- 7 months ago
The Real Story of
Christmas
Christmas
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Christmas. Up goes the tree, on go the lights. There really is no place like home for the
00:09holidays. An exciting season of presents and parties only a Scrooge could hate.
00:16But where did all the traditions start? Why do we hang stockings? When did we start singing
00:22Christmas carols and decorating trees? How did Santa get the red suit, the sleigh, and
00:29eight tiny reindeer? There's a hidden history behind all of our modern customs. Some of the
00:36origins are dark and mystical. Some are simply about making money. So brace yourself for the
00:46truth behind the holiday we love. It's the real story of Christmas.
00:51Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
01:03Everywhere you go, take a look at the five and ten, glistening once again, with candy canes
01:12and silver lanes aglow. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Temperatures drop,
01:20snowflakes fly, and cities and towns seem to start dressing up earlier and earlier.
01:26These days, the holiday party starts in most places just after Halloween. And that's because
01:32it's a big, big business nationwide. The spending for holiday decorations and gifts adds up to over
01:3915 billion dollars each year. There are Santas at every shopping mall from coast to coast,
01:46sleighs full of toys, and there are lights. Lots and lots of lights. We liked lights. As little kids,
01:55I think we all jumped in the family car and drove through different neighborhoods to see the lights.
02:04Decra Light Industries is one of the largest holiday decorating companies in the United States.
02:13Its designers and craftsmen create the splashiest of Christmas displays for public squares and shopping
02:19malls across the malls across the country.
02:23We like big. You know, we like our deer big. We like our trees big.
02:29The 500 miles of modern Christmas lights Decra uses each year are a lot more complex compared to the
02:37earliest holiday lights commercially available. When were the first electric Christmas lights invented?
02:43In 1882, by Edison Company, Vice President Edward Johnson.
02:52Later, General Electric offered strings of 24 bulbs for $12, which is equal to $280 today.
03:03This bright idea is often credited to a New England telephone worker.
03:08The real inspiration came from his job, where he worked for the telephone company,
03:14and it was, you know, the little light bulbs in the early telephone switchboards.
03:17That gave him the idea for what we now know as Christmas lights.
03:22Like the origin of electric Christmas lights, the back story of many of our holiday traditions
03:28is part of the obscure but real story of Christmas.
03:32Christmas lights, the reason behind the strange things we do each December.
03:38For instance, chopping down a tree and propping it up in our living rooms.
03:43Yet over 30 million of us will do it before December 25th.
03:48But why?
03:51It's a long story that lies nearly 2,000 years in the past.
03:56At an annual celebration practiced by the ancient peoples of Northern Europe,
04:00every December on the shortest day of the year,
04:05when the earth was tilted furthest from the sun,
04:08came the winter solstice.
04:11It marked the darkest day of the year,
04:14but also the time when the promise of longer days gave cause to celebrate.
04:21To honor the occasion, ancient tribes held a 12-day festival they called Yule.
04:27You have the crops brought in, you have the meat being slaughtered,
04:32you slaughter some of the farm animals because you can't feed them during the dark days of winter.
04:39So there's a lot of meat on hand.
04:42The beer has been made.
04:44It's perfect time for a feast.
04:46The Norse burned a giant Yule log for all 12 days of the feast.
04:54And they brought evergreens, furs and holly into their homes.
05:00Over the centuries, the concept grew,
05:03and later it was co-opted into our modern Christmas tree custom.
05:06Today, picking out the family tree is a holiday tradition.
05:14And in any given year,
05:17American farmers are growing 350 million trees on 15,000 Christmas tree farms.
05:24That's roughly one tree for every man, woman, and child in the nation.
05:30Growers are constantly replanting.
05:37Years from now,
05:38today's seedling will become the decorative focal point at someone's Merry Christmas.
05:45The biggest thing that I've heard from customers is,
05:48particularly with the balsam fir,
05:50when you open the door when you come home from work,
05:52you can smell that tree in the house.
05:55And that scent is what makes Christmas for them.
05:58That's the biggest thing for the Christmas trees.
06:00It's not always easy to see how our modern customs connect with ancient traditions.
06:10What does any of this have to do with the birth of Jesus some 2,000 years ago?
06:18For Christians, that eventful moment is where the story of Christmas begins.
06:24How do we know what we know about the birth of Jesus?
06:27We actually have two different sources from the New Testament for the nativity.
06:33We have the Gospel of Matthew, and we have the Gospel of Luke.
06:36They don't refer to one another.
06:38They may not even have known about each other.
06:40And they tell us two different sets of things about what happened for Jesus' birth.
06:44And what we tend to do is we put these two stories together
06:46to get a kind of full picture that we call the nativity.
06:49Matthew's Gospel gives us the Star of Bethlehem
06:54and the wise men, called Magi, who bring gifts to the baby Jesus.
