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CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
Christmas as celebrated by Catholics and early Protestants a few hundred years ago was not the secular holiday we recognize
today. It was a "Christes Maesee" (Old English for Christ's Mass) or Nativity service.
In 18th century England & America non-puritans who celebrated Christmas did so by churchgoing, holly in windows, caroling,
mumming, some dancing, adult visiting and dinner parties featuring mince pie, fruitcake & other seasonal foods. Children and
exchanging of gifts were not featured in Christmas celebration. Charles Dickens and the transformation of the Dutch Saint
Nicholas into Santa Claus changed the spirit of Christmas.
Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, the same year that the first Christmas card was published. Both the book and
the card helped popularize the phrase "Merry Christmas". Dickens' popular book had an extremely powerful influence on
undermining opposition to Christmas, especially among those influenced by Puritans in England and New England. Dickens used
Scrooge to symbolize the idea that those who don't celebrate Christmas are uncharitable, twisted, mean-spirited and socially
isolated. Dickens depicted Christmas as a one-day family event held in the home rather than a 12-day public holiday — thus
contributing to changing the way Christmas was celebrated. Central to the Dickens Christmas celebration was a lavish family
dinner.
In 1957 Dr. Seuss reinforced the negative image of those who don't want to celebrate Christmas with his picture-book How the
Grinch Stole Christmas. The Grinch — a nasty mountain hermit — steals Christmas paraphernalia and plans to destroy it. But
his heart is touched by the sound of Christmas carols, and he becomes transformed (as happened to Scrooge).
The World War I Christmas Truce of 1914 has often been romanticized as an example of how Christmas love can triumph over the
savagery & killing of war. But it is no exaggeration to say that the occasion of Christmas evoked shared sentiments, empathy
and goodwill among the British & German troops who enjoyed the relief of fraternizing from the stress of shooting & dodging
shells.
Gallop polls have shown that over 90% of Americans regard Christmas to be their favorite holiday. Many love the fun of giving
and receiving presents. Christmas has become, above all, a celebration of family. For most, the feelings of sharing,
togetherness and love experienced at Christmas-time is a special joy. But the expectations some family members project upon
other members often have the character of "familial moral duty". The season thus frequently occasions reopening old hurts and
conflicts. This forces many people to re-examine their lives, especially because Christmas is a period which interrupts
routing daily living. Resolutions for the New Year are often the result.
Perhaps no modern institution apart from Christmas elicits such ritualistic behavior from so many people. And the pressures
to conform to these rituals can be very great. When others are celebrating with friends & family, those without friends &
family (especially due to death of a loved-one) can feel their loss intensified. But Christmas can also be a time of great
social support. Popular magazines frequently report high suicide rates at Christmas, but scientific studies have consistently
shown that suicide as a cause of death declines immediately prior-to and on Christmas day — only becoming higher than normal
on the days after Christmas [ARCHIVES OF GENERAL PSYCHIATRY 38(12):1377-1381 (1981) and AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
142(6):782 (1985)].
Many Christmas parties are held in the weeks of early December. Hard liquor sales are 30% greater in December than in
September. Although toasting with alcoholic beverages is part of the holiday tradition, a large number of consecutive
non-working days appeals to some people as a drinking opportunity. (There is no historical support for the claim that America
may owe its independence to Christmas drinking because George Washington was able to cross the Delaware on Christmas of 1776
and catch the drunken German Hessian soldiers by surprise.) Queen Elisabeth says "Happy Christmas" rather than "Merry
Christmas" because of her association of the term "Merry" with alcholic revelry.
The modern celebration of Christmas tends to emphasize commercial and other non-religious aspects of the holiday. The time to
Christmas is measured by "shopping days" rather than "prayer days". (The expression "shopping days until Christmas"
originated from the American retailer Henry Selfridge in the late 19th century.) For retailers, it is "the season to be
jolly" (except when their expectations are too high). An estimated one-sixth of retail sales in the United States are
Christmas purchases.
Gift-giving at Christmastime was rare in Europe or America prior to the 19th century. The first advertisements for Christmas
gifts in the United States were primarily for children's books. In the 19th century gifts tended to be made by the giver and
were practical (eg, mittens or food), but modern gifts tend to be more frivolous, fun or luxurious. Half of the year's sale
of diamonds, furs and luxury watches happen in December.
The greatest shift from homemade to manufactured Christmas gifts in America occurred between 1880 and 1920, mostly as a
result of the "industrial revolution" in manufactured goods. In 1880 retailers began wrapping Christmas presents in
decorative paper to emphasize gift status, and this gimmick was very effective in boosting sales.
