Christmas Traditions

The Christmas we celebrate today is chiefly the Christmas of the Victorians. Whilst we all understand that the celebration acknowledges the birth of Jesus Christ, and is a very special Christian holiday, few of us ever question the common symbolism in use. Santa Claus, Christmas trees, cards, crackers, and even turkey are all the result of Victorian influences, and before Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 our Yuletides were very different affairs.
 
In Britain Father Christmas has all but been vanquished by the American influenced Santa Claus. Whilst both are now regarded as one and the same, they are in fact entirely different figures – one green the other red. Father Christmas was part of the old English Midwinter festival, and his green attire was a sign of the spring season returning. The green also probably came from another incarnation of his – that of the Celtic Holly King. Santa Claus had a more convoluted route, beginning in Holland where he was known as Sinter Klaas, or Saint Nicholas, and sailing within the hearts and minds of the Dutch settlers to America in the 1600s.

From around 1870 he somehow returned to European shores and soon gained popularity in Great Britain along with his ubiquitous reindeer and sleigh. His clothing appears to be credited to the American Clement C. Moore in 1822, when he wrote in a note to his children:

“He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his sack….

“Ashes and soot” being the first western reference to his knack of plummeting down chimneys. Later In 1866, the cartoonist Thomas Nast, a fellow American, portrayed him in this guise and also as a toy maker. The cartoon images were soon given colour by George P. Webster in 1869. It was also in Nast’s book “Santa Claus and his Works” which first indicated the North Pole as Santa’s home. The birth of modern Santa and his eponymous image can be attributed to the Coca-Cola advertising campaign of 1931. Some would argue he’s never been the same since!
 
His British cousin Father Christmas was not renowned for climbing down sooty chimneys, and seemed to be stingier as far as giving presents are concerned, although he did fill up hanging stockings whilst going around from house to house eating merrily with families at each visit. Presumably that’s why we leave him a mince pie and a glass of port. The mince pie heralds from the medieval Yuletide, and consisted of spiced meat and fruit. The spices of which were first brought back to England by the returning Crusaders from the Holy Land. Eventually they became ever spicier as the fruit and spice became more plentiful, and by the 19th century meat was finally omitted entirely.

In A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens portrayed Father Christmas as the Ghost of Christmas Present. The earliest reference for him in England stems from the mid 1400’s when he appears in a carol as Sir Christemas, and more prominently from the early 1600’s in Ben Johnson’s Captaine Christmas. The puritans of the times, both in Britain and America, where not best pleased with the character and tried to do him in. Fortunately for the generations of children which followed, they did not succeed, and our fairly eccentric British Father Christmas plodded along merrily until eventually today he has almost gone the way of the red squirrel.
 
We can actually take this Father Christmas much further back into the mist of time, where he has often appeared in one form or another. Much other Christmas symbolism now in use actually predates Christian festivities, notably the northern European pagan Yuletide celebrations. From this we get the burning of the Yule Log, and the hanging of holly and mistletoe. The word yule possibly originates from the ancient Norse, and stems from the same root as jolly.

Holly has long been revered as a plant of special powers since ancient times, hence the custom of hanging it in homes to provide protection and security. Most of us would not consider it for that reason today. Mistletoe was a sacred herb to the Druids and the Norse who believed it had magical powers of healing and protection. The Norse believed that if they met in battle under the mistletoe, they would forgive each other and forget their differences, then kiss to honour the peace which was established between them. That’s something to talk about next time you get caught under it. Indeed, perhaps a sprig should be readily to hand throughout the year just to stifle heated arguments!
 
An account of a traditional English Christmas has yet to be bettered than that given by Dickens in The Pickwick Papers, published in 1836 when a grand party was attended at Dingly Dell. Whilst the hanging of stockings was a well established English custom, the Christmas tree was not, unlike in Germany. Victoria’s husband, Albert of Saxe Coburg, wasted little time in introducing his country’s custom to Windsor Castle in 1840. Where the Royals went, others followed, and it didn’t take long to spread the tradition throughout the Empire.

The Christmas Cracker was invented by a London confectioner, Tom Smith, at first by just wrapping sweets in fancy twisted paper. Eventually other small contents were added, and by 1847 he had established a method of using saltpetre to create a bang. A “bang” which was later regulated by law, such was the extent of danger involved! It was Englishman John Horsley in 1830 that first popularized the tradition of sending Christmas greeting cards, although it was not until ten years later when the Christmas card really took off. The introduction of the Penny Post in 1840 to send a letter or card anywhere in Britain was the driving force. The Victorians loved their cards, and created highly elaborate works of art.
 
The Turkey arrived in England, courtesy of the trader William Strickland, in 1526, from what was then the fledgeling American Colonies. It was also a very different bird to what we know today, it could even fly. Prior to that, and well into the 1900’s, the goose was the principle meat for those who could afford one. Dickens pops up yet again as an influence, because it is the serving of turkey, in A Christmas Carol, which accredits the bird’s eventual popularity in Britain. It didn’t become the main fare until mass production brought the cost down even for the most humble reveller.

For all the many symbolisms, customs and traditions surrounding Christmas, the central theme, that of birth and saviour, joy and worship, peace and love, is the universal thread which binds them all together. The fact that these influences have gathered and melded over centuries, in one form or another, from around the world and are globally recognised, is testament to the central message of Peace on Earth, and Goodwill to all Mankind. As Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol once said “God bless us, every one!”