07:01There's a kind of symbolic value to these gifts.
07:05What they're doing is they're bringing really, really precious goods
07:08to honor this child with a very humble birth.
07:11And there's a message there about how we need to recognize
07:14this birth isn't really humble at all because this is a king being born.
07:19This is the first example of Christmas gift-giving.
07:22But no one recorded when this actually happened.
07:27Nobody knows the true date of Jesus' birth.
07:31And early Christians didn't celebrate birthdays.
07:36So how did Jesus end up with a birthday on December 25th?
07:41Long before Jesus was born, the Romans celebrated many pagan holidays,
07:46particularly in December.
07:47And these end-of-year festivities set the stage
07:52for our modern Christmas holiday.
07:54One Roman holiday was Saturnalia,
07:57which began on December 17th
08:00and was a series of parties that would last anywhere
08:03from three to five or maybe seven days.
08:06You can think of it as sort of a big office party,
08:10but in focus.
08:12Romans exchanged gifts at Saturnalia,
08:15just as we do at Christmas.
08:17Slaves were served a special feast by their masters
08:21and enjoyed freedoms that they lacked
08:23any other time of the year.
08:25The second party is New Year's.
08:28It was a five-day party,
08:30and it was quite enjoyable as well.
08:33And then in between Saturnalia and New Year's,
08:37there was already a birthday celebration
08:39for a Roman-related god on December 25th.
08:42That god, Mithras, and still another god,
08:47Saul Invictus, the unconquered sun,
08:50were both honored on December 25th.
08:53Since the date fell near the winter solstice,
08:57the same celestial event celebrated by the tribes of northern Europe,
09:01Romans lit ritual bonfires and candles
09:04to push back the darkness,
09:06the origin of our modern Christmas lights.
09:10The winter solstice is the darkest day of the year.
09:13You know how dark it is when you get up.
09:15You know how dark it is before the end of the day.
09:18You can't wait for the sun to come back.
09:20Pagans all over the world celebrate that darkest day,
09:24and in Roman religions, it becomes central to the year.
09:30After Christianity became Rome's official religion
09:33in the 4th century,
09:35leaders chose to absorb pagan traditions
09:38rather than outlaw them.
09:40This is when the church finally decided
09:43to honor Jesus' birth,
09:45choosing a date close to the winter solstice,
09:48December 25th.
09:49But as the church continued to absorb
09:52various ancient traditions,
09:55what emerged were two experiences of Christmas,
09:59one religious, one less so.
10:04Outside the church,
10:06in private homes and in the town square,
10:09Christmas looked more like a big drunken block party.
10:13Ultimately, this rowdy, secular Christmas
10:16would dominate the religious one.
10:19Forcing later reformers to propose
10:22banning both Christmases altogether.
10:30Lights and decorations may be the essential trappings
10:34of our modern Christmas.
10:36But for kids, the only real necessity
10:39is a jolly, bearded old man in a red suit.
10:43Ho, ho, ho!
10:46More than 20 million children
10:47visit Santa every holiday season,
10:50including several thousand at Santa's Village,
10:54a Christmas theme park in New Hampshire,
10:57where kids can also pet
11:04an honest-to-goodness reindeer.
11:05The males get to be 350 to 400 pounds,
11:09and when kids walk into the barn,
11:11they just, ah, you know,
11:13they just, they can't believe how big they are.
11:15And they feed them the crackers
11:16and the carrots and the apples,
11:18and it's just an amazing thing.
11:20And these reindeer do fly,
11:22but only on Christmas Eve.
11:26Ancient revelers would have a hard time
11:29recognizing our modern Christmas.
11:32But if you think of the holiday centuries ago
11:35as an idyllic season of peace,
11:38think again.
11:39Christmas was earthier, unrestrained, and fun.
11:43In the high Middle Ages, of 1400 and 1500,
11:46you find Christmas really picking up.
11:50Kings are talking about this
11:51and how they have huge Christmas feasts.
11:53So you find gift-giving really popular.
11:56You find sort of delights
11:57and Yule log traditions
11:58gaining in popularity.
11:59But Christmas was also
12:04a solemn church day
12:05to be spent in prayer.
12:08And each of these Christmases,
12:09religious and secular,
12:11also had their own separate music,
12:14just like we have today.
12:17You have hymns in the church.
12:19They're sacred music,
12:21and they're sung in Latin.
12:22And you find gradually
12:24the development
12:25in the 12th century of Christmas carols.
12:27And Christmas carols
12:27are sung in the vernacular.
12:29They're not in Latin.
12:29They're in languages everybody knows.
12:32And people enjoy these songs,
12:34and people sing them together.
12:36And very quickly,
12:37there gets to be the tradition
12:37of not singing these songs in church.
12:40But medieval caroling
12:42wasn't just about singing.
