hristmas was first observed in the
colonies by a ragged band of Englishmen huddled together in Jamestown in 1607.
Their leader, Captain John Smith, was away, bartering for food with the local
There was less than 40 of them
and little food with which to rejoice, but they still observed Christmas Day
with an Anglican worship service in their small chapel. The next year, with
their odds of survival improved, the Virginians spent Christmas in the camp of
one of Chief Powhatan's sons.
Smith wrote in his diary that they
were "never more merrie, nor fedd on more plentie of good oysters, fish, flesh,
wild foule and good bread; nor never had better fires in England than in the
warm smokie houses."
The majority of the early settlers
in Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas were Anglicans of English descent.
Perhaps because their history in the New World was grounded in hardship,
struggle and uncertainty, they maintained a reasonable balance between observing
Christmas as a sacred time and as a time of relaxation and rejoicing.
Their Christmas celebrations
emphasized feasting, drinking, dancing, card playing, horse racing, cock
fighting and other games, rather than worship. The old English Christmas customs
they brought along with them included Christmas carols, Yule logs, kissing under
the mistletoe, and decking homes with greenery.
Many New England settlers brought with them a deep-seated abhorrence of the
Church of England's "relics of Popery," including "Christ-mass." They believed
that the day called Christmas was a human invention and felt strongly that any
celebration of the Lord's birth was totally without Biblical sanction.
They viewed Christmas in England as
a season marked by gluttony, drunkenness, dancing, gambling, and mass begging
and they wanted no part of it. Oliver Cromwell's Puritan Council abolished
Christmas on December 22, 1657. Connecticut followed suit in 1659 (including a
ban on mincemeat pies!) and so did Massachusetts.
But Virginians defied Cromwell,
maintaining their Episcopal worship and their Christmas celebrations throughout
the colonial period. When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, the New
England colonies fought the establishment of the Anglican Church there.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony denied
citizenship to Anglicans settlers. Anti-Christmas sentiment continued and most
people went on treating Christmas like any other workday. Many of the Puritans
resented the presence of the few Anglicans in their midst, especially if they
were government officials.
In 1686, Sir Edmond Andros was only
able to attend Christmas service with an armed escort. In 1706, a Puritan mob
broke out windows in the King's Chapel in Boston because Anglicans were holding
a Christmas service there. Puritan mistrust was a major cause in the rebellion
against England. They pushed for anti-Christmas Reformation doctrine in the New
England colonies. Only Rhode Island resisted. While various beliefs existed in
the Atlantic colonies and Pro-Christmas Anglicans ran the Southern colonies as
late as 1810, most of the citizens of Pennsylvania (many of them austere
Quakers) paid little or no attention to Christmas.
The Puritans, no matter how they tried, were not able to rule their sprawling
new land the way Oliver Cromwell ruled tiny England. And so their solemn ideas
about Christmas and not celebrating it were not universally accepted. The
immigrants to the new land were a diverse lot with many beliefs and customs that
they imported along with themselves.
Christmas could best be seen in New
York in the 19th century, where Dutch settlers made merry. But they focused more
on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with Sinter Claes visiting the children on
New Year's Eve. New York was the principal port for European immigration in the
19th century and it was here that Christmas traditions were first interchanged
and then taken across the continent as a mixture of strands from many cultures.
Many of these Christmas observances
were purely secular with emphasis on children, hospitality, seasonal good cheer,
as well as military parades and special performances in theaters and music
halls. By the end of the century, Christmas had gained the support of the
reluctant New England states and in 1887, the first Christmas carnival was held
in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Similar to New Orleans' Mardi Gras, it lasted a
As the Roman Catholic associations
died out and were no longer associated with the day, Christmas gradually united
its religious and secular elements into a truly national celebration,
encompassing religion as well as folklore.
18th-century Anglicans prepared to celebrate the Nativity during Advent, a
penitential season in the church's calendar. December 25, not a movable feast,
began a festive season of considerable duration. The twelve days of Christmas
lasted until January 6, also called Twelfth Day or Epiphany.
Colonial Virginians thought Twelfth
Night a good occasion for balls, parties, and weddings. There seems to have been
no special notice of New Year's Eve in colonial days. Celebrants in the 18th
century saw Christmas Day itself as only the first day of festivities.
Probably because customs then were
fewer and preparations simpler, colonials looked to the twelve days beyond
December 25 as a way to extend and more fully savor the most joyful season of
Decorations for the midwinter holidays consisted of whatever natural materials
looked attractive at the
bleakest time of year--evergreens, berries, forced
blossoms--and the necessary candles and fires. People held on to the promise of
spring, especially with those things that were "ever green."
In ancient times, Romans celebrated
their Saturnalia with displays of lights and hardy greenery formed into wreaths
and sprays. Christian churches have long been decorated for Christmas. The
tradition goes back so far that no one knows for certain when or where it began.
