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As I have mentioned before, most holidays are celebrated "on the day," or the day that they occur. Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14th every year and not for weeks preceding it. However, in the case of Christmas, there is definitely a Christmas Season and today, the day after Thanksgiving is the beginnng of it.
Despite the Christmas marketing push that begins even before Hallowe'en, most people concentrate on Thanksgiving before they go all-out Christmas. The focus on food and family does take some effort, after all. The day after, we turn our attention forward--the Black Friday hysteria is all about Christmas shopping.
The reason for the Christmas season, however, is Advent. This coming Sunday, November 29, will be the first in the four Sundays in Advent preceding Christmas Day. In many churches you will see an Advent Wreath, which is made of boughs and contains five candles. Four of them are purple, symbolizing the preparatory nature of Advent. One is lighted each Sunday in Advent.
On the final Sunday before Christmas, all four candles will be lit, with the addition of the fifth, which is placed in the center of the wreath and typically is pink. This is known as the Christ Candle. It will be lit on December 20 this year.
When I was growing up there arose a very penitential attitude towards the Advent season, with people that I knew practicing self-discipline and restraint, very much like a lesser version of Lent. I remember some comments that Advent should be more joyous, and over the last two or three decades it has returned to a more happy anticipation of the Nativity.
So our Christmas season came from the observance of Advent and the thought that we should prepare for the great Gift which God was about to give us, or remembering that Gift more than two millennia ago. It's ironic that some of the grouchy "Jesus is the reason for the season" self-righteousness was actually correct, if you consider that "Advent is the reason for the season" says pretty much the same thing.
There is no real reason to have a Christmas season--in many poor countries, the Feast of the Nativity is not an orgy of gift giving, sentimentality and music, but simply a Holy Day of Obligation on which you must attend Mass and observe the Church's most important holiday after Easter.
If we are able to share the Holidays with family and friends--if we are able to give out of the kindness of our hearts, with no other motive than to say, "I'm glad you are part of my life"--if we feel humbled by the gift of love from our friends and lovers--then the Gift goes on. Jesus is truly the Gift that keeps on giving.
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