Welcome back yet again! We are going on a tour of the seven eras of the history of Christmas. This is the final installment in the series.
As a reminder -
I have been reading "Stations of the Sun" by Ronald Hutton. One thing I noticed while reading is that Christmas went through stages. I see at least 7 eras in the past 2,000 years. Each one is marked by its own characteristics which were either greatly changed or outright abandoned in the following era. I thought it might be worthwhile to take us on a tour of those eras. Since this post pulls mainly from Hutton, and Hutton focuses mainly on England where Christmas is concerned, this post will, too.
In the previous post in this series, we reviewed eras 4 (Oppression) and 5 (Restoration). In those years, from 1517 to 1760, Christmas nearly died in the British Isles from religious opposition by the Puritans. Today, we will tour eras 6 (Industrial Revolution) and 7 (Modern).
In the first article in this series, I said, "I am particularly interested in showing how our modern Christmas is mostly a product of the three eras before it (ie. 7 is caused by 4, 5, & 6)." We saw Christmas gutted in 4 and salvaged in 5. We are about to see it completely reinvented in 6. Almost every tradition from era 3 that did not die out before now dies by the end of era 6 and is replaced by what we know today.
If you can find time in your busy schedule to read this, I hope you enjoy it! If your boss thinks you're staying busy as you read it, all the better.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1760 to 1915 AD)
The Industrial Revolution era is the time starting with the First Industrial Revolution, to the end of the Second Industrial Revolution. These dates are according to Britannica. It is an era most people don't hear about past grade school. During this era, we see a near abandonment of Christmas in some areas (again), its salvation (again), Christmas becomes more child-focused, and it shifts hard towards secularism. In this era, Christmas rapidly becomes what we know today.
When we left Christmas, it was in the step-down recovery room in an English hospital after flatlining on the table with the Puritans. When the Commonwealth was erased, all was looking to be on the mend. Then came the industrialists. As they say, "Out of the frying pan and into the fire."
In "Stations of the Sun" chapter 10, Ronald Hutton begins by explaining how boorish Christmas had become to the upper classes. He goes on to tell how the government and industrialists together stamped out the 12 days of Christmas by making them mandatory workdays.
If you recall, in Dickens' novel "A Christmas Carol", Bob Cratchit expected only one day off and was in turn expected to be back to work early the next morning. This reflected the standard work schedule. Industrialists tried to take Christmas, too, but the people wouldn't have it. Merchants were blamed.
This is certainly not how it was everywhere, because not everywhere was industrialized. Traditions survived in those pockets. Dickens gives us a hint of this, too, when Martha Cratchit states she intends to sleep in the next day. Keeping the old traditions alive is what Washington Irving's book "An Old Christmas" was about. He visits an English great house out in the country where the old traditions are purposefully kept. But on the main industrialization was the new reality, and it was coming for everyone.
Traditions from the feast days of the Saints had been moving to Christmas Day already for many years, but here the pace increased exponentially. Traditions that did not migrate died off. Only a few exceptions luckily bucked that trend. Without twelve days to celebrate, who had time for all that? Celebrating is fun but who wants to make their one day off more tiring than a regular workday? By the end of the century, the twelve days would be gone. What you think of as Christmas today, with a single day filled with every tradition, is the result.
Hutton credits the second salvation of Christmas Day in England mainly to these four things:
- A general nostalgia for pre-industrial times. People were longing for a more traditional, more charitable, more meaningful time.
- The Oxford Movement. Anglicans regained an appreciation for a more traditional (Catholic and anti-Puritan), high-liturgy approach.
- Popular authors and entertainers, the greatest of which was Charles Dickens.
- Prince Albert of England. A German and a family man.
And as goes England, so goes America.
In this era, mistletoe finally takes on its romantic overtones. Yes, this late. No, it was not ancient heathen fecundity, but post-Puritan prudishness. Christmas was about love, and love turns to romance. Some randy Brit had the industrious idea to employ mistletoe berries to elicit a kiss from some bonnie lass. Darned if it didn't work, too. The first place mistletoe is found in a romantic context is in a song from a musical comedy called "Two to One", which was published in 1784. From that point on, it is found more and more often in a romantic context. And from this time it spread out to other nations. (See our article "
Misinformed On Mistletoe" for more.)
In America, the Puritanism of its early years was thawing slowly. The first Christmas party in the Whitehouse was in 1800. Consequently, that was the very year John Adams and his family moved into the Whitehouse as its first occupants. On November 1, 1800, John Adams moves in. Just under two months later, they have a Christmas party. How ironic Adams was from New England and a Puritan background. So, most early Americans shunned Christmas but not all.
