The first Christmas card was sent soon after Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was published.
by Anne R. Allen
As we approach the frantic season known as “The Holidays,” I always ask myself, “Why do we do it?”
Why do I make fake snowdrifts around a dying tree in my sunny California living room and put plastic snow persons in my beachy drought-tolerant yard?
It’s all the fault of Charles Dickens. says the new movie, The Man Who Invented Christmas.
Mr. Dickens has a lot to answer for.
With the publication of his Christmas Carol in 1843, Charles Dickens single-handedly made Christmas our biggest cultural holiday. Before the debut of his (self-published) little novella, celebration of the holiday had all but died out in Anglo-Saxon Christendom. The pen is powerful indeed.
A Christmas Carol revived the custom of taking the day off work, gathering for big family feasts and getting generous with gifts—remnants of an ancient pagan solstice celebration which had been meshed with the Nativity story by some very clever early Christian marketers.
It was a great idea in Charles Dickens day. People were stuck in their houses and villages and a big feast day gave everybody a chance to gather for some convivial cheer at the darkest time of year. And the book is brilliant. Fantasy author William L. Hahn has a great post about the enduring appeal of A Christmas Carol on his blog this week.
But I think Charles Dickens and those early Christians would be appalled to see what the holiday has become. Every year it gets worse: travelers are stranded at airports for days…buried in snowdrifts while trying to buy last minute gifts…or imprisoned in grounded airplanes with nothing to eat but rationed packets of Cheez-Its.
All in the middle of flu season.
Okay, Aussies, Kiwis, Africans, and other inhabitants of the Southern Hemisphere: you can ignore this rant or read on and chortle.
Ancient Persians and Druids helped create the holiday
But seriously, Northern Hemispherians, what’s up with setting our biggest travel-holiday at the time of year when we can count on the worst travel conditions?
It’s not really about the Christian faith, is it? There’s nothing in the Bible about Jesus making his fleshly debut in December. The early Christians chose the the 25th of December because it was the birthday of Mithra, the Persian sun god whose cult was a competitor of Christianity in the early centuries of the Christian era. Again, we see the genius of those early Christian marketers. They knew how to appeal to the right demographics.
And we know for sure this event did not happen in a place with a lot of snow. Or holly, mistletoe, reindeer, or bearded white guys in furry outfits.
The bearded white guy who was first reputed to reward good children and admonish the bad ones at the winter solstice was a Norse deity called Odin (or Woden or Wotan—whatever you want to call the Wednesday god-guy.) And the rituals involving holly and mistletoe and pointy evergreen trees? Kind of more Druidish than Judeo-Christian.
So do we really need to go through all this suffering to honor a Teutonic war god who slithered down chimneys to put anthracite in the footwear of bad little Vikings?
Not that the Christmas/Druid holiday hasn’t had a good run. But now we’ve got wildly scattered families. And climate change.
Not to mention sadistically dysfunctional air travel.
Why Not Celebrate A Shakespearean Midsummer Holiday?
So I’m going to suggest a change of authors. Boot Charles Dickens in favor of William Shakespeare. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have our big yearly celebration at the SUMMER SOLSTICE—Midsummer’s Night?
OK, A Midsummer Night’s Dream isn’t as heartwarming as the Scrooge tale, but who needs warming in the middle of June?
Wouldn’t it be more fun to go home and visit Mom and Dad in the summertime? To barbeque that turkey on a backyard grill?
Inspired by the Bard, you could decorate the front yard with inflatable Rude Mechanicals and any number of sparkly fairies.
Maybe Puck could pop down our chimneys and leave gifts under the potted palm, which could be adorned with little surfboards and beach balls and those lights shaped like chili peppers.
We could still conduct the same kind of retail frenzy, since that seems to be necessary to the well-being of our economic system, but we could shop on safe, sunshiny streets, with evening light to choose them by.
Or maybe we need another story altogether. What about it, writers out there? Anybody up for writing some summer solstice tales and carols? About Rudolf the Red-Nosed Surfer, maybe? Or Frosty the Slushy Man? Hark the Herald Fairies Sing?
If Dickens could write a novel that created our biggest holiday, maybe some 21st century scribe can write the book that will give us a new celebration that will fit better with our times.
An awful lot of cranky travelers and flu-sufferers would be grateful.
What about you, scriveners? Would you welcome a change in the time of year of our biggest holiday? What’s your least-favorite thing about our winter solstice holiday?
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) December 24, 2017 (A shorter version of this post appeared on L’Artiste earlier in December.)