12:44It was about drinking.
12:46At every door,
12:47revelers begged for a gulp
12:49from the household punch bowl,
12:51getting drunker
12:51with every note they sang.
12:55By the 17th century,
12:57religious reformers
12:58were losing patience
12:59with the rowdier Christmas traditions.
13:02They decided the holiday
13:03was simply too much fun,
13:05and they decided
13:06to ban Christmas altogether.
13:09But how could Christmas be outlawed?
13:12There's a kind of backlash
13:14against Christmas.
13:15Among Protestant groups,
13:17you find a desire to not celebrate Christmas,
13:20a repudiation of Christmas
13:21as kind of a Catholic invention, frankly,
13:23something that the Catholic Church
13:24had allowed to happen.
13:28In England,
13:29Christmas was even banned outright for a time.
13:32But that didn't last.
13:35Within a few years,
13:36a more restrained version of the holiday was back.
13:40But Christmas would have an equally hard time
13:43in the New World
13:44during the early 17th century.
13:48Pious settlers from England
13:49looked upon the holiday with suspicion.
13:53And when European settlers came to America,
13:55the newly formed Puritan colony of Massachusetts
13:58wanted no part of a holiday.
14:00And in 1659,
14:03it banned Christmas, too.
14:05The Puritans of New England
14:07were very well aware
14:08of the pagan associations
14:10with the celebrations
14:11of the winter solstice,
14:12and they wished to avoid
14:13any kind of association with that.
14:15One Puritan commentator said
14:17that Christmas was chastity's shipwreck.
14:21And another one in Boston
14:23said that men did more dishonor to Christ
14:25on the 12 days of Christmas
14:26than they did the entire 12 months of the year.
14:30The colonies began to spread down the coast,
14:33and settlers in the mid-Atlantic region
14:35were much less conservative.
14:38By the mid-1700s,
14:40these colonists had adopted
14:41many of their Christmas traditions from Europe.
14:44But there were still a number of revelers
14:46who kept the rowdy behavior of the past alive.
14:51In Virginia, for example,
14:52most people that celebrate it
14:54celebrate it with a dinner, with friends.
14:55And the colonial records
14:58and the early Republic records
15:00are full of instances
15:00where people in, you know,
15:02a gentleman's home in Virginia,
15:03they're having a nice Christmas dinner
15:05when the local rowdies get word of it
15:07and pound on the door,
15:08and they go through this very ancient ritual
15:10of give us some food and drink,
15:12or we're going to throw rocks through your windows.
15:14And so both those traditions are still there.
15:16But as America matured,
15:19so did its Christmas customs,
15:21as the well-to-do launched a crusade
15:24against rowdy Christmas.
15:28Respectable, middle-class Americans
15:30wanted to take the rowdy Christmas,
15:32the public Christmas that took place outdoors,
15:34and move it indoors.
15:35I mean, these are people who had property.
15:37They were afraid of destruction.
15:38They were afraid of losing things that they own.
15:41So they want to take this public rowdy event
15:46and take it from the streets
15:48and bring it into the home
15:49and make the focus of Christmas
15:51around the family,
15:53around this private gathering
15:55that takes place in the house.
15:59This effort was most deliberate
16:01and most successful
16:02in rapidly expanding New York City.
16:06Its founders, the Dutch,
16:08embraced their old-world homespun Christmas customs.
16:13And one New Yorker,
16:15a college professor with a gift for poetry,
16:18would change the face of Christmas forever.
16:31New York City.
16:33The Big Apple.
16:35The city that never sleeps.
16:38The birthplace of Christmas?
16:45It's true.
16:47New York City has shaped Christmas,
16:49the modern secular Christmas we now celebrate,
16:52more than any other city in the world.
16:54And it's really because of the efforts
17:04of two very gifted New Yorkers
17:06who lived here in the 1800s.
17:10They would reinvent old-world Christmas customs
17:14to create our modern American holiday.
17:17And they would help mold our image
17:19of jolly old St. Nick.
17:21The New York they knew
17:24was America's great metropolis,
17:27a city keeping pace
17:28with the Industrial Revolution
17:29that was transforming America
17:31virtually overnight.
17:34New York in the 1800s
17:35was a city that was alive with change.
17:39The population was booming.
17:41There was new industry.
17:42There were the new stores that were growing up
17:44that provided the foundation
17:45for what became the commercialization of Christmas.
17:48But it was not only a city
17:50that was alive with change,
17:52it was also a city that was alive with new ideas.
17:56Clement Clark Moore,
17:57a New York professor of Oriental and Greek literature,
18:01had an idea that would change Christmas forever.
18:05In 1822,
18:06he wrote a 56-line poem
18:08he called
18:09A Visit from St. Nicholas,
18:11better known today as
18:13The Night Before Christmas.
