- 7 months ago
Christmas Unwrapped
The History of Christmas
The History of Christmas
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TVTranscript
01:00Those are the biblical origins of Christmas.
01:05But centuries before Jesus walked the earth,
01:08early Europeans were celebrating light and birth in the darkest days of winter.
01:14In the Norse country, this winter celebration was known as Yule.
01:24Around December 21st, the winter solstice,
01:28fathers and sons would drag home the biggest log they could find and set it on fire.
01:34The Yule log warmed, but it also looked ahead.
01:40Each spark was said to represent a pig or calf to be born in the spring.
01:46Also dragged inside were evergreens, the one plant that could make it through a Norse winter.
01:54Evergreens proved that life persisted in this dark time.
01:58There's a natural attraction to that which lives through the winter
02:04when one is struggling to survive through the winter.
02:07The evergreen is that part of nature that seems impervious to the coming of winter
02:14and the diminishing of the sun.
02:18And so it's an absolutely natural symbol, one which I think you react to almost without thinking about.
02:25For as long as the Yule log burned, about 12 days, feasting and revelry reigned supreme.
02:36In fact, this was one of the few times that meat was abundant
02:40since cattle had just been slaughtered for the long winter.
02:44There is a necessity to kill most of the cattle
02:47because you can't keep them alive over the winter when there's nothing to feed them on.
02:52You keep a few alive for breeding.
02:54But there is an opportunity for a great blowout, for a great feast, a time to party.
03:03The party raged inside in defiance of winter's deadly howl.
03:09There is a spooky feel about the northern yuletide festivals.
03:14You may be all right there in the hall with the blazing fires,
03:18but outside there are demons, there are spirits.
03:24In Germany, the pagan god Odin lent his name to this mid-winter holiday.
03:30Early Germans were terrified of Odin,
03:32whose nocturnal flights decided who would prosper or perish in the coming year.
03:39Later, we'd see another Christmas sky rider, Santa Claus.
03:43But for now, staying inside became the smartest choice at this frightening time of the year.
03:54A thousand miles away in Rome, winter was less harrowing,
03:59but the December festivals were just as elaborate.
04:02One week before the winter solstice, Romans began celebrating Saturnalia,
04:10a month-long orgy of food and drink.
04:13Named for the god Saturn, which meant plenty,
04:16Rome's established order was turned on its head during this wild, delirious time.
04:22The Saturnalia celebrations were certainly times of revelry,
04:26of turning the social order upside down,
04:28of having the master pretend to be the slave and the slave pretend to be the master.
04:33Sort of a time out of time in which one could celebrate a kind of disorder in the universe.
04:43One of the holiday's important feasts was Juvenalia,
04:48which celebrated the children of Rome.
04:51Although these early festivals are not necessarily about children particularly,
04:56though they are about fertility,
04:58children did have their particular place.
05:01The indulgence of children, of course, is very much a part of our modern Christmas,
05:05but it did have its place even in these ribald, drunken festivals that the Romans had.
05:13Among the upper classes in Rome,
05:18solstice celebrations were significantly more sober.
05:22Many influential Romans worshipped Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun.
05:28To this small but powerful sect,
05:30the birthday of Mithra was the holiest day of the year.
05:35December 25th was the winter solstice in that part of the world,
05:39and it was also understood to be the birthday of the sun god, Mithra.
05:44And Mithra was said to be born from a rock.
05:48Shepherds came to worship him as he was an infant god
05:51born out in that pastoral place in the fields.
05:54And many of those stories, of course, have come into Christian tradition.
05:59While Romans were worshipping the sun god,
06:06a new religion was taking hold throughout the empire.
06:10At first, Christians didn't celebrate the birth of Christ.
06:15His resurrection was the essential fact of the new religion.
06:20By the fourth century, however,
06:22the question of the holy birth became impossible to ignore.
06:27There were questions within the church about how do we even imagine Jesus.
06:31Some people believed that Jesus was purely a spiritual emanation of God,
06:38and others believed that Jesus must have actually appeared on earth.
06:43And so, the decision to celebrate Jesus' birth meant that Jesus was actually a human or a human form.
06:52For Christians, the fact of his birth was settled, but the date remained a mystery.
06:57The Bible doesn't mention exactly when Christ was born,
07:01but certain facts suggest it probably was not in December.
07:06If you're going to sort through the runes of the scriptures,
07:09Jesus was probably born in the spring.
07:12If the shepherds are out in the fields watching their flock by night,
07:16we're not talking about one of the cold spells at the heart of winter.
07:24If pagan Rome was already celebrating the birth of Mithra on December 25th,
07:29it seemed natural to honor the birth of the Christ child at the same time.
07:34By the fourth century, the church made it official.
07:38December 25th was declared the feast day of the nativity.