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This makes me think of a Facebook share: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205515364867487&set=a.2329492160733.2137750.1352583731
Beautiful words. I don’t know if quoting them here would classify as plagiarism, but for anyone who has a FB account, please check out the meme.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Kathy–Thanks for the great meme. It’s a version of 1 Corinthians 13–the well known quote from St. Paul: “Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is Love.” The author is Christian blogger and author Sharon Jaymes. https://sharonjaynes.com/1-corinthians-13-christmas-style/.
Merry Christmas and Happy Solstice!
Thanks for the link, Anne. Sadly, the Facebook meme doesn’t credit Sharon.
I saw that. And it looked like a newspaper clipping with no byline. Some editor was not on the job there. 🙁
I’m most honored you would think to mention my blog here Anne: that’s a Christmas present to me for sure!
And as to your idea, I must say- after years of slogging home with my young family to celebrate at Christmastime, through ice and snow to frozen Vermont, my lovely wife turned to me and said, “hey, what about July 4th?”
And I said, “wha’ hoppen?” Which is what I usually say when my lovely wife has a brilliant idea.
And she counts on her fingers. “Better weather. Daughter still on vacation. Family still gathers…”
So that’s what we do now. You and she are both geniuses!
Will–Loved your piece on A Christmas Carol! Your lovely wife sounds very wise indeed. Vermont is much better in July. (Except for the black flies.) 🙂
Great thoughts, Anne. I could go with replacing Dickens with Rowling. She’s got an already created economic engine & probably as many followers as Jesus. Imagine a white-haired Hagrid in a sleigh pulled by owls. It’s be magic 🙂 In the meantime, Merry Christmas and have a healthy and happy New Year 🙂
Garry–I wrote you a reply that disappeared. I guess the gremlins don’t think we should be online today. Haha. I LOVE your idea of Hagrid and the owls! Merry Christmas and may your Quidditch team win on New Year’s Day!
Hi Anne,
It’s Christmas day here and the sun is scorching… We’d like a drop of rain as we are going into drought. Down at this end of the world we complain about the school year ending right on Christmas the lines of traffic in near gridlock as everybody tries to head to the beach with the kids for Christmas /New Year holidays which are often taken all together by families. Over heated kids, over heated parents trapped together in super heated cars… a recipe for happy Christmas thoughts. Christmas prices are ramped up…. and then we have Boxing day sales which get advertised earlier and earlier… As a commonwealth country over the years we got sucked into the northern hemisphere Christmas dinner… super heated Mum in super hot kitchen wrestling with a Turkey with all the trimmings…. We are just learning to cut the apron strings and work out what holidays we want to celebrate as a nation. So Maori New Year is in (around July with the rising of Matariki… otherwise known as the Pleiades) This makes sense for the big dinner etcetc Guy Fawkes is on its way out… fireworks in late spring… not really making sense here…. So there is discussion to change it to a commemoration of an infamous attack on peaceful protestors here which happened on the same day…
Culture and tradition are wound up together tightly and separating them or trying to make sense of them in a modern society is like the arguments new families have when they try to work out whose family they will celebrate with this year… on a country scale. I’m off to find some shade… and make a salad… Merry Christmas from Down Under.
Maureen–Thanks for your fascinating report from Down Under! So it doesn’t help to celebrate at Midsummer after all? But it might if, as you say, you celebrate the seasons you actually have instead of memories of a distant empire.
It must be awful trying to roast a big bird in sweltering heat! Too bad you can’t cut it up and throw it on the barbie! (I’ve barbecued duck–it’s delish. But turkey would probably be too dry.)
But you could still keep ties with your British Isles roots with a Midsummer Night’s Dream theme. Eating outdoors–lovely salads, maybe with flowers in them?
Enjoy your salad!
Another Aussie here, and I agree. Christmas in the middle of summer is just plain weird. (Thank goodness this year we happen to have a pleasantly cool 22 degree C day, but that’s just the luck of the draw. It’s going to be 30 tomorrow.) We celebrate the end of the year and then the dawning of a new year a week later, but I really miss that chilly, rugging-up around a crackling fire weather that signals the time to slow down and cherish your nearest and dearest.
We do have some hilarious Aussiefied Christmas songs, though – look up “Santa’s Moving to the South Pole” by Colin Buchanan (Bucko and Champs).
Elle–I’ll have to check out that song. I do think you Down Under folks should start some new traditions. We Californians might pick them up. It’s been in the 80s here and of course we’re on fire. Those roasting chestnuts don’t sound so appealing when you’re cooking them over the smoking ruins of your house.. Jack Frost may appear in the wee small hours, but by noon it’s surfer-dude time. (Seriously, the temps are now careening 50 degrees or more, thanks to climate change.)You Aussies have to come up with some better traditions we all can share!