At some undetermined point in the early 1800s, German gingerbread bakers - who had a special guild of their own which was exclusively allowed to bake gingerbread outside of the holidays and who would make the most elaborate objects of gingerbread - began making gingerbread houses, apparently inspired by the Grimm Brother's "Hansel and Gretel" (1812).
We would be criminally remiss to omit the great literary works of this era. Washington Irving (of Headless Horseman fame) wrote "
A History Of New York", mostly involving the Dutch. In it, Irving shares many a tale and description of Saint Nicholas (aka. Sinterklaas). Although Protestant, the Dutch loved St. Nicholas, as did most sailors. In this version, Sinterklaas lays his finger on his nose, rides in a flying wagon, and drops toys to children down chimneys. (For more, see this article "
The Father of Santa Claus", which I chose for you since it clearly and accurately lists out all of Irving's quotes.) But Irving was not just a promoter of Santa, he was a lover of all things Christmas and promoted it gladly.
These descriptions from Irving were the inspiration for a poem attributed to Clement Moore - the infamous "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" (aka. Twas The Night Before Christmas) in 1822. Here, Santa first gets his sleigh and eight reindeer. He is also miniaturized to better fit into stove pipes, as stoves had begun to replace large fireplaces. This poem was clearly written for children.
Together, these two works both invented and saved the Santa Claus tradition. The very first point in all of history where we can say the modern Santa Claus begins to come together is right here with these two very Christian authors. And nothing in their version comes from ancient paganism.
I want to pause to point something out. Santa Claus, whose creation we have built towards since the first post in this series, is a very complicated thing. So complicated, many people have completely incompatible descriptions of how we got here. Every origin story which puts Odin in as the origin of Santa is pure conjecture. That Odin was swapped out for Saint Nicholas in the distant past is a modern reinterpretation of history based on similarities in character traits rather than direct mentions from historical documents. For example, Odin wears a hat and cloak, has a horse, and is wise. That is what these Odin origins are built on. Frankly, it makes no sense due to 1) correlation does not prove causation, 2) they conflate Santa and other traditions in order to build similarities, and 3) the multitude of Odin's other traits. Odin, the wandering, one-eyed God of Fury and Visions, spear-bearing warrior, and leader of the Wild Hunt, is not a gift-bringer in any medieval or older source, nor is he generous and kind, nor even particularly concerned with children. They used to sacrifice humans, including children, to him. If anything, he should be the receiver of gifts. In contrast, the attributes of Saint Nicholas, such as generosity, kindness, selflessness, care for people and especially children, etc etc, may be legend but they are legends we have record of, and they are present in many cultures where there was no Odin at all. Plus, Nicholas is a gift-giver and is closely associated with Christmas time.
Santa is in reality a merger of Christian traditions: the German Saint Nicholas tradition and this new Dutch-American Saint Nicholas being the main two. According to some, the only two.
Father Christmas - who does not descend from Saint Nicholas - is separate from Santa and barely involved. Father Christmas can appear similarly to Odin with his cap and cloak, but as we saw in the last post, the earliest appearances of Father Christmas were nothing like Odin.
Another, secular German character and gift-giver, the Weihnachtsmann (Christmas Man), also was created in this period, but after Santa. The earliest mention is in 1835 in the song "Der Weihnachtsmann" by Heinrich Hoffman (who also authored the German national anthem). Even this character is not based on old paganism as there is no real description of him at first. Any physical attributes appear later.
After this era, Santa absorbs other traditions into one grand gift-bringer, with many names and localized attributes.
There is also a lesser-known author we should note here. In 1816, Ernst Hoffman wrote "
The Nutcracker and The Mouse King", which would later inspire Peter Tchaikovsky.
Wreaths were used at Advent time for centuries, but in 1839, Johann Hinrich Wichern created the first Advent Wreath. It had four large candles representing the four Sundays of Advent, and twenty small red candles representing the other days. Modern Advent Wreaths only have the four large, colored candles. Some add a fifth white candle for Christmas Day.
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| Ghost of Christmas Past |
Now we come to it; perhaps the most important thing to happen to Christmas in the last 500 years. Charles Dickens authored "A Christmas Carol" in 1843, arguably the single most popular book on Christmas outside of the Bible itself. Dickens pulls inspiration from his own life, the culture of his day, the Bible, Irving, Shakespeare (Hamlet), Dante (Inferno), and some other quaint locations such as Punch magazine (based off the Punch and Judy puppet shows - think of it as a Mad magazine of the early 1800s). It took a few decades to catch on in America since Dickens insulted the American people after a visit. If any single thing could be said to have been the
most important thing that saved Christmas from the Industrial Revolution, it would be this.