07:43But of course, it's a very short step from the feast day of the risen son, S-U-N,
07:48to the feast day of the risen son, S-U-N.
07:51So, in a sense, it's a very good choice, and the symbolism is there,
07:56because the feast day of the incongruent son was about fertility, about birth.
08:02And so, obviously, it's the Christian Christmas.
08:05The church knew it could not outlaw the pagan traditions of Christmas,
08:13so it set out to adopt them.
08:16The evergreens traditionally brought inside were soon decorated with apples,
08:21symbolizing the Garden of Eden.
08:23These apples would eventually become Christmas ornaments.
08:27And holly, a traditional midwinter decoration,
08:32was recast to represent Christ's crown of thorns.
08:38People already had their own agenda for this season,
08:42and that agenda was not one that was really radically changed
08:46when the names got changed from non-Christian to Christian names.
08:51The church pretty much had a policy of live and let live.
08:56If people would call themselves Christians and do lip service to the birth of the Savior,
09:01then let them do anything that they wanted to do with it.
09:05But on the other hand, by assigning the nativity to that time of year,
09:10the church really gave up the opportunity to control the way that celebration took place.
09:15The tension between piety and revelry at Christmas
09:22would reach its logical and extreme conclusion in Puritan England
09:27when the holiday would be considered so un-Christian,
09:30it was done away with altogether.
09:45By the Middle Ages, Christianity had largely replaced
09:50the old pagan religions of Europe.
09:53On December 25th, the faithful were called the Gothic cathedrals
09:57like Notre Dame and Salisbury Cathedral in England
10:00for Christ's Mass, soon to be called Christmas.
10:04But out in the streets, the holiday was still more raucous than religious.
10:10If you went to England around Christmas time,
10:15any time before, say, 1800, you'd probably feel pretty ill at ease.
10:20You wouldn't think it was Christmas at all.
10:22What would you think it was?
10:23Maybe Mardi Gras?
10:24Maybe New Year's Eve?
10:26Maybe Halloween?
10:28Because Christmas in old-time England was really a carnival.
10:35The houses of London were littered with brawling, drunken villagers,
10:40and couples engaged in the most unholy activities.
10:45And each Christmas, a beggar or student was temporarily put in charge
10:50after being crowned the Lord of Misrule.
10:54The rest of the peasantry also got their once-a-year chance
10:58to grab power from the ruling classes.
11:01They would go around to the houses of the rich.
11:05They would bang on the doors and demand entry.
11:07And once they were let in,
11:09the Lord of the manor had to give them the best stuff that he had.
11:14He had to give them his best food.
11:15He had to give them his best beer, his best of everything.
11:19And a jolly was sale, it's then you shall hear.
11:23But if he didn't, they would threaten or actually perform a trick.
11:27Come, butler, come fill us.
11:29One surviving Christmas song says,
11:31if you don't give us what we want,
11:32then down will come butler, bowl and all.
11:35But if you do draw us a bowl of the small,
11:39then down shall go butler, bowl and all, bowl and all.
11:45Some historians think that it performed the role of a safety valve.
11:50You might say that a wealthy man could make up for an entire year
11:54of small or large injustices to the poor
11:57by giving a generous Christmas handout just once in the year.
12:01The rules of Christmas would soon change, however,
12:06as a wave of religious reform swept through England
12:09in the early 17th century.
12:13Led by Oliver Cromwell,
12:15the Puritans overthrew the king's forces in 1645
12:18and vowed to rid England of all that was decadent.
12:22High on their list was English Christmas,
12:25and in 1652 they outlawed it altogether.
12:29Shops were ordered to stay open.
12:32Churches were forced to stay closed.
12:35The Puritans were always, I think,
12:37deeply attracted to those things that they were most opposed to.
12:41They had a fear that they might have too good of a time.
12:44I don't mean to trivialize them,
12:45but there was a deep fear that if these things were legalized,
12:48they themselves might enjoy them and their souls would be lost.
12:55The Puritans may have said good riddance to Christmas,
12:58but the people never really stopped celebrating it.
13:02The holiday merely went underground.
13:06If Christmas pie was illegal,
13:08it began to be known as mince pie instead,
13:11which was just as delicious.
13:13The deeper need for Christmas in the human heart,
13:16the need for celebration at a time of darkness,
13:19those needs made the battle against Christmas,
13:25gave it a few temporary wins,
13:28but it couldn't possibly secure a final victory.
13:30In 1656, the men of Kent and Canterbury passed a resolution
13:37saying that if they could not have their Christmas day,
13:41they would have the king back on his throne.
13:44They soon got their wish.
13:46The monarchy was restored with Charles II,
13:49and Christmas was restored with him.
13:52It seemed the English could live without a king,
13:55but not without Christmas.