18:16Almost single-handedly,
18:18he created the modern American vision
18:20of Christmas.
18:22What's really interesting about Moore's poem
18:24is it distilled various traditions
18:27in the early 19th century
18:30and put them all together
18:34and added his own,
18:36Moore's own imaginings.
18:40Moore's poem becomes a path-breaking moment,
18:43a watershed,
18:44in how Christmas is celebrated.
18:50Moore's subject was Santa
18:51as we know him today.
18:55His inspiration?
18:57Two legendary Christmas figures
18:58of the Old World.
19:03One was St. Nicholas,
19:05a 4th-century bishop
19:07renowned for gift-giving,
19:09legendary for leaving presents in stockings.
19:12The other was Sinterklaas,
19:15the Dutch version of St. Nicholas.
19:18Sinterklaas had merged a bit with Odin,
19:21the pagan god of Yule,
19:23who flew through the sky
19:24on an eight-legged horse.
19:27Before the mid-19th century,
19:28Santa Claus comes in different shapes and sizes.
19:30He arrives, you know,
19:31on a boat, on a horse,
19:33on a sleigh,
19:34and all of that sort of codified
19:35and narrowed down in America,
19:37largely in New York City.
19:39Both Old World legends
19:41were rich in details,
19:43many of which Moore chose to leave out.
19:45One omission was a bizarre,
19:48dark, devil-like companion
19:50of St. Nicholas,
19:51who might bring a switch
19:54to punish naughty children
19:55or worse.
19:58In Northern Europe,
20:00there was a sort of devil figure
20:02that accompanied St. Nicholas.
20:05He had horns,
20:06long red tongue,
20:08covered with fur,
20:09tail, and hoof,
20:10and he would come into the room
20:12right after St. Nicholas.
20:15And one scene in particular
20:17shows two little boys
20:19cowering,
20:21because outside the door
20:22is this devil figure,
20:24Krampus.
20:25Clevant Clark Moore's St. Nick
20:30embodied only good.
20:32Moore introduced
20:33several new characteristics
20:34for Santa.
20:36He dressed him in American fur,
20:38gave him a pipe,
20:40and portrayed him
20:41not as a priest,
20:42but a jolly, dimpled elf
20:44with a twinkle in his eye.
20:46On his back,
20:47he toted a sack full of toys
20:49for the children of the house.
20:50Moore also gave him a sleigh
20:56that he flew through the sky,
20:58led not by a horse,
21:00but by eight reindeer,
21:02each with its own name.
21:05Now Dasher,
21:06now Dancer,
21:07now Prancer and Vixen,
21:09on Comet,
21:10on Cupid,
21:11on Donder and Blitzen.
21:14Moore's poem enthralled
21:1619th century Americans.
21:18It created a new kind of Christmas,
21:20neither rowdy nor religious,
21:23but centered on home and family.
21:25In the decades that followed,
21:27artists would expand
21:28on Moore's imagery,
21:30but his would be the vision
21:31that would endure.
21:33One interesting thing
21:34about the poem
21:35is that book editors
21:36actually changed the last line.
21:39In Moore's original version,
21:41it was,
21:41happy Christmas to all
21:43and to all a good night.
21:45Most books change happy to merry.
21:48As iconic as Clement Clark Moore's Santa was,
21:54he still wasn't the fully formed
21:56Kris Kringle we know today.
21:59His Santa still had
22:00no North Pole workshop,
22:02no elves,
22:03no letters from kids,
22:05and no naughty and nice list.
22:07Where did these details come from?
22:10Give the credit to another New Yorker,
22:13illustrator Thomas Nast.
22:15He took Moore's Santa
22:17and produced the definitive version
22:19for generations to come.
22:23Thomas Nast is one of the great illustrators
22:25of the 19th century.
22:26A lot of the images
22:27that we see today,
22:28he created.
22:29When you think about
22:30the donkey and the elephant
22:31for the Democratic and Republican Party,
22:33he created it.
22:35The image of Uncle Sam
22:37that we've all come to know
22:38is a creation of Thomas Nast.
22:40And he also is the person
22:43who gave us
22:44our modern version of Santa Claus.
22:47In 1862,
22:49one of America's major magazines,
22:51Harper's Weekly,
22:52commissioned Nast
22:53to draw its Christmas illustrations.
22:56He transformed Moore's jolly old elf
22:59into someone taller and grander.
23:01So he becomes your grandfather.
23:05Gives him the full flowing white beard,
23:07which is the image
23:08of a wealthy person
23:09in the Victorian world.
23:11He was wearing a red coat
23:13with white trim,
23:14black boots,
23:14the buckled belt,
23:16the pipe.
23:18Nast's image of Santa
23:20became indelible
23:21and with every Christmas
23:22grew richer in its detail.
23:26Nast does this year after year.
