The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom played a key role in the development of many of the ideas central to the modern Christmas. However, British festive practices always varied by class, gender, region, and the four nations of the United Kingdom. Some of these variations lessened in the second half of the twentieth century due to the rise of affluence and the growth of a mass media. Indeed, Christmas in modern Britain came to be an integrative experience. It brought people closer to their family, friends, neighbours, community, compatriots and, occasionally, the poor and suffering. It crossed any notional boundaries between the private and public spheres and helped maintain a common way of life in a society divided by class, ethnicity, and taste. Christmas thus came to be viewed as part of a British way of life, even if variations remained in the precise ways people celebrated.