13:57It has been argued that one reason
14:00for the restoration of the monarchy
14:02is because by restoring the monarchy,
14:04you also restored Christmas.
14:06You restored the proper English Christmas
14:09with its rituals, its traditions, and its carousing.
14:12Christmas is brought back, if you like,
14:15by popular acclaim.
14:16The fight against Christmas may have been lost in England,
14:25but the Puritans had high hopes
14:27for the new colonies in America.
14:31In 1620, a small group of separatists
14:35came ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
14:38Even more orthodox than their English cousins,
14:42these men and women hoped to rid themselves
14:45once and for all of the Christmas scourge.
14:49In 1659, Puritans in Boston
14:52followed their English brethren
14:54in outlawing Christmas.
14:56Anyone caught exhibiting the Christmas spirit
14:59was fined five shillings.
15:02Like in England, however,
15:04Christmas remained impossible to contain.
15:07The 1719 Boston Almanac
15:10doesn't list a Christmas holiday,
15:12but it does recommend that in late December,
15:15you not let your children and servants
15:17run too much abroad at night.
15:20From almost the beginning in Massachusetts,
15:23there's evidence that some people practiced Christmas,
15:26and that when they did so,
15:27it was in fact an opportunity to get drunk.
15:30And one of the most interesting little sidelights on this
15:33is the finding of historical demographers
15:37that there was actually a bulge in conceptions,
15:42the conception of children
15:43that took place during Christmas.
15:48Not all the colonies had such trouble with Christmas.
15:52Captain John Smith,
15:54leader of the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia,
15:57wrote that their first New World Christmas
15:59was kept with plenty of good oysters,
16:02wild fowl, and good bread.
16:05Jamestown settlers were also the first
16:07to drink eggnog as a Christmas drink,
16:10the nog coming from the word grog,
16:13which means any drink made with rum.
16:16After independence, however,
16:21all things English fell out of favor in America,
16:25Christmas included.
16:27In fact, on December 25, 1789,
16:30the United States Congress sat in session
16:33and continued to stay open on Christmas Day
16:35for most of the next 67 years.
16:40At the same time,
16:41there are people who are writing in their diaries
16:44that isn't it too bad,
16:45we don't have any holidays.
16:47So after the revolution,
16:49here is an entire nation
16:50that works hard,
16:54has forsaken many holidays,
16:57has given up many holidays
16:58because there were holidays
17:00that were mandated by the crown,
17:02and it is time to start thinking about
17:05how to populate the calendar.
17:09As the 19th century dawned,
17:12Christmas would be one holiday
17:14that would pull the new nation together.
17:17But it wouldn't be
17:18the carnival Christmas of old England,
17:20nor would it be particularly religious.
17:24America would invent its very own Christmas
17:27and in the process,
17:29reinvent it for the whole world.
17:31New York City, 1820.
17:48Within the space of a generation,
17:50New York had gone from a backwater port town
17:53to the center of American commerce.
17:55Great wealth came to a few during these years
17:59and moderate livings to the burgeoning middle class.
18:03But the Industrial Revolution
18:05had also created a class
18:07of the unemployed and unconnected,
18:10whose very existence threatened
18:12the cozy world of New York's middle rung.
18:16This was never more clear
18:18than at Christmas time.
18:19Class conflict was emerging
18:22with the earliest stages
18:23of industrial capitalism.
18:25And so what had previously
18:27just had an edge of menace,
18:30a little bit of trick,
18:31but much more goodwill,
18:33much more treat,
18:35now changed,
18:36and the menace became increasingly obvious
18:39and increasingly serious.
18:41So that by the 1820s,
18:45the Christmas season in cities like New York
18:47was really a time of gang rioting,
18:51a really very, very nasty scene.
18:52So nasty, in fact,
18:54that in the year 1828,
18:56the New York City Council
18:57for the first time
18:58instituted a professional police force
19:00for the city
19:01as a direct result
19:02of a particularly savage
19:04Christmas season riot the year before.
19:06New York's upper class was worried,
19:13so worried that a few of them
19:14set out to change the way
19:16the holiday was celebrated.
19:19Washington Irving
19:21was America's best-selling novelist,
19:23and in 1819,
19:25he used his expertise
19:26to write Bracebridge Hall,
19:29an enormously popular series of stories
19:31about Christmas
19:32at an imaginary English manor house.
19:36Here, the classes mingled effortlessly
19:40as squires welcomed friendly
19:42and grateful peasants
19:43into their homes.
19:47And in 1843,
19:49England's most popular writer,
19:51Charles Dickens,
19:52tackled the Christmas problem
19:54with A Christmas Carol.
19:56It was a best-seller in London
19:58and America,
19:59and the lessons of the story
20:01struck a powerful chord
20:02on both sides of the Atlantic.
