The Christmas tradition, be it the length of time of its evolution or the desire by each subsequent culture to make it an accepted reality, is not so open and obviously evolving, unless one really looks at it, as Hutton has done. Lastly, after looking at Hutton's representation of the historical underpinnings of the various aspect of the myth, ritual and language of Christmas one might look at how it continues to evolve in the present. The present meaning, modern day, with its myth, ritual and language surrounded by pomp, circumstance and especially the gift giving (and receiving) part surrounding what most people and especially Christians believe Christmas to really be in their history. I might add here, that there is a modern trend among Christians to take Christmas back to its historical underpinning, or the believed historical underpinnings of the holiday. What is interesting about this is that when they go back to Christmas' roots they are not going back to where Hutton goes, but to the myth, ritual and language surrounding the nativity story, the very story which we here have discussed to be an amalgamation of historical creation. Regardless of this situation which would seem to some an interesting irony the sense that Christmas is now sort of static is also present, as the media representation of it is somewhat stable.

When participating in major public ceremonies or events constructed on the ceremonial pattern, media institutions alter their regular structure and journalists abandon the usual procedures and the neutral attitude: they act in a manner similar to liturgical officials and present reality in a symbolic code that suggest the universe of religious references. (Coman, 2009, p. 3)

Then one could say to a large degree because in many ways the present...

Yet, Christmas is evolving, it is continually becoming more and more secularized, in the sense that it is becoming a modern representation of the consumer society in which most modern Christians reside or as a time for those who have more seek to aide those who have less, all modern media adaptations of Christmas as a cultural tradition. Christmas is therefore, like all other cultural artifacts created by each generation anew, through language, myth and ritual that better reflect the society we currently live in.
Resources

Coman, M. (2009). Media and Ritual: A Challenge for the Anthropological Thought. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-23. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.

Higgins, J., & McAllaster, C. (2004). If You Want Strategic Change, Don't Forget to Change Your Cultural Artifacts. Journal of Change Management, 4(1), 63-73. doi:10.1080/1469701032000154926.

Hutton, R. (1996) the Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Yeas in Britain. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Ibrahim, B. (2010). The appropriation of linguistic forms for better cognitive comprehension of the Nigerian pragmatic literature. Babel, 56(2), 119-128. doi:10.1075/babel.56.2.02ibr.

Senn, C. (2002). Journeying as Religious Education: The Shaman, the Hero, the Pilgrim, and the Labyrinth Walker. Religious Education, 97(2), 124-140. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Venbrux, E. (2009). Social Life and the Dreamtime: Clues to Creation Myths as Rhetorical Devices in Tiwi Mortuary Ritual. Religion & the Arts,…