Christmas always sneaks up on me. Not that I don’t know it’s coming well in advance, as the stores seem to go from Halloween to Christmas overnight. My business is busy in November and December (thankfully so) and so many of the glorious days of Christmas prep go on without my taking notice. One tradition that I have to perform is put up the Christmas lights on our home. That job better be done by the end of the weekend after Thanksgiving – or I am in the doghouse.
Every family has formed their own traditions. One of the more modern ones is the Christmas family letter. My wife creates and sends ours but we receive many from friends that are so funny you wish you had created them yourself. Others are pretentious, where the writer refers to their own children as “our son, Dr. Houser”… or they claim that between vacationing in Switzerland and Paris they barely had time for fashion week in Milan…you know the type.
Many of the traditions we now take for granted have very odd origins, and many are misunderstood. Take for example the word Xmas. For years I thought this was a disrespectful clipping of Christ’s name from Christmas. Turns out the origins of that word form is Greek. The first letter of the Greek word for Christ is chi, which is X. With the invention of the printing press, "Xmas" was often used, in print, to save the hand setting of type and ink. The English word “Christmas” derives from the old English Christes maesse, meaning "Christ's mass."
Christians have been celebrating Jesus' birth on December 25 since the early fourth century. The December date for the holiday probably arose from a desire to provide an alternative to the Roman "birthday of the unconquered sun" and the Persian birthday of Mithras, both of which were celebrated on or around the winter solstice. The first evidence of its observance is in Rome in 336 AD. The earliest Christians do not appear to have commemorated the nativity, but only the baptism and resurrection of Christ and the deaths of the martyrs.
Did you know that Christmas did not become a national holiday in America until June, 26, 1870 by President Ulysses S. Grant? The first state to recognize the Christmas holiday officially was Alabama.
How about Christmas Trees? The Germans tell how in 722, Saint Boniface encountered some pagans who were about to sacrifice a child at the base of a huge oak tree. He cut down the tree to prevent the sacrifice and a Fir tree grew up at the base of the oak. He then told everyone that this lovely evergreen, with its branches pointing to heaven, was a holy tree - the tree of the Christ child, and a symbol of His promise of eternal life.
Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, was the first to add lighted candles to the tree. He was so taken with the Christmas night sky that he wished to bring "the lights of the stars" into the home of his family. From this, decorating the tree with ornaments and small gifts emerged in later centuries leading to our customs today.
A wreath with holly, red berries and other decorations began in the 17th century. Holly, with its sharply pointed leaves, symbolized the thorns in Christ's crown-of-thorns. Red berries symbolized the drops of Christ's blood. A wreath at Christmas signified a home that celebrated to birth of Christ.
The creation of Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer is also interesting. A man named Bob May was a copy writer for the retail chain Montgomery Wards. He was given the job of creating a booklet containing a Christmas story that Wards could give away as a promotional item. May created a story about how being different from everyone else could be a positive. May told the story over and over to his 4 year old daughter, changing it day by day until the version we have today was created. The familiar story emerged of Santa being faced with a problem, in that one Christmas Eve the earth was engulfed in a thick fog. Rudolph with his red nose glowing bright provided a way to light the way of Santa’s sleigh and cut through the mists, saving Christmas. Rudolph went from weird looking pariah among Reindeer, to the Hero of Christmas Day.
The booklet was so popular that by the end of 1946 6,000,000 copies had been given away or sold, making Rudolph one of the most widely distributed books in the world. In early 1949 Bob May secured the rights to his creation, and he and his brother in law turned it into a catchy song. Later that year it was recorded by Gene Autry and sold 2 million copies.
Hope you’ve enjoyed these little Christmas stories and I wish all of you, your families and friends a very Merry Christmas and thanks for reading this column.
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