20:04Christmas Carol, I think,
20:07showed the Victorians
20:08what could be the use
20:10and the meaning of Christmas
20:11in a society
20:12which was quite pleased
20:14with itself in a way,
20:15but which nevertheless
20:16had fears about inequality,
20:20about too much materialism,
20:21about perhaps just too rapid change.
20:23There have been countless treatments
20:28of this Christmas classic,
20:30some in print and some on screen.
20:32This television version is from 1958,
20:35but the themes are straight out of the 19th century.
20:39I think the character of Ebenezer Scrooge
20:57taught a very important lesson
21:00to middle-class people.
21:03Christmas.
21:05Nonsense.
21:06Humbug.
21:07Because the Christmas season
21:09presented them with a real problem.
21:11What do we owe
21:13to the different people in our world?
21:15What do we owe to our families?
21:17What do we owe to our employees?
21:18What do we owe to the anonymous poor?
21:21At first, Ebenezer Scrooge
21:24refuses to face those problems,
21:27but after his visions
21:28of Christmas past, present, and future,
21:32Scrooge learns that family and charity
21:34cannot be ignored at Christmastime.
21:37Merry Christmas, Bob!
21:38Mr. Scrooge!
21:39And Mrs. Cratchit, for you!
21:41Mr. Scrooge!
21:43My dear, that's for you!
21:45It really is a conversion story,
21:47and it's a story about
21:48this hard-hearted man being reborn
21:51to Christmas observance.
21:53And I'm going to raise your salary
21:55and help your large family
21:57in every way possible.
21:58That conversion story is important
22:00for Victorians to be thinking
22:03about their own conversion
22:05to the holiday,
22:06because it is very much
22:07that they are being reconverted.
22:08So many of them had given up
22:10on the holiday,
22:10so now they have to come to terms
22:12with their own reconnection with that,
22:14and Scrooge has a way of doing that.
22:17There's this lovely story
22:18of Dickens going around America
22:20on one of his famous reading tours,
22:23and this American factory owner
22:25going to a reading of Christmas Carol,
22:28and on the way home,
22:29saying to his wife,
22:31next year we shall close the factory
22:34on Christmas Day.
22:39Nineteenth-century Americans
22:40were discovering Christmas
22:42after a 200-year drought
22:44of Puritan disapproval.
22:45But the holiday would never have taken hold
22:48if society wasn't ready for it.
22:51One important shift was occurring
22:52right inside the family itself.
22:55Before the nineteenth century,
22:58the family existed
22:59as what we might think of
23:00as an engine of discipline
23:01designed to train children
23:03to work hard.
23:04After 1820, 1830,
23:07the family was very quickly
23:09and perceptibly
23:10becoming an agency
23:12that was designed
23:13to provide the emotional nursery
23:15for children
23:16so that they could grow up
23:17being sensitive little people
23:19who took a lot of pleasure
23:20in the family
23:21and in the world itself.
23:25Christmas was tailor-made
23:27for this transition.
23:28Now there was a holiday
23:31where attention could be lavished
23:32on children
23:33without seeming to spoil them.
23:36The moment of Christmas
23:38where parents started
23:40to pay attention
23:41to their children,
23:42I sometimes come to think of this
23:44as the invention of quality time
23:46within the family.
23:47Parents would discover the joy
23:49that they could take
23:50out of watching the joy
23:52in their children's faces
23:53when they gave their children presents.
23:55Americans now knew
24:00why they were celebrating Christmas,
24:02but they didn't know
24:03exactly how to go about it.
24:06The old pagan revelry
24:08was clearly inappropriate
24:10for a Victorian home,
24:11but some ancient traditions
24:13were perfect for reviving.
24:20The Christmas tree
24:22has its roots in Germany
24:23where decorated evergreens
24:25had always been a part
24:26of the winter celebrations.
24:30But the tree
24:31might have stayed there
24:33if not for the royal marriage
24:34in 1840
24:35of Victoria,
24:37the Queen of England,
24:38to her cousin,
24:39Prince Albert of Germany.
24:41Albert brought his German ways
24:43to Windsor Palace,
24:44including the annual Christmas tree.
24:47In 1848,
24:49the London Illustrated News
24:50published this engraving
24:52of the royal family,
24:53standing by the first Christmas tree
24:55most English had ever seen.
24:59In just a few years,
25:00a decorated fir
25:01could be found
25:02in nearly every English home
25:04at Christmas.
25:06Within a few years,
25:08if you look at Victorian diaries
25:09or letters,
25:10people are saying,
25:11we had a Christmas tree
25:12as is customary,
25:13or we had a Christmas tree
25:15as we have always had.
25:17Of course,
25:17they hadn't always had one at all.
25:18It was a custom
25:20which had started
25:20in the 1840s.
25:22By the late 1850s,
25:23people believed
25:24that the Christmas tree
25:25was part of the English Christmas.