Merry Christmas, this holiday has a wide and winding history. We keep the holidays simple at my house.
Sheena-kay–Simple suits me fine! I’m not traveling this year–doctor’s orders–and I’m spending the holiday with neighbors and friends. Family can be where you find it.
Oh, those Californian fires are awful. I hope there is relief from them soon and that everyone is safe and secure.
We do have a few particularly Australian traditions. Shrimp on the barbie (barbecue) is one that’s very popular, with salad, and pavlova for dessert (cold fruit/berries on a meringue base). And get-togethers often happen around the swimming pool or at the beach 😎 (But we still decorate with fake snow and evergreen trees!)
Here are two very Aussie Christmas songs, for a laugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnJ8jsw4BSo (Aussie Jingle Bells)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ol0hG9t5b8 (Santa’s Moving to the South Pole)
Have a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Elle–Thanks for those links. The sound didn’t work on the Jingle Bells one, but I’ve been listening to the whole album of Aussie Carols. Fascinating! Some are just beautiful Thanks!
My husband and I gave up on Christmas as a major family gathering event several years ago. We won’t travel during any the holidays, and we don’t do gifts except to send a small box to the very young granddaughters.We keep the joy in our house with daily games of Boggle and Scrabble from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. We don’t encourage our kids to visit over the holidays either–the weather in Colorado is too unpredictable and I no longer get a tree or decorate (because of the cat and dog). I don’t miss the shopping a bit. Christmas, for me, has become more about the spiritual event we’re acknowledging, so reading and reflection and time with my husband are my favorite holiday activities. We do indulge in a few favorite foods over the holidays, however. Never going to give that up! Simple is better because it’s peaceful and calming. 😀
Patricia–It sounds as if your family has found a way to celebrate and keep the holiday spirit without crushing your own spirits. Sounds like the perfect way to spend the holidays. Merry Christmas!
Five inches of snow yesterday and three more today – love it. We don’t travel but welcome home any of our family who wishes to come home for Christmas. My mom was born on Christmas day 1920, and loved everything about it – I followed her in that love. I dedicated my Christmas book to her in 2015. We do it all, a few outside lights, two inside decorated trees, cookies, hot drinks, shopping, and lots of Christmas music. Oh, love Dickens, believe I have everything of his. Merry Christmas from Wyoming
Neil–Staying put in a snowy place sounds like a perfect way to celebrate the holiday in good Dickensian fashion! Enjoy!
Anne — as usual, you’re cracking me up.
To answer your last question, my biggest problem with the way we celebrate Christmas is the focus on stuff — not stuffing, but stuff. In suburban America we’ve got rows upon rows upon rows of private storage units, yet we insist on collecting more, not just to overflow our own units, but everyone else’s. Seems to me some sort of self-inflicted Robin Hooding would be a better way to celebrate. Those of us who have more than we need could spend our energies finding folks who need our surplus. Maybe once trying this annually every December 25, we’d begin to realize it’s the sort of thing we could do most every day…
CS–What a brilliant idea! What if we spent the holidays giving people stuff we already have? Like you could only buy one new thing or something like that?
Actually, I’ve done that this Christmas. My sister has been eyeing a pair of candlesticks of mine for years. So the last time she admired them, I took them off the mantle and put them in a Christmas box to remind myself to give them to her this year. So much better than desperately trying to find something she likes as much.
And yes, we don’t have to wait to do it once a year!
Great post, great idea, Anne, your suggestion to move the family feast to summer, but I’m not so sure Dickens is really responsible. Christmas has always been a big thing in Europe in countries where English is simply not spoken by the population, like Germany, the Scandinavian countries, France, Italy, Spain… So surely the idea that Dickens is at fault for launching the Christmas frenzy that frazzles us so badly today is not quite right…Not quite fake news yet, but close!
This said, I really enjoyed the read, you have an extraordinary ability to make a smashing blog post, hitting various deep truths, especially the horrors of Christmas travel. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Claude–I think the Dickens story isn’t so much fake news as Anglo-Centric. Christmas had been all but erased in the UK and the US by Dickens day, but two things brought it back: “A Christmas Carol” and Prince Albert, who brought German Christmas traditions to Buckingham Palace.
But of course, all those pagan Solstice rituals never faded in Europe.
The Dickensian Christmas did seem to lead to the retail/travel frenzy we have now, and I’m not sure that Black Pete or La Befana and the other European traditions would have dominated the culture as much as Santa Claus has. (I am fond of La Befana. I wish we had adopted that Italian tradition in the US.)
I hope you’re having a joyous Solstice season!
