This drawing of Santa was published in 1865
Long before commercial Christmas - even before the belief that there was a Christ in Christmas, there was winter solstice - a celebratory feast to encourage hope and create communal comfort at the darkest time of the year. Many important elements of what we recognize in a modern Christmas started to become widespread in Europe and England during Victorian times. Some of these are mentioned in "The Book of Christmas" by Thomas Hervey, (1836), "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, (1843), and "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition" by Clement Miles, (1912).
Here is a short list of Christmas customs that we would recognize today and the dates they came into being:
1840s - Christmas trees, already well-established in Germany, become popular in England and North America
1862-1865 - Santa Clause's image is created and refined by Thomas Nast
1870 - Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the US
1871- Christmas is declared a bank holiday in England and in Canada
1870s - With the rise in the middle class, domestic Christmas starts to be combined with commercial Christmas when gift giving, eating Christmas goose or turkey and the exchange of Christmas cards become customary
1898 - First Christmas Stamp (Canadian)
The aftermath of World War One left people longing for a return to happier prewar times. A typical response to crisis is to renew old customs to explain, or at least soften, the impact of frightening events. The nostalgic view of peaceful Victorian Christmas and its traditions that still exist in many forms today were artificially locked into place largely in response to the horrors of WWI.
In 1946, the film "It's a Wonderful Life" was released and began to take its place as the twentieth century's version of "A Christmas Carol". In it, the main character, George Bailey rails at the sacrifices and compromises that he has had to make in order to be responsible to his community and family. Clarence, the guardian spirit who helps to save George, doesn't awaken him to his childhood memories or compassion for the poor as did Scrooge's spirits in "A Christmas Carol". Instead, George is shown how his actions have positively influenced Bedford Falls and he is awakened to re-embrace his life of domestic normalcy. The film is one the first to address some of the strong contradictory emotions that we experience during the Christmas season. Other films that continue the tradition of a troubled and suffering Christmas protagonist are The Bishop's Wife, (1947), A Charlie Brown Christmas, (1965), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, (1989), The Santa Clause, (1994), Jingle all the Way, (1996), and Polar Express, (2004).
We have seen Christmas change from a pagan feast to a Victorian celebration of charity, compassion and companionship to today's festival of commercial overabundance with its undercurrent of anxiety.
Christmas is a time of contradictions:
- We remember the spontaneous excitement and joy that we felt as children and contrast the effort of will required to artificially create it as adults.
- We try to create the perfect Christmas for our families and the inability to bring it off creates impossible stress.
- We are surrounded by material wealth and comfort and yet may experience guilt for our success as compared to those less fortunate both in Canada and in the world community or because in spite of our material abundance, we are not happy inside.
- Many of the rich rituals that we associate with Christmas as we grew up have been replaced by improvised commercial rituals that encourage conditioned responses and reinforce our sense of emptiness.
Can we draw any conclusions from this?
Perhaps the need for companionship at this time of year has been hardwired into us since the earliest times of the solstice. In an unconscious way we are also hardwired to renew ourselves in parallel to the renewal of the earth in the spring. Trying to physically renew ourselves, like trying to create the perfect Christmas, is an impossible task. The closest that we can come to attach our short human cycle of growth and certain physical decay with the natural cycle of renewal is by having children.
Some people are able to relive their childhood excitement, spontaneous joy and wonder through their children. For many, Christmas has become a winter holiday that is meant to create magic for kids.
Others can balance out the bleakness and stresses of the season with the rich rituals that replenish their imaginations. They use the cold and darkness of winter to appreciate the warmth and brightness of spring and summer.
For others a renewal of spirit comes from helping others.
For Christians, renewal comes with the birth of one child.
The spirits that save us are not Clarence or the ghost of Christmas Past. While we cannot renew ourselves physically, we can always choose to renew ourselves in spirit. That strength of spirit and common humanity is all we need.
The inspiration for this article came from lecture three of CBC's Massey Lectures: " Winter - Five Windows on the Season" by Adam Gopnik.