25:29Americans embraced
25:30the Christmas tree
25:31just as quickly
25:32as the English had.
25:34In fact,
25:35its connection
25:35to the old world
25:36was one of its strongest
25:38selling points.
25:39For a lot of Americans,
25:41these are going to be
25:41new holiday traditions,
25:43not something
25:43their parents observed,
25:44especially in the case
25:45of the more austere Protestants.
25:47So they're looking
25:47for a reason
25:48for what they're doing.
25:49And one of the most
25:50convenient reasons
25:51they can have
25:52is they can say,
25:52well, this is the way
25:53it's done in Germany,
25:54or this is the way
25:54it's done in England.
25:55All of a sudden,
26:01Christmas traditions
26:02were popping up everywhere.
26:04In 1828,
26:06Joel R. Poinsett,
26:08America's minister
26:09to Mexico,
26:10brought back
26:11a green and red plant
26:12that seemed perfect
26:13for the new holiday.
26:17And in 1843,
26:19the English firm
26:20of J.C. Horsley
26:21printed the first
26:22Christmas card,
26:24a newly efficient
26:25postal service
26:26in England
26:26and America
26:27helped make
26:28Christmas cards
26:29an overnight sensation.
26:32It seemed as though
26:33every vestige
26:34of the old
26:35Bacchanalian Christmas
26:36was gone.
26:38But even the Victorians
26:39couldn't clean up
26:40Christmas completely.
26:42Victorians
26:43were particularly
26:44keen on mistletoe
26:45because, of course,
26:46you could actually
26:47kiss a lady,
26:49or a lady could kiss a man,
26:50that normally,
26:51in the normal course of that,
26:52she would not be
26:53allowed to kiss.
26:54So in a society
26:56which was fairly strict,
26:58one vestige
27:00of that licentious Christmas
27:02from earlier times
27:03is the spring of mistletoe.
27:05No Victorian Christmas
27:06gathering
27:07was without it.
27:12By mid-century,
27:14Christmas was everywhere
27:15in America,
27:16in the streets,
27:18in the homes,
27:19in the marketplace.
27:20The one place
27:21you could not find
27:22Christmas
27:23was in church.
27:26Most Americans
27:27were Protestant,
27:28and the Protestant church
27:29had ignored Christmas
27:30for years.
27:32But Protestant Victorians
27:33longed for official religion
27:35on this sacred day.
27:37And what a number of them
27:39do initially
27:39is say,
27:40well,
27:40if we can't find
27:41a Christmas service
27:42in our Baptist church
27:43or our Presbyterian church,
27:44let's go see
27:45what the Catholics
27:45are doing,
27:46or let's go see
27:46what the Episcopalians
27:47are doing.
27:48And increasingly,
27:49that puts pressure
27:50on these Latter-day Puritans
27:52to have Christmas services
27:53because there's a way
27:54in which lay people
27:54begin to expect it.
27:57Glory to God.
27:59Church services,
28:01mistletoe,
28:01and Christmas trees.
28:03America's new holiday
28:04now seemed firmly in place.
28:07But Victorian America
28:08had one last contribution
28:10to the Christmas season.
28:12A jolly elf
28:13who shimmied down the chimney
28:15would soon personify Christmas
28:17for generations to come.
28:25Ho, ho, ho!
28:27Merry Christmas!
28:30Here comes Santa Claus,
28:32here comes Santa Claus,
28:33right down Santa Claus Lane.
28:34We borrowed the Christmas tree
28:36from Germany
28:37and the Christmas card
28:38from England.
28:39But one Christmas icon
28:41was developed
28:42right here in America,
28:44Santa Claus.
28:45Hang your stockings,
28:47say your prayers,
28:48because Santa Claus
28:49comes tonight.
28:53Long before Santa, however,
28:55there was St. Nicholas,
28:57a Greek Orthodox bishop
28:59who became one of the most
29:01popular saints
29:01of the Middle Ages.
29:05On December 6th,
29:07St. Nicholas Day,
29:09good children woke to gifts
29:10from the kindly saint.
29:12Bad children sulked away
29:14with nothing.
29:16In Holland,
29:18he was known as Sinterklaas,
29:20and when the Dutch
29:21came to this country,
29:22they brought tales
29:23of their gift-giving Nicholas
29:25with them.
29:27This quaint custom
29:28caught the imagination
29:29of Clement Clark Moore,
29:31a well-heeled Episcopal minister
29:34in New York City.
29:35In 1822,
29:37Moore wrote a poem
29:38for his children
29:39about a good-natured saint
29:41who came down the chimney
29:42on Christmas Eve.
29:43T'was the night
29:45before Christmas,
29:46and all through the house
29:48not a creature
29:49was stirring,
29:50not even a mouse.
