24 Conclusion

What can we learn from the history of Christmas from an immigration perspective?

Historian Daniel Miller:

“Christmas may [be] everywhere, but the only true Christmas [is] within one’s own home.”

For most people, Christmas is a time for family and friends. For immigrants, it is a time to explore their new homes and identity. They negotiate between embracing new identities and protecting their tradition. They form new bonds and communities on a piece of strange land. They are shaped by the new home and create a new culture. 

They look for where they belong, and where they are allowed to belong.

Christmas has always been evolving in history, and the evolution will not end as people cross beyond national borders.

Last but not least,

Reference:

Ferguson, Christopher, ‘The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries’, in The Oxford Handbook of Christmas, ed. by Timothy Larsen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)