23:28He creates lots of the things
23:29we associate with Santa Claus.
23:30The List of Naughty and Nice
23:31living at the North Pole.
23:34And that becomes
23:35the image of Santa Claus.
23:38One reason Americans
23:40loved Nast's and Moore's Santa
23:42is that he celebrated childhood.
23:45Only recently
23:46had a new appreciation of children
23:48begun to sweep the nation
23:50in the wake
23:50of the Industrial Revolution.
23:53You have to think back
23:54on how children were viewed
23:56at, say, the beginning
23:57of the 19th century
23:58when they were dressed
23:59like little adults
24:00and expected to behave
24:02like adults.
24:03Up through the middle
24:04of the century
24:05things began to change
24:07and everything became
24:08very home-oriented.
24:10And so children
24:11became very central
24:12to Victorian Edwardian society.
24:16And by the mid-19th century,
24:19the Christmas tree,
24:20a variation of that
24:21ancient Norse custom
24:22of bringing in the greens,
24:24became the centerpiece
24:26to the family-oriented
24:27American Christmas.
24:28All because of one picture.
24:31On December 23rd, 1848,
24:34the Illustrated London News
24:36published an image
24:37of the young Queen Victoria
24:38and Prince Albert
24:39with their family
24:41assembled around a Christmas tree,
24:43part of Albert's German tradition.
24:46England fell in love
24:47with it immediately.
24:49Two years later,
24:49this same image
24:51of Queen Victoria
24:52and Prince Albert
24:52was republished
24:53in a very popular
24:54American magazine
24:55with a couple of alterations.
24:58They took out
24:58Queen Victoria's crown
24:59and took off
25:00Prince Albert's mustache
25:01so that they looked
25:03a little bit more American.
25:04And it was a way
25:04of sort of
25:05essentially telling
25:07middle-class Americans
25:07who bought this magazine
25:08that this would be a tradition,
25:09this is a tradition
25:10worthy of your home.
25:13The Christmas tree
25:14had officially arrived
25:15in America.
25:16By 1856,
25:18President Franklin Pierce
25:20was putting one
25:21in the White House.
25:22America's redefined,
25:24kid-friendly Santa Claus
25:26and elaborately decorated
25:27Christmas tree
25:28helped to transform
25:30Christmas itself.
25:32A holiday once ruled
25:33by drunken rowdiness
25:35was now a time
25:36to celebrate the family.
25:40For 79 million shoppers,
25:43the Christmas season
25:44begins the day
25:45after Thanksgiving
25:46when the gun sounds
25:48on the retail
25:49free-for-all
25:50called Black Friday.
25:51We've all heard
25:52that Black Friday
25:53is the busiest shopping
25:54day of the year,
25:56but the truth is
25:57that's a myth.
25:59The actual busiest
26:00shopping day varies,
26:02but usually falls
26:03closer to Christmas
26:04in mid-December.
26:07That's why these malls
26:09decorate,
26:10why these shopping
26:10centers decorate.
26:11They're making
26:12a statement themselves
26:13besides being
26:14warm and friendly
26:15and inviting
26:15to the neighborhood.
26:17It's also time
26:18to start thinking
26:19about buying
26:20those presents.
26:22But how did Christmas
26:24become so commercial?
26:26And why do we tolerate,
26:28even celebrate,
26:29that?
26:30As early as the
26:31mid-19th century,
26:33Christmas had found
26:34a home in shops
26:35and stores
26:36that marketed
26:36the holiday
26:37to consumers.
26:38with specialty
26:41wrapping paper,
26:43Christmas cards,
26:46decorations,
26:47and especially
26:48toys.
26:51This is the
26:51Industrial Revolution.
26:52The hallmark of that
26:53is creating lots
26:54and lots of cheap stuff
26:55and the creation
26:56of a middle class
26:57that has money
26:58and desires
26:59to buy this stuff.
27:01So it's not that hard
27:02to see that Santa Claus
27:03is going to be co-opted
27:04by retailers.
27:06The first time
27:07a department store
27:08used Santa
27:09to sell goods
27:11came in the 1840s.
27:14Santa appeared
27:15in a department store
27:16ad
27:17as an illustration
27:19of its sort of
27:20Dutch-looking
27:20Santa Claus
27:22going down
27:22the chimney.
27:24By 1874,
27:27from there,
27:28it just generated
27:30so many companies
27:31using Santa
27:32as their pitch map.
27:35A lot of bizarre images
27:36coming out of the fireplace
27:38selling coal,
27:39for example,
27:41or selling shoes,
27:42or everything
27:43in the world.
27:44He's been a salesman
27:45almost from the very beginning
27:46in America.
27:50As time went on,
27:52Santa sold more
27:53than just products.
27:55He marketed Christmas
27:56itself
27:57and the warm nostalgia
27:59it conjured up.