29:53The stockings
29:54were hung by the chimney
29:55with care,
29:57in hopes that St. Nicholas
29:58would soon be there.
30:02Moore dreamed up
30:03Dasher, Dancer,
30:04and the rest of the reindeer
30:06along with Santa's entrance
30:08through the chimney.
30:09But at first,
30:10he was embarrassed
30:11by the poem.
30:12He worried it was
30:13too frivolous
30:13for a man of the church.
30:16Clement Moore
30:17was a minister.
30:18Here, a minister,
30:19who should be
30:20on the other side,
30:21is promoting
30:22a secular Christmas
30:22with reindeer
30:23and all the rest of it.
30:24But there was no mention
30:25in the poem,
30:26everything religious.
30:28In fact, that's why
30:28he didn't reveal
30:29who he was.
30:30In the beginning,
30:31he didn't reveal
30:31the authorship.
30:36Moore soon owned up
30:37to the poem
30:38when it became clear
30:39that every child
30:40in America
30:40was scanning the horizon
30:42for reindeer
30:43on Christmas Eve.
30:46Less clear
30:47was what exactly
30:48this Santa Claus
30:49looked like.
30:51At first,
30:53Santa came
30:53in all shapes
30:54and sizes.
30:55A pagan sorcerer,
30:57a frightening gnome,
31:00even a drunkard
31:01on a turkey-driven sleigh.
31:04Then, in 1863,
31:06Thomas Nast,
31:07a cartoonist
31:08for Harper's Weekly,
31:10settled the matter
31:10once and for all
31:11with his version
31:12of the Christmas Saint.
31:15Nast Santa was rounder
31:16and jollier
31:17than his austere
31:18Catholic cousin.
31:20He looked, in fact,
31:21like a man of his times,
31:23a man who would fit
31:24right in
31:25with the rotund,
31:26bewhiskered robber barons
31:27of the late 19th century.
31:30But Santa was
31:31a robber baron
31:32in reverse.
31:33Instead of taking
31:36from the less fortunate,
31:37he gave to
31:38the less fortunate.
31:39He gave to people
31:41regardless of
31:43whether they'd done
31:44something or not.
31:45In other words,
31:46he gave to children.
31:48Instead of gathering
31:49together wealth,
31:50he gets rid of wealth
31:51and he does it yearly.
31:54A captain of industry
31:55with a heart of gold.
31:57It's no wonder
31:58that by the 1840s,
32:00Santa Claus
32:00was an irresistible image
32:02to America's retailers.
32:05Here was a guy
32:05who could sell
32:06anything at Christmas
32:07but make it seem
32:09like you were not
32:09buying gifts at all.
32:12Santa Claus provided
32:13a way for both
32:13children and parents
32:14to pretend
32:15that Christmas presents
32:17were not in the realm
32:18of the commercial marketplace,
32:20that Christmas presents
32:21existed in the realm
32:22of pure domestic affection.
32:24So Santa Claus
32:25played a very important role
32:26for both parents
32:27and children.
32:28He took presents
32:29out of the realm
32:29of commerce.
32:36If the image of Santa
32:37could sell merchandise,
32:39retailers soon figured
32:40that a real-life Santa
32:42would boost sales
32:43even further.
32:45Santa has been showing up
32:47in department stores
32:48since the mid-1800s.
32:51And since then,
32:52nothing has loomed larger
32:54to a child at Christmas
32:55than this annual pilgrimage.
32:57If you want to talk
33:00to Santa Claus,
33:00where do you go?
33:01You go to the shopping mall.
33:03Now this is strange
33:04for a saint to be living
33:06pretty much full-time
33:07in a department store.
33:09It doesn't bother Americans
33:10because we are,
33:10after all,
33:11a capitalistic society.
33:12It makes perfect sense
33:12for us to have
33:14our national saint
33:15in a department store.
33:17That's commercial sense
33:19for us,
33:20dollars and cents.
33:23Author and humorist
33:25Gene Shepard
33:25immortalized this rite
33:27of passage
33:28in a Christmas story,
33:29an autobiographical account
33:31of one boy's Christmas.
33:33You know,
33:34I had been thinking
33:35for weeks
33:35what I wanted
33:36for Christmas.
33:37I figured the best thing
33:38to do is to tell
33:39Santa Claus about that.
33:41And I looked up
33:42at that Santa Claus
33:43and he had these big
33:44watery blue eyes
33:47and a huge beard
33:48and all,
33:48and he's looking
33:49at me right in the eye.
33:49And he was so impressive
33:52that my mind went blank.
33:54Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
33:58And what's your name, little boy?
34:01It's like if all of a sudden
34:03you're sitting
34:04on the president's lap
34:05and he says,
34:07what would you like me to pass
34:09in legislation, sonny?
