For many, Christmas is a time for family, enjoyment and a time to relax, but not everyone endures life in America's high-security jails.
According to data from the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), around two million people in the US are incarcerated.
That means there are around 573 people in jail for every 100,000 US residents.
As a result, families in communities across the country may find the holiday season particularly hard.
The Zoukis Consulting Group, who works with prisoners during and before the time they are incarcerated, describes United States Penitentiaries are "some of the most violent and inhumane prisons".
It adds: "These facilities are infused with constant tension and conflict. Racial animus and geographically-oriented turf disputes are common as well."
Of the total incarcerated, a little over one million are in state prisons and another 208,000 in federal facilities.
Within state prisons, roughly 606,000 are imprisoned for violent crimes and there is a fairly even split among those jailed for robbery, assault, rape and sexual assault and murder.
Even as many inmates and guards attempt to make the festive season worth noting inside an often cramped jail, there exist tensions.
Writer and director of the Netflix documentary White Boy, Seth Ferranti told the Mirror his experience of Christmas behind bars was not always a negative one, despite his circumstances.
Some, Ferranti said, enjoy the festive spirit, while others are reminded that as they seek rehabilitation, many face long sentences and are away from their families during one of the most important holidays of the year.
Seth said: "Some prisoners look forward to it some it reminds them of where they are. Some dudes shut down in prison with no outside communication and around the holidays is when it’s hardest for them.
"I usually got visits on holidays so it was all good."
Celebrations still do go on with special meals and visits.
Rights groups also try to reunite people at this time of year, helping families to spend time together with gifts as inmates spend long sentences for their crimes.
But the reality is that the country's most notorious jails contain violent offenders.
Jail pits non-violent offenders in the same place as violent criminals, and the now-documentary maker says some people inside can be "f****d up" about things.
Each prison has its own rules about what is and is not permitted inside the jail, but during Ferranti's time in prison, it was common for prisoners to receive special packages.
How likely inmates are to celebrate Christmas "starts with the administration" and "if they are open to a festive atmosphere," Ferranti said.
"In the [federal prisons] in the 90s they used to give out these big Christmas bags with candy and stuff like that," he explained.
"I remember looking forward to the trade a tons every year. I would trade candy I didn’t like for candy I did.
"It would be exclusive stuff that you couldn’t get on the compound or even in the visiting room."
Ferranti was jailed for a non-violent crime and was found guilty of heading up an LSD empire.
He added: "It can be festive to a point. The units if not the cells are decorated. Some guys are f****d up others are light hearted or as lighthearted as you can be behind the wall.
"I’ve been places where it’s really decorative and others where there’s nothing. Not always about what the inmates want most times its about what the staff will do or allow."
Prison populations are "the lowest they’ve been in decades", according to PPI, but there are still concerns many jails are too crowded.
PPI said: "People awaiting trial in jail made up an even larger share of jail populations in 2020, when they should have been the first people released and diverted to depopulate crowded facilities.
"Jails also continued to hold large numbers of people for low-level offences like misdemeanours, civil infractions, and non-criminal violations of probation and parole."
Where jails are crowded, there is the potential for a rise in violence according to one 2019 study and Ferranti said people go "especially hard on Christmas."
The study 'Do Overcrowding and Turnover Cause Violence in Prison?' published in the Frontiers in Psychiatry said of their findings: "There were significant effects of both overcrowding and turnover on prison violence."
They said their findings showed a 0.1 per cent increase in overcrowding led to the same levels of rises in prison violence.
Certain privileges given can also lead to disagreements and fights. Ferranti said when he saw fights over the holidays it was "always in the TV room".
He said arguments occurred over "What game is going to be watched or even what Christmas movies. Crazy right?
"Dudes will fight over the TV for anything but they go especially hard on Christmas. It’s about making a point. And taking a stand."