When you read "A Christmas Carol", note how Dickens has three personifications of Christmas. There is the Ghost of Christmas Past, who is holiness and light. Dickens is expressing a longing for that better Christmas of eras past. There is the Ghost of Christmas Present, who is none other than Father Christmas (NOT Santa), the personification of Christmas itself. Dickens uses this Father Christmas as every bit the pro-Christmas propaganda as John Thomas did (from era 4). And the Ghost of Christmas Future, who comes as death personified, the Grim Reaper. There is hope in this dark future, though ...
if the greedy, miserly, anti-Christmas paths of the Industrial Revolution be turned from.
"`Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,’ said Scrooge. `But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me.' "
If you wish to learn more specifically about Dickens' Christmas classic, Hillsdale College has a free online course called "
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol". You can learn such things as Dickens himself lived in Camden Town and his parents went to Debtor's Prison. I've just started it myself. Pretty good so far. It might be worth some of your free time.
Together, these three men - Irving, Moore, and Dickens - saved Christmas.
Here, some smaller Christmas traditions appear.
On the Feast of St. Nicholas (December 6), children in various countries would leave their shoes and socks out at night and wake up to candy or small treats or coins inside. I mentioned this in the previous era, stating its origin is unknown but quite old and most likely Dutch. After the Reformation, most Saint Nicholas traditions were copy/pasted to Christmas. This led to the tradition of stockings hung from the chimney with care on Christmas Eve. Although the shoe tradition is said to be Dutch, Ronald Hutton says the stocking tradition is German (p. 116).
Another novelty from this era is the
Christmas greeting card. Invented and sent in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. It was traditional since Roman times to send letters to friends on New Year. Cole simply had the bright idea of having most of the letter printed out, with a lovely photo, to make the process easier. The earliest were not Christmas related, but New Year. They became Christmas related a few decades later.
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| Prince Albert's Christmas Tree |
Another novelty from this era is the most recognizable tradition of Christmas - the Christmas Tree. Hey! Didn't we already talk about the tree? Yes! It started in the 1500s, but it didn't get popular until now. You could find Christmas Trees in many places around the world by this time, but mostly just in German immigrant homes. It did not become truly fashionable until Queen Victoria of England married Prince Albert of Germany. Ronald Hutton lists Albert as one of his saviors of Christmas. Albert brought the Christmas Tree tradition with him to England, setting one up in Windsor Castle in 1848. Paintings of the royal children standing in front of a perfectly magical tree, gripped with awe at the lights and bangles that hung from it and the toys beneath, while the loving Queen and Prince looked on with beaming pride, captured the world's heart. From there it caught on first with the wealthy, then the middle class, then by the 1950s, almost everyone had one.
Here I pause to mention Alexander Hislop, author of the book "
The Two Babylons", anti-Catholic bigot, and source of all Nimrod claims. He was a member of the Church of Scotland, still hanging on to its anti-Catholic (and therefore anti-Christmas) stance since the 1550s. If anyone reading this has encountered Hislop or his distortions, do yourself a huge favor and read Ralph Woodrow's book "
The Babylon Connection". You'll thank yourself. Moving on.....
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| Thomas Nast Santa |
Back yet again to Santa Claus. The image changed again in 1862 when Thomas Nast (creator of the Republican Elephant and Democrat Mule) popularized Santa in red fur. This would not be the first time Santa was in red, but it was the most popular to date. Santa rarely appeared in other colors after this.
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| Civil War Star-Spangled Santa |
Santa's home at the North Pole was also introduced at this time as a slight to the Confederate South. Until then, Saint Nicholas was often depicted as living in New Jerusalem or some other Heavenly estate.
Santa faced an existential crisis at this point since even the stove pipes would be replaced by radiators and duct heating. Santa was on the decline.
In the 1870s, governments start to concede to the popular demand for the Christmas. Bank holidays were established. Christmas become a bank holiday in Scotland in 1871. Slowly, Scotland moves back toward Christmas.
In 1872,
Wilhelm Fuchtner, "The Father of the Nutcracker", started producing nutcrackers in assembly-line fashion. The family of carpenters would make toys in the winter for extra money and realized nutcrackers were a good choice for income and self-expression. The design was intended to convey a purpose. Soldiers were ornate yet expressionless to depict the harshness of life. Nutcrackers that looked like officials were intended to mock the ruling class.
