By Carol Fisher Linn
“The sharpest memory of our old-fashioned Christmas eve is my mother’s hand making sure I was settled in bed.” Paul Engle (American poet, writer)
Isn’t it odd how we accept some things as we know them today as “it’s always been that way?” Consider Christmas. As far back as any of us can remember, each of our Christmas celebrations have a thread of continuity. As we open the dusty box of Christmas ornaments and decorations, so many of them have memories attached to them. We gingerly handle the delicate German blown-glass ornament that once hung on our great grandparents’ tree, the color faded and streaked, the glass perhaps chipped or broken, yet perfectly beautiful in our eyes. Who has one shaped like an acorn or an indented ball filled with reflective color? My family has several Mercury glass bells, clappers intact that, before being hung, must be gently rung to summon the spirits of our ancestors to join the family festivities. Not to mention helping a few angels get their wings. Handling these precious vessels of memory, we can easily believe that the Christmas traditions that we continue have been handed down from generation to generation since, well, since our ancestors hit these shores. That may be true for many of us, but there was a time in colonial America when the celebration of Christmas was … VERBOTEN!
Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay colonies may have loved Thanksgiving, but they hated the celebration of Christmas. (To be fair, the Virginia settlers loved Christmas!) The Puritans claimed that there are no biblical references to December 25th as Christ’s birthday (quite true). The Roman Catholic Church used December 25th to entice those who believed in the pagan tradition of Saturnalia (celebrated 12/25) by co-opting the day and proclaiming it the day Christ was born. In England at that time, Christmas celebrations lasted from December 25 to Twelfth Day. The problem was these were rowdy, crazy, times, somewhat akin to college spring break. The Puritans were having no part of that. It got to the point that celebration of the holiday was banned, churches were closed, and businesses and schools were open on December 25th in the Massachusetts colonies. No Santa for the colonists until rules slackened and Christmas could finally be officially celebrated well into the middle of the nineteenth century. Of course, being the rebels they were, New England colonists did find a way to celebrate anyway. With it being more of an adult holiday, they drank, they partied and held lavish balls; they “mummed,” and they wassailed. Mumming gave people an opportunity to mask, dress up in costume (or even cross-dress) and in essence, sing from home to home, passing along a bit of grog as they went (wassailing). In the south, caroling was a custom where they gathered and sang popular English favorites. Although celebrated far and wide, Christmas was not recognized as an official holiday until 1870.
Though not recognized as an official holiday, Americans everywhere began decorating their homes almost a century earlier. Of course, the Old West pioneers and explorers had it a little rough. The prairies were not for the faint-of-heart, with scant resources, raging blizzards and savage winds that chilled to the bone. But they too, found a way to enjoy the season as Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote in her stories about life on the Kansas prairie: she wrote about the delight of vinegar pies, baked beans with salt pork and molasses, Injun bread and cookies, with a side of venison roasting outdoors. She spoke of the delight of finding under the tree a new tin cup all her own, a candy and, in her stocking, a brand-new penny.
These days, Christmas is all about the kids and movies like “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (1970) and “Rudolph” (1964- The Beatles year), “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946 – ring that bell), “Frosty the Snowman” (1969), “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” (1966) and one of my favorites from 1983, “A Christmas Story,” which gives you a total picture of Christmas back in the 1930’s-1940’s inviting you into the Christmas chaos of the family of young Ralphie Parker who has visions of only one thing for Christmas-a Red Ryder BB gun, but whose dad might steal the show with his prized, Fragil-ee leg lamp. This movie and of course, a visit to Bedford Falls in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” will give you a glimpse into what your parents or grandparents lived through while making the Christmas memories and traditions you enjoy today.