The Evolution of Christmas

The Evolution of Christmas

An Outline for Adult Education 

Whence Christmas?

The purported origins of Christmas are a much-muddled thing.

As with any major holiday, there are layers of tradition and myth.

Many Christmas traditions, while they have antecedents, are rather recent.

A Winter Feast

Every culture that knows winter knows a winter feast.

There are certain archetypal practices that seem near-universal.

It is only natural to gather around hearth and home in winter.

Feasting, generosity, fire, and evergreens keep the darkness at bay.

Io Saturnalia!

Saturnalia was a Roman winter festival involving feasting and drinking.

Patrons gave gifts to their clients, demonstrating magnanimity.

Social roles were often reversed—a feast of fools, or even a “Purge.”

Is Christmas just Saturnalia for Christians? No, probably not.

There is no evidence of continuous Saturnalia practices, but there are parallels.

God Jul!

What about Yule, the midwinter month and feast of Northern Europe?

Publications claim that Yule was a 12-day feast on the winter solstice.

It wasn’t. Yule was a three-day feast early in the New Year.

Heathen Yule was altered to correspond to Christmas by Haakon the Good.

Even the sign of the Cross was reinterpreted as the hammer of Thor.

Sol Invictus?

The Romans celebrated a feast to Sol Invictus on 25 December.

But here’s the thing: the Roman celebration of Christmas predates Sol Invictus.

The pagan holiday was a co-optation of the Christian, not vice versa.

Twelve Days of Christmas

Rome celebrated Christ’s birth on 25 December from the earliest centuries.

Some claim that this was due to a Jewish tradition of the “integral age.”

Some claim that it had to do with census records no longer extant.

Recent scholarship indicates that it may have been connected to Hanukkah.

The Eastern Church celebrated Christ’s birth on Epiphany, 6 January.

The Church simply accepted both traditions, leading to 12 Days of Christmas.

Medieval Merriment

Moving into the Middle Ages, two Christmases arose.

One was the liturgical, churchly celebration: the great three Christ Masses.

The other was the raucous and rather saturnalian secular Christmas.

The drunken debauchery was frowned upon by ecclesiastical authorities.

Mistletoe and Christmas carols were not allowed in the sanctuary.

Little wonder that the Puritans cancelled Christmas!

Reinventing Christmas

Our modern understanding of family-friendly Christmas comes from three books.

“Old Christmas” (1819), from Sketch Book, by Washington Irving.

“A Visit from St Nicholas” (1823), by Clement Clarke Moore.

A Christmas Carol in Prose (1843), by Charles Dickens.

These three transformed Christmas into a child-centered time of joy.

Enter Santa

St Nicholas of Myra (A.D. 270-343), the most important saint of the East.

Flight, bilocation, resurrection, bags of gold, the “Manna of St Nicholas.”

His legend spread along shipping routes; his saint’s day is 6 December.

He has always been associated with giving gifts to children.

In many European countries he has a “Bad Santa” counterpart.

Father Christmas

Personifications of Christmas appear as early as the fifteenth century.

“Father Christmas” becomes popular during the English Civil War (17th Cen.)

He looks like the traditional St Nicholas: tall, lean, long-bearded, riding a horse.

But he also looks suspiciously like Odin the Wanderer, including a blue cloak.

A lot of overlap develops between St Nicholas and Father Christmas.

Claims of Viking origins for Christmas traditions, however, are bunkum.

Santa Claus in New York

The Dutch brought St Nicholas traditions to New Amsterdam.

W. Irving lampooned them in Knickerbocker’s History of New York (1809).

Most Americans learned about St Nicholas through Irving’s parody.

“Santeclaus” (and reindeer) in The Children’s Friend (1821), by A.J. Stansbury.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

Clement Moore modeled his St Nicholas on a local handyman: short, jolly.

Helped to move St Nicholas’ visit from St Nicholas Day to Christmas Eve.

Thomas Nast, the famous cartoonist, expanded the legend: North Pole, N&N list.

Coca-Cola then supersized him and standardized his fur-lined red Santa suit.

Tradition, Tradition!

Christmas trees date back to St Boniface, but got popular under Queen Victoria.

Christmas plays (and ornaments) date back to the Middle Ages. Now movies.

Are Christmas ghost stories of pagan origin? Perhaps, if “pagan” means human.

Presents: Wise Men? St Nicholas? Saturnalia? Or just consumerism?

Probably the most pagan part of Christmas is the involvement of elves.

But there are also plenty of Yuletide Monsters to keep things interesting.

There is still a darkness lurking in the shadows of every winter feast.