The truth is that our way of celebrating the Christmas season does spring from myriad cultures and sources, from St. Nicholas to Coca-Cola advertising campaigns.

Roeper underscores that “Christmas” as popularly practiced is not a single, pure tradition but a layered cultural construction. By juxtaposing St. Nicholas (a religious/folkloric figure) with Coca-Cola advertising (modern commercial mythmaking), he highlights how sacred, folk, and corporate influences mingle to produce today’s holiday imagery and rituals. The statement pushes back against claims of an “original” or exclusively religious Christmas, suggesting instead that traditions evolve through borrowing, reinvention, and mass media. The quote’s effect is demystifying: it invites readers to see holiday customs as historically contingent and culturally hybrid, rather than fixed or uniform.