34:11I mean, your mind's
34:12going to go blank.
34:13You can't remember
34:14any of this stuff.
34:15And so at that point
34:16Santa Claus looked at me
34:18and he says,
34:18all right,
34:19how about a football, kid?
34:22How about a nice football?
34:26A football?
34:28I wanted a BB gun.
34:31So he pushed me
34:32off his lap
34:33and this elf grabbed me
34:35and threw me down
34:36a slide that went down
34:38into the snow
34:38and I played there
34:39for a minute
34:40and I knew
34:40that I was not a fit person
34:43to talk to the great.
34:44Santa Claus
34:45was obviously a star.
34:50A celebrity
34:51of this magnitude
34:52obviously needed
34:54a sidekick.
34:55In 1939,
34:57Robert May,
34:57a copywriter
34:58at the Montgomery
34:59Ward Department Store,
35:01dashed off
35:02a promotional children's book
35:03to lure Christmas shoppers
35:05into the store.
35:07May's story
35:08told of an ostracized reindeer
35:10with a big red nose.
35:12Poor Rudolph.
35:14Where most reindeer's noses
35:16are brownish and tiny,
35:18Rudolph's was red,
35:19very large,
35:20and quite shiny.
35:23This physical,
35:25shall I say,
35:25disability
35:26turns out to be an asset
35:28because it's a foggy
35:29Christmas Eve.
35:31This fog would be hard
35:33to get through.
35:34And this light
35:35on the nose
35:36enables poor old
35:38stumbling Santa Claus
35:40to get through.
35:41Then how the reindeer
35:43loved him
35:44as they shouted out
35:46with glee
35:47Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
35:50you'll go down
35:52and hear a story
35:53So you have this
35:54handicapped sort of
35:56child figure
35:56helping the
35:58benighted parental figure
36:00make Christmas a castle.
36:01Rudolph brought Christmas
36:06full circle.
36:08It was now
36:09the children
36:10who really made
36:11Christmas possible.
36:13Only they understood
36:15the meaning
36:15of this enchanted day.
36:18From Washington Irving
36:19to Montgomery Ward,
36:21a battle for Christmas
36:23had been fought
36:24and won
36:25by kids.
36:38By the 1920s,
36:40few vestiges
36:41of the carnival Christmas
36:43were left in America.
36:45One exception
36:46was this Christmas parade
36:47in New York City
36:48where a glimpse
36:49of Santa Claus
36:50was worth
36:51the all-day wait.
36:55But by the 1950s,
37:02Christmas was strictly
37:03a family affair
37:04with eggnog
37:05by the fire,
37:07bing on the hi-fi,
37:09and a load of presents
37:10under the tree.
37:12Chestnuts roasting
37:14on an open fire
37:16Jack Frost nipping
37:20at your nose
37:22The joy of opening up gifts
37:42is one of the things
37:44that makes Christmas
37:44what it is.
37:45He's loaded lots of toys
37:48It's the mystery
37:49of all these packages.
37:52And I think that's why
37:53we ramp them.
37:55It's exciting
37:56to have a package
37:57lying there
37:58with silver paper on it
38:00and you don't know
38:00what's in it.
38:02And you open it up
38:03and there it is.
38:04It's something
38:05that's really great
38:06that you really wanted.
38:07But to give presents
38:13you have to shop
38:15for them
38:15and shopping
38:17has long been
38:17at the heart
38:18of the Christmas season.
38:22Critics say
38:23this yearly
38:24buying frenzy
38:25obscures the real reason
38:27for Christmas
38:27to celebrate
38:28the birth
38:29of the Christ child.
38:31It's celebrating
38:33the birth of Christ
38:33and the gift
38:34that God gave us
38:35as much as the gifts
38:37we give our children
38:38on Christmas day.
38:40She wants all her toys.
38:41Right?
38:44I think a lot of it
38:45is more commercialized
38:46than when I was younger.
38:47I remember going to church
38:48and having family dinners
38:49being more of an important
38:50aspect of it.
38:52It's difficult
38:53because the children
38:54don't grow up realizing
38:55what the real meaning is.
38:58People say that Christ
38:59has been lost in Christmas.
39:01Implicit in that
39:02is the idea
39:03that Christ
39:03had ever been
39:05totally the center
39:05of Christmas
39:06and as Christmas
39:07has been celebrated
39:08ever since it was
39:09instituted
39:10as a feast
39:11of the nativity
39:11there has always
39:13been other ritual
39:15other ceremony
39:16other activity
39:17associated with Christmas
39:18in addition to Christ.
39:26At the All Souls Church
39:28in New York City
39:29Christmas Eve services
39:30give the secular side
39:32of the holiday
39:32some stiff competition.
39:35At All Souls
39:36we sing carols
39:37we bring in choir
39:39and orchestra
39:40who do great music
39:42from the Christmas tradition.