28:01During two world wars,
28:03Santa reminded soldiers
28:05what they were fighting for
28:06and helped charities
28:08tell of those
28:09less fortunate.
28:10Santa sold the very idea
28:12of Christmas
28:13as a season of peace
28:14and goodwill
28:15toward men.
28:17And by 1940,
28:20Santa's expanding role
28:21as an advertising icon
28:23earned him
28:24a standardized look.
28:25artist Norman Rockwell
28:29reinterpreted
28:30the red-suited,
28:31white-bearded gift-giver
28:32that Thomas Nast
28:33established
28:34and brought him
28:36into the 20th century.
28:39Rockwell's magazine covers
28:41and greeting card images
28:43showed a big,
28:44friendly Santa.
28:46And others
28:47followed Rockwell's lead.
28:50Department store Santas
28:51were starting
28:52to standardize Santa
28:54and he was starting
28:55to be mostly red and white.
28:57It helped freeze
28:58that image,
28:59make him more jovial,
29:01more plush,
29:03more pleasing
29:03for a family image.
29:05In 1939,
29:07while illustrators
29:08like Rockwell
29:09were improving
29:09Santa's look,
29:11copywriter Robert L. May
29:12was creating
29:13a whole new
29:14holiday icon,
29:16a red-nosed reindeer
29:18named Rudolph.
29:19The Rudolph figure
29:21is created
29:22for Montgomery Ward
29:23Department Store
29:23in Chicago
29:24and they want to have
29:25essentially kind of
29:26a handout,
29:27a Christmas favor,
29:28if you will.
29:28So he writes
29:29a 38-page pamphlet
29:30in verse
29:31about this
29:32woebegone reindeer.
29:33Originally calls him
29:34Rolo the Red-Nosed Reindeer
29:35and towards the end
29:36they decide
29:37they need something
29:37a little more punch
29:38so it becomes
29:38Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
29:39and it's a huge hit.
29:42In 1949,
29:44May's brother-in-law,
29:45songwriter Johnny Marks,
29:47put Rudolph to music.
29:49He wrote the song
29:51and gave it
29:51to Gene Autry
29:52and Gene Autry
29:54didn't like it.
29:55He didn't even
29:55want to record it
29:56and Gene Autry's
29:58wife said,
30:00no,
30:00this is a good song,
30:01you need to record it.
30:02Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
30:04had a very shiny nose
30:08and if you ever saw it
30:11you would even say
30:13it glows.
30:15Autry finally agreed
30:16to record the song
30:18but only as a B-side
30:19to one of his records.
30:21B-side or not,
30:23Rudolph became
30:23the biggest hit
30:24of Autry's career.
30:26Sung by millions
30:27over the past 60 years,
30:29the story of this
30:30once shunned reindeer
30:32has gone down
30:33in history.
30:35This is the perfect example
30:36of a person
30:37who wasn't popular
30:38who after getting
30:40derision from people
30:41ends up being the hero.
30:43Isn't that what
30:44all of us want?
30:45No wonder
30:46this story resonated.
30:49Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
30:50has become one
30:51of the most popular
30:52songs of all time
30:54but it's really
30:55a kid's song.
30:56Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
30:58You'll go down
31:00in history
31:01Another holiday song
31:05from around the same time
31:06and destined for immortality
31:08was geared more
31:09for grown-ups.
31:11Written by Irving Berlin
31:12and sung by Bing Crosby,
31:15it's the biggest hit
31:16of them all,
31:17White Christmas.
31:19White Christmas is a song
31:20written for a film
31:21in 1942 called
31:23Holiday Inn.
31:24It stars Bing Crosby
31:25and it's kind of
31:25a race through all
31:26the great American holidays
31:28and Christmas just
31:28being one of them.
31:39It doesn't really catch on.
31:46It's the spring of 1942.
31:47We've just gone to war
31:48but it catches on
31:49in the fall of 1942
31:51which is when America
31:52is really approaching
31:53its one-year mark
31:54of being at war
31:54and these now
31:55hundreds of thousands
31:56soon to be millions
31:57of GIs
31:58are going to be spending
31:58their first Christmas
31:59away from home
32:00and that's where
32:01that song has that
32:02real heartstring-pulling
32:03nostalgic feel to it
32:05that the record sales
32:06just skyrocket
32:07in October, November,
32:08December of 1942.
32:10White Christmas
32:11is one of the most
32:12successful singles
32:13ever released
32:14and it has been
32:16for more than 50 years.
32:18The homespun values
32:19at its heart,
32:20the values of Christmas
32:21were what ex-GIs
32:23yearned for
32:24in post-war America.
32:26In 1946,
32:27they found those values
32:29in the reigning classic
32:30of all Christmas-themed movies,
32:33It's a Wonderful Life.
