A celebration should fall in a fixed time interval and should be a period when sacred and symbolic elements are represented (Dorson 1982: 2). The Christmas celebration is a religious celebration (Davies 2002: 114). Christmas's pagan roots date back to the celebration of the Winter Solstice, but its Christian roots have been celebrated for 1600 years to remember the birth of Christ. Back in 394 AD when the holiday was first celebrated as a Christian celebration, it was just a Catholic mass in Rome recognizing the birth of Christ. Today through syncretism, it has grown into a worldwide celebration of spiritual remembrance and gift giving.
Christmas is a significant celebration to the Croats if not their largest celebration (Capo 1992). In Croatia , this holiday is focused more as a religious celebration than one of giving gifts. Unlike the United States , Croatia never adopted Santa Claus as the main figure representing Christmas, but instead believe that the gifts they receive are brought by saints and are from baby Jesus (Janekovic 1999). In the United States , Christmas is celebrated as a time of gift giving more than a day of religious remembrance. Some of my Jewish friends are now celebrating Christmas as a holiday. Today in the United States people use Christmas as reciprocity where they can give gifts and then receive them. It has turned into the major gift giving holiday in the United States .
Children in Croatia learn about Christmas through enculturation. From the time a child is born, parents in Croatia tell their children, “You need to behave this year because baby Jesus is coming.” Children learn the customs of Christmas through the direct instruction of their parents and also through observation. For example, when a child watches their parents decorate the Christmas tree, they learn how to put the ornaments up and when they are old enough, they start helping to decorate the Christmas tree. Through enculturation, every generation of children learn about the Christmas holiday.
Symbols play a key role in celebrations and rituals because of their symbolic meaning to the event (Davies 2002: 127). When most people see the objects involved in Christmas, consciously they think nothing of them. However, most of them have symbolic meanings. The colors of Christmas are red and green because the ancient Britons and Romans used holly to decorate their homes during winter (Margrini 2004: 53). Holly is a Christian symbol where the holly represent Christ's crown of thorns and the red berries symbolize his blood (Margrini 2004: 53). The Christmas tree is a symbol of hope and joy and has been symbol since the Vikings used the trees to remind themselves that soon the cold winter would end and spring would return (Margrini 2004: 53). The mistletoe is symbolic to religion because Christians believe it to be a link between Heaven and Earth because it grows without ever touching the ground (Margrini 2004: 53).
Diffusion is one of the main reasons why Christmas is now celebrated nearly globally. Ever since cultures started interacted together, celebrations and rituals have been spreading around the world. Today most countries around the world celebrates Christmas (Education World). Most of them have adopted their own customs and traditions, but they all still have the main central focus of Christmas and that is celebrating Jesus' birthday.