Snow begins to fall, twinkling lights brightening the streets at night, the trees are in their place, and the stockings hanging on the chimney. It’s that time of the year again, and we can’t help but love it. The cakes, the gingerbread cookies, the turkey, the ham, the cranberry sauce; we aren’t even halfway done with the Thanksgiving feast, and we are already thinking about Christmas.

Christmas is one of the biggest, most widespread celebrations in the world. In spite of being a holiday pertaining the Christian faith, Christmas in the U.S. is celebrated by a large number of non-Christians, and with the world constantly becoming a more globalized community the religious holiday has gone through several cultural transformations, allowing people from all kinds of religious and cultural backgrounds to share its message of peace, generosity, and caring from others.

In the U.S., Christmas is a celebration that easily adapts to the different cultural and personal backgrounds of American families, and because of that, no Christmas is the same, with every family adding a little something of their own to the holiday. Most Americans blend religious and secular customs with their own family traditions and rituals from the places their ancestors once called home. The famous tradition of having a Christmas decorated tree, for example, is said to have been brought to the U.S. by German immigrants, and today is a tradition that has expanded to almost all of the countries that celebrate it.

Differences between states are also very common, with different traditions that vary according the population, history, and even climate and geographical features of every state. In California, for example, Christmas is celebrated with boat parades in the harbors; people in Florida eat seafood, gather around bonfires, and have a larger South American influence; and in Hawaii Santa arrives in a boat rather than in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. In colder or landlocked states like Nebraska, Montana, or Wisconsin, people tend to share the Eve with family and friends enjoying hot beverages around the Christmas tree.  In the end, it doesn’t matter where or how you celebrate Christmas; it doesn’t matter if you don’t celebrate at all, just let yourself be filled with the holiday spirit, enjoying the company of those who you love the most!