39:47Certainly today
39:48most churches
39:50revel in the celebrations
39:52as completely as do
39:53the corporate malls.
39:56That's not a bad thing
39:57it actually goes back
39:58to the sources
39:59of this kind of holiday
40:02where we recognize
40:04that people have
40:05deep needs
40:05at this time of year
40:06to connect with that
40:08which is very important
40:09but also to celebrate.
40:11I think it's 50-60%
40:21of the population
40:22going to one kind
40:23of Christmas
40:24religious service
40:25or another
40:25so clearly
40:26a lot of people
40:27haven't lost sight
40:28of the religious meaning
40:29but what seems to be
40:30the concern here
40:31is that there's
40:32a struggle
40:32a competition
40:33over what the real meaning is
40:35and a sense
40:36that the religious
40:37is not competing
40:38effectively
40:38with all these other competitors.
40:43But perhaps Christmas
40:45in America
40:46is more a combination
40:47of the sacred
40:48and the secular
40:49and less a competition
40:51between the two.
40:53I think that if people
40:54had Christmas
40:55with just Christ in it
40:57it would not be a holiday
40:58that would come out
41:01into the streets
41:02the way that it does
41:03because the trees
41:05the carols
41:06the shopping
41:07all of that
41:08becomes
41:09the cultural material
41:11that holds
41:12the religion
41:13in place.
41:20This cultural material
41:22is everywhere.
41:24I'm dreaming
41:26of a rock
41:28Certain songs
41:29and movies
41:30have become
41:31as much a part
41:32of Christmas
41:32as the tree.
41:42I don't want to get married
41:44to anybody
41:44you understand?
41:46I want to do
41:47what I want to do
41:48and you
41:50Movies such as
41:54It's a Wonderful Life
41:55our hunger for them
41:56our delight in them
41:58reflects
41:58a deep
41:59potential goodness
42:01in the human soul
42:02but these are good movies
42:04they have
42:04people do good things
42:06and they get rewarded
42:07for them
42:08To my big brother George
42:09the richest man in town
42:11Someone might say
42:15that this was a trivialization
42:17of Christmas
42:18I think it probably
42:20is coming a little closer
42:21than many of the things
42:22we do
42:23to tapping
42:23the true Christmas spirit
42:24in the broadest sense
42:26of that word
42:26That's a Christmas present
42:27for a very dear friend
42:28of mine
42:29Look daddy
42:32teacher says
42:33every time a bell rings
42:35an angel gets his wings
42:37That's right
42:39That's right
42:41Attaboy Clarence
42:44Nowadays
42:49kids watch
42:50new films
42:51and new TV shows
42:53Why Mr. Scrooge
42:54Merry Christmas
42:56And they will grow up
42:57thinking that
42:58that was the way
42:59Christmas always used to be
43:00You leave me
43:01no alternative
43:03to give you
43:05Yes toys
43:07No no no
43:08I'm giving you
43:10a raise
43:11We always reinvent
43:13and every time
43:14we reinvent
43:14we think that
43:15what we're reinventing
43:16is something
43:17that has no beginning
43:18You can reinvent Christmas
43:23or celebrate it
43:24the way
43:25your great grandparents did
43:26The only thing
43:28you cannot do
43:29is ignore Christmas
43:30To not catch a glimpse
43:32of a Christmas tree
43:33or hear a note
43:33of jingle bells
43:34would be nearly impossible
43:36And since 98%
43:38of Americans
43:39celebrate Christmas
43:40in some form
43:41it looks like
43:42that won't change
43:43for quite some time
43:45You see
43:46it gives you
43:47a kind of sense
43:47of belonging
43:48You are who you are
43:50because of the way
43:51you celebrate Christmas
43:52in part
43:52I mean if you're
43:53if you're celebrating
43:54an Armenian Christmas
43:55or an Italian Christmas
43:57whatever it is
43:58whatever your group is
43:59if you celebrate Christmas
44:00the same way every year
44:02there's a sense
44:02of continuity here
44:03and the new children
44:05are brought in
44:06and in effect
44:07are socialized
44:07by saying
44:08well no
44:08this is how we celebrate
44:10Christmas
44:10in our own family
44:11something touches
44:19America
44:19somewhere down deep
44:21in his belly button
44:22about Christmas
44:23he can't really explain
44:26what it is about Christmas
44:27that he enjoys so much
44:29he just knows
44:31that when all those
44:32red and green lights
44:33go up
44:34you know
44:34on the street
44:35and you see
44:36Santa Claus
44:37walking around
44:38with their bells
44:39if something happens
44:40to you
44:40you enjoy it
44:41now you can be cynical
44:44all you want
44:45but you still enjoy it
44:47you know
44:59you
45:00you
45:12you