Christmas in the USA feels more like a ritual celebration of postwar material prosperity to be honest
Like it feels like it's as much a part of American historical mythmaking as Independence Day or Thanksgiving
Doesn't matter that this prosperity was mostly a white people thing because it's more about the mythos than the historical facts
i mean... look no further than christmas' most fervent defenders. the ones who are concerned at the imagined loss of compulsory christmas. the starbucks cup culture warriors. who is it they feel they're defending christmas from? what are they trying to preserve when christmas is over? if not this, then what?
Well, at least Thanksgiving is just becoming an excuse to go over to someone else's house to eat (It's slowly being referred to as Turkey Day). I feel like in time, Christmas could "phase out" just because people are realizing "you know, I don't want to put up with my parents shit. I'm staying home" (hell, that's what I'm doing). But it'll be a long while before it's just another day to most people because a religion is tied to it.
Independence Day is the day of colorful explosions. Everyone loves colorful explosions, it'll never go away. (I also don't know any mythos around it like Thanksgiving, but I can imagine there's something there.) Thinking a bit too much about it, it's like Thanksgiving in the Summer, it's just warm enough to eat outside and you can shoot of rockets.
...Independence Day is just Summer Thanksgiving/Turkey Day