Washington -- Christmas, celebrated by most Christians
on December 25, commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Americans,
like many of the world’s peoples, have developed their own
Christmas traditions and observances, and these have changed greatly
over time.
Today, most Americans blend religious and secular customs with
their own family traditions. Thus, even though Christmas is for
many Americans a religious occasion, the federal courts have upheld
its status as a legal holiday. As one court reasoned, “by
giving federal employees a paid vacation day on Christmas, the
government is doing no more than recognizing the cultural significance
of the holiday.”
DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN CHRISTMAS
The early New England Puritans frowned on the often boisterous
Christmas celebrations they witnessed in Britain. In 1659, the
Massachusetts colony briefly criminalized observance of the day
and Christmas remained a regular workday in much of New England
and Pennsylvania. Other parts of British North America, however,
celebrated with gusto, with costumed revelers passing door to
door and receiving small gifts of food and drink.
The modern, more commercialized Christmas began to emerge in
the 19th century with the new custom of purchasing gifts for young
children. Seasonal “Christmas shopping” began to assume
economic importance.
Other Christmas traditions similarly began during the 19th century.
Santa Claus -- derived from the Dutch Sinter Klaas and the German
Saint Nicholas -- assumed the persona of a jolly dispenser of
gifts and pilot of a reindeer-drawn sleigh through such works
as the 1823 poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” and
an 1863 Harper’s Weekly portrait by the illustrator
Thomas Nast. Many organizations, from the Salvation Army charitable
organization to the Coca-Cola Company, since have employed Santa’s
image.
According to legend, Christmas trees date back to Martin Luther,
the 16th century German cleric whose critique of established Catholic
Church practices precipitated the Protestant Reformation. According
to legend, Luther brought home to his children and lit with candles
a fir tree one Christmas Eve to remind them of the wonders of
God’s creation.
The custom spread to Britain and the United States in the 19th
century. Today, many contemporary Americans either purchase a
cut, fresh evergreen tree or a reusable aluminum and plastic model.
Placed in the family living room, the Christmas tree is decorated
with lights and various ornaments, typically small orbs depicting
angels and other figures associated with the holiday. In some
families, Christmas gifts appear under the tree on the morning
of December 25, deposited there by family members, or, as smaller
children might believe, delivered by Santa Klaus after landing
reindeer and sleigh on the roof and traversing the chimney --
all after the children are fast asleep!
Mass-produced Christmas cards began to appear in the last quarter
of the 19th century. In 1996, Americans purchased and mailed an
estimated 2.6 billion Christmas cards. These might depict religious
scenes or else convey more secular, often humorous, messages.
With the rise of the Internet, electronically transmitted “e-cards”
are an increasingly popular option.
CONTEMPORARY OBSERVANCES
With Christmas shopping vitally important to some retailers,
Christmas has expanded into a “season” of its own.
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt proposed moving the Thanksgiving holiday to extend the
shopping period between that holiday and Christmas. Today, the
day after Thanksgiving is known as “Black Friday.”
An important shopping day (some stores open hours before their
normal time), it pushes some businesses into profitability, or
“in the black,” and can account for a substantial
proportion of annual profits.
This extended Christmas season is about far more than shopping.
For many Americans, it is a period of general good will and an
occasion for charitable and volunteer work. To some extent, non-Christian
holidays celebrated at roughly the same time of year -- most prominently
the African-American Kwanzaa and the Jewish Hanukkah -- blend
into a broader “holiday season.”
Seasonal popular entertainment includes a number of perennial
favorites. Popular telecasts of the motion pictures A Miracle
on 34th Street (1945) and It’s A Wonderful Life
(1946) have been joined in recent years by A Christmas Story
(1983), based on the tales of the radio raconteur Jean Shepherd.
Christmas-themed animated programs often appear on television.
Some, like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph
the Red-Nosed Reindeer, date to the mid-1960s, and are enjoyed
by today’s children and their nostalgic parents alike.
An increasing number of radio stations now adjust their formats
to feature Christmas music, sometimes exclusively, during the
four weeks to six weeks before the holiday. Live and recorded
performances of such classical favorites as the “Hallelujah
Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, Tchaikovsky’s
Nutcracker Suite and J.S. Bach’s “Christmas
Oratorio” peak during the weeks before Christmas.
The holiday’s original religious meaning remains for many
its most important element. Some congregations create manger scenes
-- dioramas of the stable where Jesus was born, complete with
figurines representing the infant Jesus and those present at his
birth. Many churches hold well-attended Christmas Eve candlelight
or midnight services. Some include a Mass of the Nativity or a
dramatization of the birth of Jesus.
As with so many aspects of U.S. cultural life, Christmas in the
United States reflects the values of a free and diverse people.
Michael Jay Friedman
Washington File Staff Writer
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