32:35It's Wonderful Life
32:35started life
32:36as a short story
32:37called The Greatest Gift
32:38by Philip Van Doren Stern
32:40and it wound up
32:42in the hands
32:42of Frank Capra
32:43who had just come back
32:44from World War II
32:45where he had shot
32:46the Why We Fight
32:47series of propaganda films
32:49for the U.S. Army.
32:50The Oscar-winning director
32:52Weary of War
32:53crafted a sentimental
32:54masterpiece
32:55about George Bailey,
32:57a man who sees
32:58the world as it would be
32:59had he never been born.
33:01It's a yin-yang film,
33:03you know,
33:03the yin is Bedford Falls.
33:05That's for nothing.
33:08The yang is Pottersville
33:09and you see
33:10the other face
33:12of people
33:12and what they might have been.
33:14Mother.
33:16Mother,
33:17what do you want?
33:20Mother,
33:20this is George.
33:23I thought sure
33:24you'd remember me.
33:25Years after
33:26its initial release,
33:28It's a Wonderful Life
33:29was rediscovered
33:30by younger generations
33:31on television,
33:32aired over and over again
33:34each year.
33:36It eventually became
33:37one more treasured
33:38holiday custom,
33:40pointing out the comfort
33:41of ritual and tradition.
33:43To my big brother George,
33:44the richest man in town.
33:47The broadcast success
33:49of It's a Wonderful Life
33:50proved that Christmas
33:51and television
33:52were a powerful combination.
33:54In the 1960s,
33:56animators would craft specials
33:58destined to become
33:59a beloved tradition.
34:00One holiday special
34:02was expected
34:03to be a dismal failure,
34:05but instead
34:06became a classic.
34:14Christmas in America
34:16has evolved
34:17over the centuries,
34:18keeping pace
34:19with the rapidly
34:20changing nation itself.
34:22Yet even in our modern age,
34:24Christmas has remained
34:25a home-based family holiday
34:27full of nostalgia
34:29and childhood memories.
34:30We can sort of
34:34re-embrace
34:35our childhood innocence
34:37before we became
34:38such hard-bitten,
34:39cynical, awful people,
34:40you know,
34:41that we saw the world
34:42in another way,
34:43in a more generous
34:44and kind and loving way,
34:45and that it's never too late
34:46to sort of go back
34:48to that way
34:48of looking at things.
34:52Christmas's power
34:53to spread cheer
34:54and make memories
34:55skyrocketed
34:57with the ascent
34:57of an institution
34:58as dear to kids
34:59as Christmas itself,
35:01television.
35:05By the 1960s,
35:06baby boomers
35:07were enjoying
35:08a golden age
35:09of holiday TV.
35:11There was a golden age
35:13of Christmas specials
35:14that began about
35:15in the mid-60s
35:16and went into
35:16the mid-70s.
35:17These specials
35:18were aimed
35:18specifically at children,
35:20although were sophisticated
35:21enough to entertain
35:22the adults
35:22that were in the room.
35:23The very first
35:26of these animated
35:27holiday specials
35:28debuted in 1962.
35:30Mr. Magoo's
35:31Christmas Carol,
35:33a retelling
35:34of Charles Dickens'
35:35beloved story.
35:37If you really think
35:38about it clinically,
35:39it's kind of a strange
35:39combination putting
35:40Mr. Magoo in
35:41a Christmas Carol.
35:42Here's this comic character
35:43and he's playing
35:44this dramatic role
35:45in classic literature.
35:47Christmas!
35:48Ha!
35:48Bah!
35:49Humbug!
35:51After Mr. Magoo's
35:52Christmas Carol,
35:53came a flurry
35:54of animated specials
35:56destined to be rerun
35:57every Christmas
35:58for decades to come.
36:00Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
36:02Frosty the Snowman,
36:04Santa Claus is Coming to Town,
36:06Let me have
36:07just a little magic.
36:12And Dr. Seuss's
36:14How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
36:17But in 1965,
36:20one special featuring
36:21a little round-headed kid
36:23seeking the true meaning
36:24of Christmas
36:25topped them all.
36:27In 1965,
36:29we got a call
36:30from the McCann-Eriksson
36:31advertising agency
36:33who represented Coca-Cola.
36:34They said,
36:35have you and Mr. Schultz
36:36ever thought of doing
36:37a Charlie Brown Christmas show?
36:39And I lied
36:40and said, absolutely.
36:40So I called Sparky,
36:44our nickname for Mr. Schultz,
36:46and said,
36:48I think I just sold
36:49a Charlie Brown Christmas.
36:50And he said,
36:50what's that?
36:51And I said,
36:51it's something you're
36:52going to write tomorrow.
36:54Mendelsohn and animator
36:56Bill Melendez
36:57had to create
36:58a 30-minute animated special
36:59in just six months.
