Street vendor pushing a cart through snow-covered Fourteenth Street in New York City at Christmas time. A man carries a Christmas tree in the opposite direction. Beyond, the yellow lights of a store window are visible. Christmas is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ and a widely observed cultural holiday, celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide, which ends after the twelfth night. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season. Sketch by Everett Shinn, 1904.