Ronald Hutton mentions it was in the 1880s when greenery began to die off. No doubt the Christmas Tree played a large part. Only fir, holly, and mistletoe remained (p. 120). Artificial materials began to take over.
According to the article "
History of Electric Christmas Tree Lights" on ThoughtCo:
"In 1882, an employee of Edison put on a show with electric lights that was fully intended to establish the practical application of electricity to the celebration of Christmas. Edward H. Johnson, a close friend of Edison and the president of the company Edison formed to provide illumination in New York City, used electric lights for the first time to illuminate a Christmas tree."
In 1879, Frank Woolworth pioneered the "five and dime" bargain store. When the song "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" (Bing Crosby, 1951) says, "take a look at the five and ten," it is likely referring to a Woolworth.
Woolworth practically invented
the cheap toy. Until this point, lower-class families were too poor to afford gifts for Christmas. Hand-crafted toys were expensive. But with Woolworth's cheap mass-produced toys, practically anyone could have something. Afterward, Christmas would be geared almost entirely for children. At Woolworth, toys would be displayed only at certain times of the year out of respect for poor families. Thus, the Christmas-time toy display became popular.
Woolworth was also the first to produce manufactured Christmas Tree ornaments, in 1880.
Woolworth was also the store that popularized Christmas villages. The Christmas village started in the Czech Republic as elaborate Nativity scenes. (As a humorous aside, the word "putz", meaning 'to put up', comes from putting up these villages.) Woolworths imported cardboard villages from Germany to America and used them in Christmas displays. Ceramic villages came later.
In 1900, Joshua Lionel Cohen put a battery-powered electric motor onto a toy train so it could move on its own. He intended it to be in Woolworth's window displays, drawing attention to other merchandise. People began buying the toy trains. Thus, the
Christmas Village, Lionel trains, and trains under the Christmas tree are all interrelated, and all go back to Woolworth.
In 1890, the
first department store Santa arrives. Ironically, James Edgar, the man in the costume, was born in Scotland and moved to Boston - both locations were Puritan ground zero.
Tchaikovsky wrote his famous "The Nutcracker" ballet in 1892, based on Ernst Hoffman's "The Nutcracker and The Mouse King". Because of the Christmas timing in the ballet, nutcrackers became associated with Christmas.
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| "The Santa Claus" 1898 |
The
first Christmas motion picture appeared in 1898. The 90-second film "Santa Claus", directed by George Albert Smith, has the honor. Christmas movies would become a mainstay of the season in the next century.
It was in this first decade of the 1900s when the last holdouts of gift-giving on New Year surrendered to the trend of gift-giving on Christmas Day. Ronald Hutton mentions Queen Victoria was still sending gifts at New Year in 1900 (p. 116). But that was its last gasp.
In 1908, the first printed Advent Calendar was made.
Some grand old songs come from this era - "Twelve Days of Christmas (1780), "The First Noel" (1823), "The Holly and The Ivy" (1823), "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" (1849), "O Come, O Come O Come Emanual" (1251, but rewritten in 1851), "Good King Wenceslas" (1853), and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1868) from England, and "Deck the Halls" (1862) with music from Wales and lyrics by a Scott, and "O Holy Night" (1847) from France, and "Silent Night" (1818) from Germany.
I am putting the end of this era in 1915, due to the end of the Second Industrial Revolution. Note the complete lack of pagan origins in anything new during this era. We leave this era with Christmas on a serious upswing, enjoying popularity it hadn't seen in many places since Henry VIII. It is a secular event now, though, and getting more secular as we go. The day is clearly geared toward children now. Christmas, which was not very popular in America at the start of this era, is widely accepted. Traditions from around Europe have come together in the melting pot to be reinvented and sent back out.
The next step in history is the modern era. Christmas meets Madison Avenue and Hollywood, and becomes what it is today.
MODERN (1915 to Present)
The modern era is the time starting near the end of the Second Industrial Revolution, to the present (as you read this, right now). During this period, we see a great resurgence in Christmas, a solid focus on children, an expansion of the gift-giving traditions, the advent of television, a further widening and strengthening of secular traditions, and an identity crisis.
