Once a year a society that anthropologists have been studying for years, celebrates a tree ritual on a day in late December, but the preparations begin long before that. At the beginning of that month, there is some sort of “tree-trade” that enters the market. People go into the forest, cut down trees and sell them to other people who buy them for the purpose of placing them in their homes! Each head of the household, usually the father, purchases the tree, straps it onto the roof of his car and brings it inside the house to display in his living room. The tree is then decorated with magic crystals and round glass decorations. Every member of the family participates in preparing the tree. On the top of the tree stands an angel which is believed to be watching over the house during this sacred time. The tree is ready for the day of the ritual weeks in advance and simply sits on display in the house attracting random strangers outside to stop and look at this within the house. When the day of the ritual arrives, all of the family members gather together in the room with the tree. The festivities begin the night before at nightfall. The mother cooked a huge meal with the finest foods the family can afford. In front of the big, fancy tree are multiple boxes covered in colorful paper. When everything is ready, the family gathers around the tree to open these boxes. Each box contains something new and shiny, which is brought by the chimney wizard. A fat man in a red robe and hat with a long white beard wiggles down a narrow chimney left all of those boxes at the tree. The chimney wizard flies through the air, stopping at every home in the world to deliver these sparkly boxes through the chimney that land under the tree. As compensation for his deliveries, the chimney wizard is awarded with a plate of fresh baked cookies that he eats at every house. How the chimney wizard has enough time to wiggle down these chimneys, deliver the proper presents to every house and eat all of the cookies within a span of 5-6 hours is the biggest mystery of it all. After all the boxes are opened, the family sit at the table to eat the food they prepared. The “exotic ritual” described is the American holiday of Christmas. Every year on December 25th American families gather together to celebrate the birth of Jesus. There is a lot of preparation that goes into getting ready for Christmas. The “tree-trade” is sellers that open up stores around December to sell Christmas trees to families to put in their homes. Families decorate their trees with “magic crystals”, the lights that are usually put on the tree to brighten the room. Santa, the “chimney wizard”, bring presents to children but its actually presents their parents bought and put under the tree for them. After all the presents are opened, families gather around their tables for a traditional Christmas meal. These words that are used to the describe Christmas create an image of strange behaviors because it they a typically used to describe things that aren’t the norm. When actions or items are put next to these words people associate them with other things and when something is taken out of the context of “normal” it becomes “different”.