give her and Odie's surprise gift to him, summing it up with "Christmas: It's not the getting, it's not the giving, it's the loving. ''(bashfully)'' ...There, I said it, now get out of here."

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "A Very Crappy Christmas," where it turns out that the true meaning is commercialism, because otherwise people wouldn't have jobs.

-->'''Edd:''' Hold it right there, mister! The true meaning of Christmas isn't about want, or material things! Rather, it comes from here.\\

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' Christmas episode Ginger finds out her mother's father was Jewish. Her mom Lois doesn't seem to consider herself any religion but celebrates secular Christmas. After finding out she's part-Jewish, Ginger becomes obsessed with learning about Judaism and attempts to celebrate Hannukah instead of Christmas. In the end they decide to celebrate both holidays but at the Christmas-Hannukah party their house catches on fire thanks to faulty Christmas lights. After the party is ruined Ginger states she was so caught up in the holidays she forgot they're really about being close to friends and family.
* Initially it seems Scrooge [=McDuck=] in ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'' doesn't need any sort of lesson, since his [[TheGrinch grinch act]] is...well, an ''act'', he does eventually realize he still needs to learn the true meaning of Christmas: that it's better with family, and the minor frustrations family brings pale to the joy and excitement they also bring. [[spoiler:[[YetAnotherChristmasCarol The Ghost of Christmas Past]] ''doesn't'' want Scrooge to learn that, since every time someone learns the true meaning of Christmas, they become too busy celebrating it with family to hang out with him.]]

* An early example is "YesVirginia, There Is a Santa Claus," which dates from 1897. It's more about the meaning of Santa, of course - but in his role as a representation of belief, of trust in human goodness and in all the beautiful invisible things that cannot be simply found or recorded, but that require faith to exist.

[[caption-width-right:266:[[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/12/ It's really not very complicated.]]]]

-->'''Chaos:''' You have to admit, it was a good plan.

[[folder: Advertising]]

-->'''America''': I totally forgot it was Christmas. I guess being bloodthirsty can get a little distracting. (''{{Beat}}'') ...And by that [[FreudianSlip I mean bringing democracy to the rest of the world]].

-->'''Balki''': "...Christmas is not just Christmas turtles and presents, it's also the birthday of baby Jesus!"
-->'''Larry''': "Yeah, I guess I...forgot that, too."
-->'''Balki''': "Well, the sheepherders never forget it. We were the first ones to get the news, you know.

-->'''Chaos''': You have to admit, it was a good plan.
-->'''Hardison''': It was, but there was one thing you didn't count on.
-->'''Chaos''': Aw, no.
-->'''Hardison''': You forgot...
-->'''Chaos''': No, no, no...
-->'''Hardison''': ...about the true meaning...
-->'''Chaos''': Don't you say it!
-->'''Hardison''': ...of Christmas.
-->'''Chaos''': Gah, come on man, that barely applies here!

-->'''Abed''': I get it. The meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has meaning. And it can mean whatever we want. [[spoiler:It used to mean being with my mom.]] [[TrueCompanions Now it means being with you guys.]]

--> "The true meaning of Christmas is to eat until it hurts
--> Then drink until it don't hurt any more."

[[folder: Puppet Shows]]

--->'''Strong Bad''': Um, didn't I invent this cartoon?\\
'''Homestar''': Yeah, I think so.\\
'''Strong Bad''': Then how come I can't understand a lick of it?\\
'''Homestar''': What's not to understand? Eh! Steve!'s mouth exploded the universe, and that blond guy did a tiny, tiny dance.\\
'''Strong Bad''': Oh, ''right''. The true meaning of Decemberween.\\
'''Homestar''': Yeah yeah, right right!

-->''"Hey, since when was Christmas just about the presents? Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of this day? The birth of Santa?"''
--->-- [[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]]
-->''"Let's just agree that on this day a million years ago a dude was born who lots of people think was magical. And some people don't think so, and that's cool too. But we're probably right."''
--->-- Homer Simpson

-->''You've taught us the meaning of Christmas. Which schools are forbidden to tell us anymore.''
--->--Bart's Future Son

-->"My favorite thing without a doubt
-->Is remembering what [[YouMeanXmas this day]] is all about
-->Caring and sharing and spending time
-->With friends you hold so dear
-->Taking time to tell them all
-->How glad you are they're near."

-->'''Wayne''': We are just tiny ornaments in a gigantic tree, slaving away. And for what?
-->'''Lanny''': For what? For him. Just look at that face, Wayne. Just imagine his face when he wakes up tomorrow morning. Think of all the memories he'll pass on to his children, and his children's children. The passion may be gone for you, Wayne, but it's not gone for him.

-->'''Dr. Venture''': Are you kidding? This baby runs on pure plutonium! They're gonna ''love'' us!
-->'''Dean''': And that's what Christmas is ''all about!''

-->"Hold it right there, mister! The true meaning of Christmas isn't about want, or material things! Rather, it comes from here."
-->"...That's my udder you're touching."

* Initially it seems Scrooge [=McDuck=] in ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'' doesn't need any sort of lesson, since his [[TheGrinch grinch act]] is...well, an ''act'', he does eventually realize he still needs to learn the true meaning of Christmas: that it's better with family, and the minor frustrations family brings pale to the joy and excitement they also bring. [[spoiler: [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol The Ghost of Christmas Past]] ''doesn't'' want Scrooge to learn that, since every time someone learns the true meaning of Christmas, they become too busy celebrating it with family to hang out with him.]]

* Awesome ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' parody [[http://homestarrunner.com/dethemberween.html here]].
-->'''Brundo the Decemberween Yak:''' Oh, I lost all my magics.
-->'''Elf:''' Don't you see? The magic of Decemberween is inside ''everyone!''
-->'''Sheriff/Narrator:''' And so they returned the sword of St. Olaf to its rightful owner, and discovered the true meaning of Decemberween. Buh-buh-buh-buh-bye, kids!
** And in [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/dween_cakes.html this short]], Homestar and Strong Bad watch the Sweet Cuppin' Cakes holiday special:

** Another ''Homestar Runner'' cartoon parodies it yet another way. Homestar buys last-minute gifts for everyone and:

* One of the (yes, [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext oddly out-of-place]]) Christmas specials of the wicked [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII World War II]] allegorical satire ''Anime/HetaliaAxisPowers'' sort of skates around this idea, featuring the titular three main characters going around asking their fellow NationsAsPeople about the treatment of Christmas around the world.

-->'''Balki''': "Well, the sheepherders never forget it. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny We were the first ones to get the news, you know]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' went with "It is better to give than to receive". Just to make it even more {{egregious}}, that episode had a picture dated "10 million BC". That's 10 million years [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin before Christ]], which makes [[AnachronismStew 10 million years before Christmas.]]

* Played straight (?) in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''[='s=] "Plan to Eradicate Christmas", where Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks and Vegeta put the True Meaning as the bonds that bring people together, family, friends [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and killing Santa]].

* Played straight (?) in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''[='s=] "Plan to Eradicate Christmas", where Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks and Vegeta put the True Meaning as the bonds that bring people together, family, friends [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOther and killing Santa]].