Customization of U.S. Holidays: Agency and Nonconformity

Scholars have long sought to understand the meanings and implications of holidays for societies, groups, and individuals. Normative observances for holidays shift over time, which scholars have explained primarily with macro-level forces such as galvanizing events/trends and priorities of social institutions, but this approach tends to undersell individual and familial agency to customize holidays to their own circumstances, including to reject or resist normative symbols, meanings, and practices, either in part or wholly. Micro-level processes, then, offer insight into what happens when cultural projections about how to observe a holiday collide with an individual’s decision about whether and how to participate, especially with respect to negotiation processes. While the extant literature is robust regarding rituals commonly attached to holidays, there has been much less focus specifically on how agency shapes nonconformity to (or adoption of) normative scripts, including novel expressions. More research would also be helpful for understanding the dynamics of how families and other small groups negotiate shared observances. Finally, micro-level processes may serve—under certain conditions—to promote macro-level change in holiday patterns. To stimulate further research on processes involving agency and perceived constraints to holiday observation, I suggest a preliminary typology of U.S. holiday customization for individuals.