Christmas History

Rev. Meg Barnhouse
December 21, 2014

Garlands, red, gold and green, carols, presents and celebration… when did Christmas become what it is today? We learn a bit of “Christmas History”.

Here we are, surrounded by the whirlwind of a 21st Century Christmas! It wasn’t always this way. First of all, most of us are sober, which would never have happened during the early centuries of its celebration. In the early days of Christmas celebrations in Europe, bands of beggars roamed the streets, pounding on the proper middle class front doors of the business people, even rapping on the fancy front doors of the rich, demanding treats, alcohol, and even money. The wise men brought gifts to the baby, so gift-giving was part of the tradition. Nothing fancy, some nuts and fruit to the children, some wassail (alcohol) to the beggars, and you were in the spirit of things.

Christmas is coming,
the geese are getting fat
(also, … the goose is getting fat)
Please do put a penny in the old man’s hat
If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do
If you haven’t got a ha’penny, then God bless you!

Where did they get the nerve to do that? Had they no sense of the social order? Yes they did, and it was part of the social order that it be upended at Christmas. This upending of normal social roles has its roots in the celebration of Saturnalia in Rome, a celebration in late December presided over by the agricultural god of seed and harvest, and rejoicing in the return of Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun. There wasn’t much to do agriculturally during this time – the hard work was over. There was plenty of food and fresh beer and cider, so it was a time to overindulge. Tradition held that, during Saturnalia, a feast was held where masters and slaves ate together, In some households, the masters waited on the slaves. Gambling, normally frowned upon, was acceptable, and masters and slaves gambled together. The sober toga was taken off and dress clothes could be worn during the day on the street. Rowdy behavior was acceptable during the few days of Saturnalia, as it is today on New Year’s Eve. Mostly everyone just stayed drunk for three or four days.

When the Emperor Constantine declared that Rome would be Christian, the bishops decided to take over this big celebration and brand it as the birthday of Christ. Not that anyone thought he was really born on December 25. The shepherds would not have been out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night in December. Even though Israel is the Middle East, where people think of it as hot all the time, it gets cool and rainy in the winter. The sheep would have been sheltering inside with their shepherds. Maybe it was spring, or maybe September. But say you want your new religion to catch on, you don’t want to try to get a whole new celebration going when there is already a perfectly good and well-loved celebration already happening. You just say, “you know what? The Unconquerable Sun is the Unconquerable Son… Of God… ” And let the people keep drinking. They won’t care.

This topsy-turvy-ness was still part of the celebration centuries later. The Puritans, having escaped the revels of Popish celebrations, and finding no mention of Christmas in the Bible, outlawed the celebration of Christmas. It smelled Pagan to them, which it was. Non-Puritans in the Colonies might attempt to make merry, but they were fined. It stopped being illegal in the 1700s, but it was frowned upon. Culturally taboo until it became accepted when the Federal Government declared it a national holiday in 1870. Many businesses didn’t even close for Christmas Day until then.

It was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who made many of our Christmas traditions. He was from Germany, and some families in Germany brought evergreen trees inside during the dark time of the year. In 1848, a picture of them by their decorated tree was published in the Illustrated London News, and then it became the fashion for British families to decorate an evergreen tree at Christmas. One business man commissioned an artist to draw a Christmas card, but it was too expensive for most people, so many families, including Victoria’s, encouraged their children to make cards to give to friends.

All of this helped to bring Christmas from the streets into the home. Decorating tips were in all the women’s magazines, coaching women to make this season a favorite of their families. Gifts were given, instead of to roving bands of beggars, to the children of the household. Continuing with the topsy-turvy nature of Christmas, in many families the children are allowed to wake up the parents and demand their presents and their entertainment. What a relief, though, not to have to worry about beggars coming to your door! Some people did remember the poor on Christmas, and went instead to where they were to serve them food (not alcohol, though, normally) and give money.

Giving to the poor was encouraged also by St. Nicholas, a Greek Orthodox saint from what is now Turkey who was kind and charitable and had so many miracles attributed to him he was called Nicholas the wonderworker. The Dutch called him Sinterklaas is an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape or chasuble over a traditional white bishop’s alb and sometimes red stoia, dons a red mitre and ruby ring, and holds a gold coloured crosier, a long ceremonial shepherd’s staff with a fancy curled top. Sinterklaas is a name evolved from St. Nicholas.

He traditionally rides a white horse. This is probably from the Nordic Viking traditions, where Odin rides a white horse through the air, along with the evergreen trees, mistletoe, the yule log and green wreaths. The Vikings conquered Britain, and Odin became Father Christmas.

Sometimes Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, was portrayed as a thin serious man, sometimes as an elf, sometimes like a Celtic Green Man in green, or red or blue. It wasn’t until

A Visit from St. Nicholas
by Clement Clark Moore

It was the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes-how they twinkled, his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful’ of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle,
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

That St. Nick was defrocked, not a Bishop any more, not a saintly church man. He became much more accessible and friendly.

The way he is pictured, always now in red, has a lot to do with an ad campaign by Coke in the 30’s, where they commissioned an artist to draw the real santa clause, and he pictured him using the model of a retired salesman who lived nearby, in a suit the red color of the Coke logo.

The presents and drinking, the merriment and caring for the poor are always in tension at Christmas time. I don’t really know why there should be tension but, there is. Food Bank billboard and FB sweet mother photo that show that this is clearly true. The billboard on Burnet and 49th says “Tis the season to be jolly” and the word “jolly” is crossed out and “feed the hungry” is written underneath. Why cross it out? Why not a plus sign, letting it read ’tis the season to be jolly AND feed the hungry?” On Face Book there is a picture of a note lots of sweet people are putting up with a Christmas list on it. “wrap gifts” has “Gifts” crossed out and replaced with “wrap your arms around your loved ones.” I’m all for wrapping arms around loved ones, but why must it be either or? Use the plus sign, you people?

Doing good should not be a once a year spasm of guilt toward “those less fortunate.” And it should not necessitate being a somber humorless puritan. I like the way the people in this church do it, all year long and having a pretty good time. In fact, if I were in charge of ending hunger in the world I would like to have a whole cadre of jolly, merry hearted people around me. Suffering is there, and we must address it, but if your life is going well right now it’s part of your job to add to the joy in the world. So let’s be jolly and feed the hungry and have a good time smelling the spicy mixture of Druids, Vikings, Romans and Christians that is this season of the year.

Merry Yule, Happy Christmas, and blessings on all celebrations of the return of the light celebrated by ourselves and our neighbors.

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