Many early churches forbade the
symbolic use of greenery, believing it to be a vestige of the old vegetation
worship. Finally in the late medieval period, a popular Christmas play called
the Paradise Play (which featured the tree of life in the Garden of Eden
connected to the coming of the Savior), again brought the evergreen into
18th-century English prints show interior Christmas decorations; a large cluster
of mistletoe is always the major feature for obvious reasons. Otherwise, plain
sprigs of holly or bay fill vases and other containers of all sorts or stand
flat against windowpanes. Wreaths were a major part of the holidays. Boxwood and
bayberry were key ingredients in the holiday wreaths that adorned colonial
homes. An old English rhyme says:
To add color to wreaths, colonists
used pomegranates and other colorful fruits.
Pomegranates, in particular,
indicated wealth. Many embellished their wreaths with seashells from nearby
beaches, pinecones and even imported items such as pineapples and apples (which
were not grown in some of the colonies at the time).
After the 12th day of Christmas on
January 5th, the homeowners took down their decorations, removed the fruit and
added them to the holiday feast, enjoying the bounty of summer in the heart of
If we had to choose the one outstanding
symbol of Christmas, of course it must be the gaily decorated evergreen tree
with a star at the very top. Sometimes called "Christian trees," for 200 years
after the first written record of the Christmas tree, its use was confined
mainly to the Rhine River District of Germany.
Although the custom spread
throughout Germany and then on to the Scandinavian countries, France, and
England, it bridged the Atlantic much sooner. Historians generally agree that
colonists were first exposed to the Christmas tree by Hessian soldiers stationed
in the American colonies during the Revolutionary War.
German in origin, "Tannenbaum"
gained acceptance in England and the U.S. only very slowly. The first written
reference to a Christmas tree dates from the 17th century when a candle-lighted
tree astonished residents of Strasbourg.
The tradition of the Christmas tree
came from Germany via England to the New World. In 1841 at Windsor Castle,
German-born Prince Albert surprised his English wife, Queen Victoria, with a
tradition from his homeland.
He had small evergreen trees placed
on tables and decorated with dozens of candles, elegant receptacles for
expensive candies and glace fruits, and gilt gingerbread and eggs filled with
sweetmeats hung with ribbons.
When a print of Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert's very domestic circle around a decorated tree at Windsor Castle
appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848, the custom already
practiced by other members of the English royal family for at least half a
century truly caught on with the English people.
At about the same time, Charles
Minnegerode, a German political refugee who was a professor of Greek and Latin
at the College of William and Mary, trimmed a small evergreen in 1842 to delight
the children at the St. George Tucker House, a custom he continued until his
But the transformation from little
German tabletop models to luxurious floor-to-ceiling Christmas trees was an
innovation made possible in timber-rich America.
Everyone wants more and better things to eat and drink for a
celebration. Finances nearly always control the possibilities. In 18th-century
Virginia, of course, the rich had more on the table at Christmas and on any
other day, too, but even the gentry faced limits in winter.
December was the right time for
slaughtering, so fresh meat of all sorts they
had, as well as some seafood.
Preserving fruits and vegetables was problematic for a December holiday. Then as
now, beef, goose, ham, and turkey counted as holiday favorites; some households
also insisted on fish, oysters, mincemeat pies, and brandied peaches.
Mincemeat pie was made from a
mixture of fruits and meats. Not only did the blend make for a delicious treat;
the citrus in the fruit acted as a preservative
for the meat filling. In the
days before refrigeration this was an added plus.
Creating mincemeat pie was an
elaborate undertaking, considering that the fruit had to be imported, as well as
the cinnamon and nutmeg used. Since
mincemeat pie was associated with English
excess, the strict Puritans of Massachusetts banned the making of this
traditional dish in many communities.
Wines, brandy, rum punches, and
other alcoholic beverages went plentifully around the table on December 25 in
well-to-do households. Others had less because they could afford less.
Slave owners gave out portions of
rum and other liquors to their workers at Christmastime, partly as a holiday
treat (one the slaves may have come to expect and even demand) and partly to
keep slaves at the home quarters during their few days off work. People with a
quantity of alcohol in them were more likely to stay close to home than to run
away or travel long distances to visit family.
Christmas was not a holiday for children
until the 19th century. The Dutch and the Germans were the ones who centered
Christmas in the home and within the family circle.
Printers have been cashing in on Christmas since the 18th century--at least in
London and other large
cities. Schoolboys filled in with their best penmanship
pages pre-printed with special holiday borders, which were called "Christmas
pieces." But the Christmas card per se was a 19th-century English invention.
Originally, the custom of sending
New Year's greetings gradually caught on to include sending a greeting to
friends and relations and by the early 19th century, a handwritten Christmas
greeting had mostly replaced those linked to New Year's.
Some were personally delivered, but
most were mailed; indeed, so popular had the tradition become that by 1822
delivering holiday mail became a burden for the U.S. Postal System. That year
the Superintendent of Mails in Washington, D.C., complained of the need to hire
16 extra mailmen and petitioned Congress to limit the exchange of cards by post.
But the cards kept coming and the postal burden worsened. It wasn't until 21
years later that the first Christmas card as we know it was designed.
