Christmas Survives Another Year

Spectator

It’s about that time when a certain president will declare he has once again saved Christmas. Actually, Christmas hasn’t needed saving since the mid-1600s when the Puritans banned it in Boston because it was not mentioned in the Bible. Since then, Christmas has been on a pretty positive run.

Christmas was certainly not the first of the winter festivals, long celebrated as daylight began to magically lengthen or as late fall crops were finally harvested and stored. The traditions we now enjoy—holiday trees festooned with decorations, gift-giving, and gathering for feasts—started long before historical Jesus was born and Christmas was celebrated.

The Romans, whose more moderate climate promoted a longer growing season, celebrated the winter crops during a drunken bacchanal called Saturnalia. Persians, Norse, Germanic people, Chinese, and Hopis in the Americas all were among many cultures celebrating the winter solstice.

Saturnalia was especially offensive to early Christians, so they conjured up their own celebration they called the Feast of the Nativity and chose Dec. 25 to intentionally conflict with the celebration of a pagan god. There is zero evidence Jesus was born on that date—the Bible is silent on the precise date but most scholars believe historical Jesus was likely born in the spring. By the 4th century, Saturnalia was fading and most of their feasting and gift-giving traditions were absorbed by a newly Christian Roman Empire. Their first recorded Christmas celebration on Dec. 25th happened in 336 CE.

In 1659 in Boston, our Puritan ancestors, finding no Biblical evidence of Christmas, actually outlawed Christmas and any activities associated with it. The “Christmas spirit” itself was specifically illegal, and decorations, gift-giving, and any related celebrations could result in a five-shilling fine. The smiling Grinch was doubtless disappointed when the Puritans lifted their ban in 1681.

Santa Claus has a religious foundation, too. A 4th century Greek bishop named St. Nicholas fond of giving gifts to the poor became the likely inspiration for Santa, and the short Dutch version of St. Nicholas, Sinter Klaas, ultimately morphed into Santa Claus. A poem written by Clement Moore in 1822 first described Santa’s visits. Drawings of the round guy in the red suit started appearing in Harper’s Weekly in the 1860s, the creation of cartoonist Thomas Nast. The vision of Santa we have today was fully immortalized in Coca-Cola ads in 1931.

Some would blame Santa for the birth of the secular commercialization of Christmas we now bemoan. After all, St. Nicholas gave gifts, so we’d better. Initially, gift-giving was primarily of the homemade varieties or food. The retail opportunities simply did not exist.

But buying Christmas gifts started as early as the 1830s. More people immigrating brought their gift-giving traditions with them. The advent of the industrial revolution meant more people moved into cities and more stores opened to serve them. Christmas-specific advertising became commonplace, and the opportunities to purchase almost everything increased exponentially. By 1870, Dec. 25 was declared a federal holiday.

Despite the overwhelming commercialization of the entire holiday season, many people believe this is a sacred time to honor their messiah, not a time for mirth. They limit their frivolity in exchange for deeper understanding of their beliefs. Others believe it is neither heavily religious nor heavily commercial but simply a time to enjoy family and friends.

For most of the rest of the world, Dec. 25 is just another day; nearly 70 percent of the planet has no interest in the religious component of Christmas at all. That’s because only 31 percent of the world identifies itself as Christian. Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism, and Native American religions, just to mention a few of the thousands of religious belief systems around the world, all have their own holidays and traditions, none of which include Christmas.

And if you want nothing to do with Christmas at all—no religion, no parties, no gifts, no celebrations, no feast—that’s all right, too. Christmas doesn’t force itself on anyone not a willing recipient. That’s really the beauty of Christmas for those of us who celebrate, or not, in any way; we get to choose. It’s difficult to destroy anything that flexible, and nobody since the Puritans has really tried.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or you’re just happy daylight will glow longer, there is one holiday bromide with which we nearly all agree. It would be nice if at some point in 2026 we really did experience peace on earth and goodwill to all. Those are gifts everyone would gladly open.

(P.S. If you want to really help local charitable organizations, contribute the week after Christmas. Food pantry shelves are nearly bare, clothes and other necessities have been picked over, and the charitable group of your choice likely needs your help more on Dec. 26 than they did before Dec. 25.)

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