You live in this era. What is Christmas in this era to you? I bet there are as many answers to that as there are people. I think a common theme would be family, friends, and memories. I bet that would be a common theme from even the earliest years. The more things change, the more they stay the same. But a religious day stripped of its religion is a day without a set purpose. Christmas is searching for a reason to exist. Seems to me that reason is sentiment, children, and romance. I suppose it isn't beyond reason to speculate Christmas will one day absorb Valentine's Day.
One of the most well-known innovations of this era came to us in 1931. That was the fateful year
Coca Cola hired
Haddon Sunblom, creator of the Quaker Oats Man, to illustrate Santa Claus. His creation, a softer and simpler take on Thomas Nast's design, is the modern evolution of Santa Claus. The tradition of Santa exploded afterward. It was from here forward that Santa Claus begins to successfully absorb all other gift bringer characters. The only one to avoid this trend is the Christkindl, because it is particularly different, but that doesn't mean it was unscathed. Santa usually appears with the Christkindl, and has even taken a name from it, "Chris Kringle". Santa is now the single most recognizable Christmas character in the world. Some think Coca Cola invented Santa. No, they did not. But they might as well have.
Fun fact: Haddon Sundblom later gave Santa an elf helper, named
Sprite Boy. This is why their lemon-lime soda is named Sprite.
There is no way to know if this will be the final evolution of Santa. Given the way everything seems to change, I feel it would be naive to think it will be. Recently, there has been a push towards a younger, slimmer Santa. I also find it telling Coca Cola has almost abandoned Santa for polar bears in their holidays ads.
In 1934, Herbert W Armstrong prophesizes Jesus' return by 1936. I know, this factoid has nothing to do with Christmas. I just couldn't resist adding it.
And in 1939, the shiny, new Santa gets his shiny, new buddy, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, when Robert L. Ray writes a children's book featuring this character.
In the 1930s and 40s, the Nazi regime under the direction of Adolph Hitler began a campaign of secularization. Their intent was to set the party up as the quasi-religious center of the Reich. Christmas was forever altered by their efforts. Martha goes into great detail in her fascinating article, "
Falsely Accused? Nazi Propaganda Lives On".
In the late 1820s, Joel Roberts Poinsett brought a new flower to America from Mexico. In the 1920s, the Ecke family of Southern California sold it as a potted plant. Paul Ecke Jr. took over the family business in 1963 and turned (you guessed it) the Poinsettia into the most popular potted plant in America.
And now for arguably the most influential new Christmas tradition of this era - the Christmas television special. The very first was "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol." It aired on NBC on December 18, 1962. It was a hit, and all the other Christmas specials you've seen owe it a debt of thanks. It was not the first television show with a Christmas-related plot, but it was the first special. Oddly enough, it was televised Christmas that gets the most credit for bringing Scotland fully back into the Christmas fold after four long centuries of avoiding it. The warmth of televised Christmas thawed their northern hearts more than Innis & Gunn ever could.
In 1957, Dr. Suess published "How The Grinch Stole Christmas!" I just saw an entire isle of Grinch-related merch at Hobby Lobby.
In the mid-1960s, multi-national corporations realized they could pump out cheap products by using Asian labor and television marketing. The era of commercials aimed directly at children went into full swing. Whole television shows were created just to market toys. Saturday morning became synonymous with cartoons. Woolworths, the heavyweight champion of cheap toys, could not compete.
It is a strange thing that even from the early 1800s it was said that merchandizers were at the heart of what is wrong with Christmas. The Industrialist blamed them for keeping it alive rather than allowing people to just go to work. Yet it really wasn't exactly true ...until here.
There are so many more traditions and highlights to talk about, it would take much too long to go over them all -- snow globes, Currier and Ives, aluminum trees, Bing Crosby, "White Christmas", The Chipmunks, the Norelco Santa commercial, flash mobs, ugly sweaters, "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer", people getting trampled at Black Friday sales, the Star Wars Christmas Special, "A Christmas Story" with Ralphie almost shooting his eye out, Hans Gruber falling off the Nakatomi tower, Mariah Carey, Elf on a Shelf, music-synchronized Christmas lights displays, Dwight Schrute dressed up as Belsnickel, Holiday Baking Championship ... the list is endless.
What can I say about this Modern era? Clearly, our Christmas started in the previous. Christmas was gutted and reinvented. Christmas - circa 1800.
CONCLUSION
Thus ends our eras tour. There you have it! We've reviewed Christmas from start to finish. Not quite as pagan as advertised!
I offer you my thoughts on the past and the future. I think we can summarize the entire history, and therefore the future, of Christmas up in this: Christmas reflects who we are.
