Christmas in the USA: Santa, New Mexico’s lights and the Three Kings
You spot Santa in an American Christmas story, and your child asks whether everyone in the United States celebrates this way. A single picture cannot answer that. Alongside the familiar figure in red are local light traditions and the stories of different communities. Let’s look at three examples together: each reveals a different part of Christmas in America.
Santa: a familiar face with a long story
Santa Claus was not created with a single stroke of a pencil or by one company. According to the Library of Congress, his appearance developed gradually from traditions associated with Saint Nicholas, later storytelling and visual depictions. Thomas Nast’s illustrations also helped shape him in the 19th century.
That familiar face has gone through many changes. The American image of Santa later influenced the appearance of Britain’s Father Christmas, too. Similar pictures do not mean identical histories, however: the figures gradually grew closer, despite originally carrying different meanings. The story of Santa’s appearance is one way to explore American Christmas.
New Mexico: lights with two names
Glowing paper lanterns are also part of Christmas in New Mexico. You will encounter both farolitos and luminarias. These names can refer to similar lights, but their use varies by place, community and family.
The New Mexico Tourism Department explains that in the north of the state, farolitos refers to paper lanterns, while luminarias can mean small fires. Both names deserve attention. When you encounter them, it also matters where the person using them comes from. Even this small difference in names reveals a local expression of the holidays. This example belongs to New Mexico; it does not describe the whole United States.
The Three Kings: a Puerto Rican story in Chicago
The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture in Chicago offers another perspective. An exhibition spanning late 2024 and early 2025 presented the Puerto Rican Three Kings tradition through carved wooden figures called santos de palo. In this depiction, the kings ride horses. The Smithsonian American Art Museum also explains a similar Puerto Rican wooden sculpture.
The location matters, too: a museum of the Puerto Rican community presented this tradition in the US city of Chicago. Alongside Santa, other figures and art forms become part of the Christmas picture. The wooden figures introduce one cultural tradition, but they cannot tell us how every family spends the holidays.
The next time Christmas in America comes up in a story, you have three points of reference: Santa’s gradually evolving appearance, local names for lights and Puerto Rican Three Kings figures. Each belongs to a different context. Together, they open up a more colourful view than a single movie scene—and answer the opening question: one Christmas picture cannot speak for every household.