37:02They made radical creative choices,
37:04like using child actors
37:06for the voices.
37:07I was nine years old.
37:10There were eight years old,
37:12seven years old.
37:12We're all in one
37:13recording studio,
37:14bouncing off the walls,
37:16playing with the drums
37:17and stuff,
37:18because it was
37:18a recording studio
37:19where, like,
37:20the Doors recorded
37:21their albums.
37:23The work progressed,
37:24but time was running out.
37:26We did end up finishing it
37:28just like a week
37:28before it went on the air.
37:30Then we took it to CBS,
37:31and the three fellows there
37:33didn't like it at all,
37:34and they said,
37:35we're going to have to run it
37:36because it's scheduled
37:37for four days from now,
37:38but, you know,
37:39nice try,
37:39but it just doesn't work.
37:41So as we went
37:42through these minefields,
37:44it's amazing
37:44it ever even got on the air.
37:46One issue
37:46that concerned everyone
37:47was Schultz's insistence
37:49that the show
37:50quote the Bible.
37:51One of us said,
37:52you know,
37:53do you really think
37:54we can, you know,
37:55animate a kid
37:56reading from the Bible?
37:57Do you think
37:57we can get this through?
38:00And I remember
38:00he said at the time,
38:02well, if we don't do it,
38:03who will?
38:05Isn't there anyone
38:06who knows
38:07what Christmas
38:07is all about?
38:09Sure, Charlie Brown,
38:10I can tell you
38:11what Christmas
38:11is all about.
38:13And there were
38:14in the same country
38:15shepherds,
38:16abiding in the field,
38:17keeping watch
38:18over their flock
38:19by night,
38:19and lo,
38:20the angel of the Lord
38:21came upon them.
38:22Bill staged it
38:23in a very,
38:24very simple format,
38:26and the way
38:27that wonderful actor,
38:28Chris Shea,
38:29read it,
38:30it became, you know,
38:31one of the really
38:32indelible moments,
38:33probably in animated history.
38:34For unto you
38:35is born this day
38:36in the city of David
38:37a Savior,
38:39which is Christ the Lord.
38:43The success
38:44of a Charlie Brown Christmas
38:45proved once again
38:46how the secular
38:47and the religious Christmas
38:49aren't mutually exclusive,
38:51that each
38:52gives this holiday
38:53its wonder.
38:56That's what Christmas
38:57is all about,
38:58Charlie Brown.
38:59In the half century
39:01or so
39:02since Linus
39:02uttered those
39:03memorable words,
39:05Christmas has continued
39:06to adjust
39:07to the changing times.
39:09In 1968,
39:11the crew of Apollo 8
39:12took Christmas
39:13into space
39:14as man orbited
39:15the moon
39:16for the first time
39:17on Christmas Eve.
39:19We close
39:20with good night,
39:21good luck,
39:23a Merry Christmas,
39:24and God bless
39:25all of you,
39:26all of you
39:27on the good Earth.
39:29More recently,
39:31Christmas has been
39:32revolutionized
39:33by the Internet,
39:34where one-click shopping
39:35on sites like Amazon
39:37has added a new term
39:38to the Christmas lexicon.
39:40Cyber Monday
39:41has joined Black Friday
39:43as a retail milestone.
39:46It's really remarkable,
39:48but in the last 20 years,
39:49there's been a revolution
39:50in the way we shop
39:50for Christmas.
39:51I mean, 20 years ago,
39:52you have to go out
39:53to your suburban shopping mall
39:54or go to a big department store.
39:56It took a lot of time,
39:57and now you just sit
39:58at your desk
39:59in front of your computer
40:00and hit a couple keys,
40:01and it's done.
40:03It's faster,
40:04it's more efficient,
40:05but, you know,
40:05it doesn't have
40:07the same feeling.
40:09Such are the latest wrinkles
40:11in a very old story,
40:13the many ways
40:14we celebrate
40:15this ancient holiday.
40:17Every generation
40:18bemoans the current
40:19state of Christmas.
40:20It's always,
40:21they're wanting to go back
40:22to what they think it was,
40:23and that's the funny thing
40:25about all traditions
40:26and all holidays
40:26is that they never are static,
40:28and they're never nearly
40:29as old as you think they are,
40:30these traditions
40:31that you hold near and dear.
40:33These days,
40:34the glow from our holiday lights
40:36and television sets
40:37helps us banish the
40:39in our greens
40:40and light our candles.
40:43We hang our stockings
40:44and sing our carols
40:45in church
40:48and in the streets.
40:51Amidst the chaos,
40:52we even find time
40:55to rejoice
40:56at the birth of a child
40:572,000 years ago.
41:02Merry Christmas to all,
41:04and to all,
41:06a good night.
41:07Merry Christmas to all,
41:07a good night.