In London, Henry Cole, a busy
businessman and publisher of illustrated children's books, felt he no longer had
time to hand write personal holiday messages to his many business associates,
relatives, and friends. With that thought in mind, he consulted his friend, John
Calcott Horsley, an artist and member of England's Royal Academy, who agreed to
design a card Cole could merely sign, place in an envelope, and send off.
Horsley's three-panel, hand-colored
card was a work of art that said, "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to
You," which is still the most popular holiday sentiment for Christmas cards. One
thousand copies made of Horsley's cards were printed.
Within 10 years, almost everyone in
England was buying, sending, and receiving these cards, which were actually
postcards. And because many Americans had relatives and friends living in
Europe, Christmas cards were frequently sent back and forth across the ocean.
In this country, however, they were
expensive and not easy to come by since no one in the U.S. was publishing cards
at that time. All were imported from Europe, most from Germany and England.
Later, during the 1860s, Americans were also using Christmas visiting cards,
left when a person paid a formal call at the home of a friend.
It wasn't until 1875 when Louis
Prang, an immigrant lithographer from Germany, began publishing cards in Boston
that the Christmas card business really began to flourish in this country. By
1881, Prang, who has often been called "the father of the American Christmas
card," was printing almost 5 million cards annually.
Other publishing firms offered
competition, but Prang's cards (he advertised) were still the most popular in
the U.S. Americans were also buying cards manufactured and printed in this
country; one of the first companies to manufacture a higher-quality card was
started by an 18-year-old man in Kansas City, MO. Joyce C. Hall, founder of Hall
Bros. (Hallmark Cards, Inc.) began, in 1910, by selling picture postcards to
stores. In 1915 he published his company's first non-postcard Christmas greeting
to be placed in an envelope and mailed.
Postcards remained popular until
World War I blockaded shipping and took its toll of European publishing
companies. Companies on this side of the ocean flourished and by the time the
war ended, the modern greeting card industry was firmly established in the U.S.
Ben Franklin invented an instrument with a mellifluous sound that was popular
for playing Christmas carols. Called the glass armonica (the Italian word for
harmonics), the contraption was unique in structure and soothing in sound. The
hurdy-gurdy was a medieval stringed invention played by a rosined wheel with a
It produced a sound much like a
violin. When the crank is turned, the wheel rubs against the strings to produce
beautiful music. The showboats of the 19th century steamed along the Delta. When
any boat docked, its steam-powered organ, called a calliope, would play the
popular Christmas carols of the day.
The middle of the 19th century
witnessed the publication of new Christmas hymns. A number of these hymns, such
as "Little Town of Bethlehem," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," and "We Three
Kings," were composed by clergymen and became Christmas standards.
At the beginning of the 18th century a new Christmas custom arose in the British
West Indies called Jonkonnu. It blended African and English masquerade and
mumming traditions. It spread to the southern U.S. North Carolina slaves called
the custom "John Kooner" and spoke of going "John Canoeing" or "John Kunering"
on Christmas morning.
Like the Caribbean celebrants, most
of the participants were men. They wore homemade costumes and masks. Accompanied
by simple musical instruments they stopped at houses of the well-to-do, sang and
danced and asked for money in return. Plantation owners often rewarded the
participants with small gifts, such as coins or scarves and convinced themselves
that this yearly festival justified the institution of slavery.
Williamsburg shopkeepers of the 18th century placed ads noting items appropriate
as holiday gifts, but New Year's was as likely a time as December 25 for
bestowing gifts. Cash tips, little books, and sweets in small quantities were
given by masters or parents to their dependents, whether slaves, servants,
apprentices, or children.
It seems to have worked in only one
direction: children and others did not give gifts to their superiors. Except for
the gift giving of St. Nicholas, we must attribute the exchange of gifts among
equals and from dependents to superiors to good old American influences. Both
20th-century affluence and diligent marketing has made it the norm in the last
50 years or so.
Before the 19th century, people from virtually every country told tales of a
gift-giving Christmas spirit.
German children awaited the arrival of Kris Kringle. British tots dreamed of Father Christmas. In Russia, it was a female
babushka that visited homes leaving treats for children.
All of these gift-giving spirits
combined with a legendary 4th-century saint named Nicholas to give us our Santa
Claus. The Dutch had long celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas on December 6th
with gifts, food and parties. When they immigrated to America in the 1600s, they
brought their version of "Sinter Claas" with them. Over time, Sinter Claas was
anglicized to Santa Claus.
The "right jolly old elf" dressed in
red and fur and driving his sleigh and reindeer sprang from "A Visit from Saint
Nicholas," published anonymously, like most newspaper poetry back then, in the
Troy, New York, Sentinel of December 23, 1823.
About 13 years later, a magazine
editor attributed it to New York City Bible professor Clement Clarke Moore. This
poem created a new look for the Christmas gift-giver. [Recently, however,
historians and English professors are beginning to think that poet Henry
Livingston (1748-1828) wrote the poem most of us know as "The Night Before
Cartoonist Thomas Nast completed the
vision with his 1860s drawings that still define how we see Santa.