So far as the past goes, I think the story of Christmas is one of romanticizing a past. Long past? No, your past. What we think of as "how Christmas used to be" is really only how it used to be when we were very young. But at most 100 years ago or so. What Christmas genuinely used to be is long, long ago and far, far away. And I think if we went back to it, most people would not like it.
What do I expect to come in the next era (the future)? I think the pendulum does swing!
So far as the future goes, I think we can learn from the past. Christmas is a mirror reflecting who we are. We have seen that Christmas has changed as cultures change. It will continue. If Christmas is not as sacred as some would prefer, perhaps the issue is that we are less than sacred than we should be. Change what you can control - yourself. Clearly, if we've learned one thing at all, it's that trying to wipe out Christmas doesn't work. A heavy-handed approach just makes things worse.
I want to make one comment about commercialization of Christmas. It is rather obnoxious, I will freely admit. But while we pine for days long gone, don't forget the blessings of the present moment. Until recently, the common family was too poor to afford very much. Which would you rather have - obnoxious advertisements and traffic, or high infant mortality? Our modern world is not all bad. What kind of a world do we live in where we sit our overweight rumps on a couch, with central heating and a flat-screen television, eating cookies, and complaining there is too much Christmas? (Oh God! To hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing there is too much life and wishing to be among his hungry brothers in the dust.) I think we all should take a small step back and consider the whole equation, and we should consider our own personal role in these conditions.
When I say Christmas reflects who we are, I suppose that betrays the need to define Christmas. Is it the traditions? Is it the spirit? Is it the memories? Is it the past? It just so happens while I was writing this, the Charlie Brown Christmas Special came on. I find I still agree with Linus. This is the meaning of Christmas:
(LUK. 2: 8-14) 8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
One final mention of the "Christmas is pagan" narrative. Is Christmas pagan? No! I think this series on the history of Christmas shows as much.
There are many Herbert Armstrongs and Alexander Hislops out in the world, railing against Christmas and claiming everything goes back to ancient paganism. Their claims were little other than manipulations, calculated half-truths, and outright lies. I can strongly attest that there is a disturbingly high amount of misinformation about history in general, and Christmas in particular, floating around in books and on the internet. It isn't all from amateurs, either. Take for instance James Frazer's "Golden Bough". People selectively spread speculation, theories, and abandoned information as fact. We have pagans trying to reclaim something that was never theirs. We have fundamentalist Protestants desperately trying to give Christmas to the pagans. And then we have various groups of people (including yours truly) trying to find the genuine path we all took through time to get here, but most of our information goes unread. The average person just wanting a little information faces a figurative field of land mines. Manipulations, calculated half-truths, and outright lies abound.
Did Christmas once have some traditional elements taken from paganism? Yes. But Christmas has been gutted and reinvented new. Gift-giving, Christmas Cards, and greenery swags are about the only things left. Yet those did not start as pagan religious traditions, they were secular, and ubiquitous across all humanity. Everyone who can decorates throughout the year, gives gifts, and writes. There is nothing at all wrong about that. We could accuse almost everything else in our lives of this same "paganism", including what we do in our public and private worship practices. I do not believe in "once pagan, always pagan" at all any longer. It is unbiblical. It is unworkable. It relies on gross mischaracterizations of history and reality. That should be a dead giveaway of its quality. If you have to distort history to invent accusations, and ignore far more than you include, then truth is not as much on your side as you believe. If the modern Puritans who fret over paganism hiding under every bed and every rock really understood the magnitude of the standard they have set for themselves, and genuinely tried to live by their own standard, they would be unable to function. By their standard, shoes are pagan! It is a self-defeating system. It makes even God Himself into a pagan, it rips away His authority and power to redeem, and it ignores what repeatedly happens in the very Bible these ones claim to be defending. It is the diametric opposite of the Christmas message. It is a self-serving and self-righteous way. Its true intent and use is to elevate the self by putting others down. (Don't believe me? Give them some verified factual information and just see how quickly they ignore it and attack you.) If you have to put others down in order to elevate yourself, then God is not as much on your side as you believe. I reject it entirely. I suggest you, dear fair-minded reader, do the same.
We have MANY other articles that dive into "once pagan, always pagan" if you are interested in more.
I hope you've enjoyed our walk through the eras of Christmas. I did! I believe this was my favorite - and by far most involved - research project I've ever done. I pray God uses it to bless your life, and you use it to bless others.
Ugh! Now I have to start updating the Christmas FAQ. Lol
MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!
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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )
Acts 17:11
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