It is now widely accepted that Christmas is the time of home-coming. Songs such as “Home for the Holidays” or “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” testify to the place that the season holds in the life of modern, scattered families. This theme, however, was not always present among the many meanings that Christmas conveys. It was only in the nineteenth century, when industrialization and – in England – the rise of the popularity of boarding schools took millions away from their homes, that the impulse arose. The sentiment was enhanced by the revival of an emphasis on the humanity of Jesus in the Nativity and the notion of the original Christmas as a family event.
The expansion of railway travel and cheap fares made it possible for those away from home to consider returning for the holidays and more and more countries legislated Christmas as a holiday time. By the twentieth century Christmas was the principal time for family reunion – except in the United States where it is edged out by Thanksgiving (see, for example, the desperate struggle to make it home in time for that holiday portrayed by the John Candy / Steve Martin movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.)