Forbes - Christmas: a candid history

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Frontispiece: Coca-Cola advertisement. Haddon Sundblom painting, 1953. CORBIS

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England

2007 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Forbes, Bruce David.
Christmas : a candid history / Bruce David Forbes.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 9780520251045 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. ChristmasHistory. I. Title.

GT4985.F67 2007
394.2663dc22
2007000366

Manufactured in the United States of America

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This book is printed on New Leaf EcoBook 50, a 100% recycled fiber of which 50% is de-inked post-consumer waste, processed chlorine-free. EcoBook 50 is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/ASTM D563401 (Permanence of Paper).

I am overwhelmed by the interest, support, and assistance offered by so many colleagues, family members, and friends as I have worked on this project, and no words of gratitude say enough. I want to thank editor Reed Malcolm in particular, for his guidance, his patience, and his enthusiastic interest in the book from the very beginning. Gene Gallagher also has been especially helpful, with specific suggestions and supportive friendship. Morningside College President John Reynders and Dean William Deeds granted me a sabbatical during which I was able to write most of this book. Many others have assisted me in so many ways: Calvin Roetzel, Robert Jewett, Mark Reasoner, Philip Anderson, Ann Pflaum, Dell deChant, Randy Maddox, Ted Campbell, Mark Seeley, Ann-Marie Andreasson-Hogg, Jim Fisk, Kate Warne, Edith Gladstone, Stephen Leida, Jan Carrier, Kimberly Nelson-Finch, Linda Miller, Corinne Schuster, Rusty Brace, Tammy Huf, Melissa Dreyer, and Stacey Baldus. One person who makes all of these efforts worthwhile is my son Matthew, a great dialogue partner of whom I am so proud.

I love Christmas. And Christmas drives me crazy.

Based upon reactions from family, friends, and colleagues, I am not alone in both responses to the Christmas season. On one hand, I love the music, lights, and family gatherings, along with the story of the Christ child, shepherds, and wise men, and the messages of generosity, love, joy, and peace. On the other hand, I am frustrated by how hectic and commercialized the season has become, and worried that all of the cultural trappings can overwhelm spiritual aspects of Christmas. At times the reality of my Christmas experiences fails to live up to my idealized expectations. In addition, I have questions about the impact that this culturally dominant holiday has upon my friends who are Jewish, or Muslim, or secular. So Christmas is my favorite season of the year, but it is also a very mixed bag.

After wrestling with various reactions to Christmas, I decided to find out how Christmas got to be the way it is today. Tracing the history of this annual celebration has changed the way I look at many Christmas-related issues. And once I started down that road, seeking a brief, candid history of Christmas, curiosity took over. Simple curiosity may be the best motivation for learning about all kinds of things, because it helps us avoid being captured by heavy-handed agendas from whatever direction. Part of the fascination comes when we encounter surprises along the way, commenting to ourselves, I didnt know that. Here are several interesting examples.

• early Christians in the first two or three centuries did not celebrate Christmas
• Puritans in England and in New England made Christmas observances illegal
• Saint Nicholas is an elf in the famous poem The Night Before Christmas
• the United States Congress regularly met on Christmas Day into the 1850s
• President Franklin Roosevelt changed the date of Thanksgiving in order to lengthen the Christmas shopping season

This book seeks to provide a brief, candid history of Christmas, for general audiences, for people who, like me, wonder how the Christmas celebration got to be the way it is. The word candid highlights one of my intentions. Many acquaintances have told me they want to hear the real story of Christmas, something more than sugar-coated or romanticized versions. And when I hear explanations of certain Christmas traditions, I too think, is this just a great story that tugs at my heart strings, or is it also historical? How did it really happen? Do we even know?

To find some answers, it seems sensible to consult the good academic Christmas books available these days, books I really appreciate. But many are long, or technical and full of jargon, and usually specialized. Several books focus on the American Christmas but say very little about earlier developments, and other books concentrate only on the first few centuries, or on Saint Nicholas, or on Christmas carols. One friend told me he was interested in an overall story of how Christmas developed, but not a 400-page volume or, even worse, a list of ten books. As he remarked, Im curious, not obsessed.

I have written this little volume in an attempt to answer that request. I claim no major new breakthrough thesis. Much of the content of this book is a distillation of information scattered throughout many books, although I also have consulted some of the original sources myself. My contributions may come in analogies and examples, and in the way I structure the overview to try to make sense of it all.

For several years I have given short presentations on the history of Christmas, and audiences tend to offer two responses. First, they comment that they knew some of the information and tidbits, simply from newspaper articles or television programs in the Christmas season, but that many other details came as a surprise. The surprise varies from person to person. Second, they say that the presentation helped them put the miscellaneous details together into an overall picture of how Christmas developed. There is no shortage of Christmas information out there. For example, at least two excellent, reliable Christmas encyclopedias are available, and some other books answer Christmas questions in short little chunks, a page or two at a time. As I tie the pieces together, I often leave out exceptions and variations. Keeping in mind the danger of oversimplifying, I hope the broad overview will be helpful.

The opening chapter, First There Was Winter, argues that many of our favorite aspects of the Christmas season, such as lights and evergreen decorations, are predictable features of midwinter festivals that existed long before Christianity. This is what people are referring to when they talk about the pagan roots of Christmas traditions. My emphasis is simply to recognize that a midwinter carnival is a very understandable way for human beings to cope with winter, and yes, the widespread human impulse to party in the face of winter has influenced the development of Christmas, then and now.