In the UK, we used to have May Day celebrations for May 1st (AKA Beltane in the Pagan calendar) but as years have gone by, it’s just become an excuse for a Bank Holiday (or a day off, for most of the population). Pity, really. Still, I reckon Halloween should be our BIG holiday, but then that’s become commercialised as all hell too…
Icy–At my college, Bryn Mawr, we celebrated MayDay in a big way, following the English tradition. We had maypole dancing and Morris Dancers and hoop rolling contests. I was so disappointed when I got to England and found you didn’t do any of those anymore! It’s a lovely holiday. And no place does Spring like England. The wildflowers were magical!
Here in California, Halloween is very big, although it’s not a family get-together holiday, but a big party. Old Anglo-Celtic traditions are meshing with the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, which makes it a much more joyful celebration than the spooky Celtic one with the witches and goblins.
Given Samhain is a legitimate religious festival for some of us I do prefer the Celtic traditions. It annoys me how for most people over here it seems to be an excuse to get dressed up as a “slutty nurse/zombie/Crayola crayon/whatever” and get drunk. But if you mention the roots of the day you’re a “party pooper”. I suppose you can’t have any occasion without commercialisation setting in!
Loved this piece. Reinforces how awful Christmas has become in many respects. We made our family Christmas traditions many years ago and have stuck with them, but oh, the pressure. Thank you, Charles Dickens (whom I love, by the way). Have a wonderful New Year!
Noelle–With that name, I would expect you to love Christmas. 🙂 It is a wonderful holiday. But I feel it has gotten out of hand–especially this compulsion to travel. Maybe with the rise of technology, we’ll be able to Skype our holidays instead of risking life and limb driving around in the snow. Happy 2018 to you too!
Lots of food for thought here Anne. Good idea all around. Just maybe you will start a new literary holiday trend! Hope your Christmas was merry and bright and you’re feeling some relief with your back. 🙂
Debbie–I think it would be fun! Thanks! I’ve had a no-travel, peaceful holiday and I’m really enjoying the calm. My back seems to be improving. Thanks!
Oh wonderful Anne. Tender mercies. 🙂
Of course there are wonderful thoughts here from creative people across the globe. Love your ideas, Anne. As long as the spirit of the season–loving and caring for one another–abides, I’m not going to tell anyone how to celebrate. Our family has their traditions which we are passing on. In my mind, they are good ones. Keepers, as they say. Take care, Beth
Beth–Yes. We can pass on family traditions without having to travel, it seems to me. Celebrate with the people around you without having to go through all that misery.
Some of my fondest childhood memories have to do with Christmas. Not the presents, but the beautiful, beautiful carols, and the manger scene, both of which I loved, and still do. I think I learned more about Jesus from those carols than I did from daily Catechism classes. We had one album (the old-fashioned kind you played on a record player) of traditional carols, with an insert with all the lyrics. In October I’d start playing them–I didn’t care if anybody thought it was too early–and I knew them all by heart.
Christmas can be a simple and beautiful celebration of Jesus’ birth.
Tricia–Keeping Christmas as a religious festival would do a lot to tone down the frenzy. I remember fondly the carol services of my childhood. And we’d always play the Robert Shaw Chorale singing traditional carols when we trimmed the tree. All those things could still happen without all the airport and mall discomfort. Then save the family reunions for summertime.
Being in West Africa, I’m with the Down Under crowd in that the traditional Christmas meal just isn’t suited to the summer climate. It would need a full reinvent.
But hey, lets not move it – we need that festival in darkest European winters – but rather, let’s do both!
For all the commercialism I love Christmas, as embodied by the modern-day Santa. The North Pole dweller who gives to the worlds’s children with no thought of getting anything in return but happy smiles is perhaps mankind’s greatest myth ever.
Sadly while millions of children in the rich west lived the Santa dream for a day, billions more children around the world faced another day of at best indifference, at worst hunger, child labour and exploitation.
It’s a shame the Christmas some of that western Christmas excess cannot be channeled to where it is most needed. I’m sure Jesus, Santa and the reformed Ebeneezer Scrooge would agree.
Mark–I love your idea! Keep the snowy Christmas celebration in Europe and North America, but instead of spending the money on toxic travel, how about putting that money toward gifts for children in poor countries? This is the electronic age. We could connect with those kids via phones or Skype and stay put–and still preserve the real meaning of the holiday.
And I concur: Jesus, Santa and Scrooge would agree. 🙂
Thanks, Anne for all the information. This is an interesting post. Season’s Greetings. 🙂 — Suzanne
Patricia–I hope you’re enjoying a peaceful, hassle-free holiday season!