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Caroler's singing old favorite songs, the smell of pine, roasting chestnuts, cinnamon and home baked goodies, people's laughter,magic is definitely in the air. Not a person in the United States would not recognize the signs of Christmas coming. Whether confessed Christian or not you can't escape the spirit of the season and most choose to not even try.

Once a year almost the whole world celebrates peace with joy and goodwill towards all men. No other holiday comes close to Christmas as far as the number of people who celebrate it. I personally celebrate the birth of Christ on that very special day, many others prefer other motives but we all have one thing in common, we celebrate.

The United States in all its diversity of peoples has multitude of traditions. Not everybody keeps the same traditions but all of us together produce that magical feel you can only see during Christmas time. Every piece of heritage plays an important part to complete the picture and each piece of the puzzle lost would leave us incomplete.

What would inspire us to sing carols if it wasn't for the decorations and what would the decorations without that familiar smell or the sharing spirit of people be? As small and insignificant as a tradition may seem, it became an event we repeat every year because it sparks memories and a festive feeling. Following in our ancestors footsteps we recreate actions every year and it's important to our soul. It gives us a sense of belonging, for this reason even families that aren't real close get together during Christmas time.

In times when families drift apart more and more, when loving your partner, parents or children is not a given anymore it is even more important to find reasons to reconnect. Generations that don't agree on anything can still look back and enjoy pleasant memories from the past together. Celebrating Christmas as you did when you were a child is sure to make forgotten all disagreements if only for a minute.

As much as you may hate to think about the economics of Christmas, if all traditions ceased today it would be a blow to our economy that would take forever to recover from if we could ever recover at all. Where would all those people work that are currently making a living producing decorations, selling toys, raising funds for charity and all the many others involved in the Christmas industry? Where would the charitable organizations get all the money to help out the needy if Christmas as we know it with the tradition of giving didn't exist anymore?

Christmas and the traditions that go along with it are important to each of us, even if for different reasons. So whether you believe in Christ and celebrate His birth, because you need the closeness of family and friends and Christmas is the perfect occasion or you want to honor your ancestors do your part in keeping the old traditions alive. Invest in our society's future by giving our children the same warm memories as you have about Christmases passed.

Learn more about this author, Erika Mourar.
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