SCROOGE (Society to Curtail Ridiculous, Outrageous and Ostentatious Gift Exchanges) is attempting to reduce Christmas
spending to less than 1% of income and to promote the giving of smoke alarms, first aid kits and other practical gifts. The
Christmas Resistance Movement is dedicated to opposing the "holiday hysteria" of "compulsory consumption".
Many Christian groups now object to retailers who use the terms "Holidays" and "Holiday Season" rather than "Christmas" in
their Christmas season advertising. In an ironical twist to the protest that a religious holiday is being commercialized, the
American Family Association advocates a boycott of retailers who do not use the word "Christmas" in their seasonal
advertising. American politicians who use the word "Holidays" where they could say "Christmas" have faced similar criticisms.
Although the replacement of "Christmas Trees" with "Holiday Trees" is clearly a secularization, retailers and politicians
have defended themselves by saying that they simply were seeking to use a generic term which encompasses Christmas, New
Year's, Hanukkah and other seasonal celebrations.
In reaction to commercial advertising at Christmas a coalition of British religious denominations formed the Christian
Advertising Network to increase church attendance. One advertisement showed the Three Wise Men along with the caption,
"You're a virgin, you've just given birth, and now three kings have shown up — find out the happy ending at a church near
you."
Christmas.com claims to be the world's largest Christmas Internet portal. The site features its own "Christmas.com store" and
other commercial links along with some links related to more secular aspects of Christmas culture. The christmas.org and
christmas.net websites are strictly commercial with no obvious connection to Christmas.
Christmas shopping is increasingly procrastinated. Since 1990 the busiest shopping day of the year has shifted from the day
after Thanksgiving to the Saturday before Christmas. The average American adult with a credit card adds about $1,000 in debt
at Christmas-time ($2,000 per 2-parent family). Holiday sales in the week prior to Christmas increased from 24% in 1999 to
34% in 2001. A 2002 American Express survey found that 22% do not complete their shopping until Christmas Eve. The
gift-certificate industry has grown 15-20% per year, increasing the number of post-Christmas shoppers with vacation time who
are able to benefit from the price markdowns.
Some people restrict their Christmas gift-giving to children, who are usually the most enthusiastic and uncomplicated
gift-recipients. Gift-giving can be a way of expressing love, gratitude or of having fun, but it can also create feelings of
obligation in the recipient — often with no such intention on the part of the giver. Sometimes there is an intention to
create obligation, however, because some people give in order to motivate, manipulate, "suck-up" or otherwise have influence
on others.
Deciding who amongst cousins, in-laws, friends, co-workers and other associates to give a gift, the expense of the gift and
the appropriateness of the gift can be a daunting task. Knowing how to graciously receive an inappropriate gift can be as
worrisome as deciding what to give. Young relatives can be given the uncomplicated (and invariably welcome) gift of money.
Older relatives and friends can be given gift-cards.
From an economic point of view, Christmas is an inefficient use of resources. People do a better job of buying for themselves
than for others. Much time & anxiety is spent on decisions about appropriate gifts for others. When relief from social
pressure for the buyer is the main utility of the purchase, the transaction seems wasteful. Christmas gifts are often
immediately exchanged, re-gifted or given to charity — thereby increasing the social utility of the gifts. Insincere
expressions of gratitude for inappropriate gifts has become part of the Christmas spirit. Nonetheless, pleasant surprises do
happen when appropriate gifts are given that even the receiver would not have imagined. And there are pleasures of giving and
receiving that go beyond measures of economic utility of the gifts.
Workplaces often attempt to adopt formalized rituals to make the process of gift-giving simpler and less burdensome. Giving a
gift to a randomly-selected person makes the process more of a task and less of an expression of feeling — the cost of
simplification.
Even in otherwise egalitarian families with two married, opposite-sex, working adults the chores of shopping and
gift-selection still usually falls on the woman (who usually has more willingness to do the task). With the increasing trend
toward single adult or unmarried adult households, there is an increasing tendency to pare-down the number of gift
recipients.
Greater social diversity, reduced pressure to conform to out-dated norms and more open expression of individual preferences
increasingly relieves people of unwanted & unnecessary duties that might be associated with Christmas. Increasingly there is
open communication & negotiation concerning how to handle expectations of the season — when this does not undermine the fun
that can be experienced from the element of surprise. The sending & receiving of cards (and e-mails) remains a less stressful
and more popular means of keeping in touch with a network of friends, relatives and associates — although it can be more
superficial, mechanical and be done out of nothing more than reciprocity.
In 1984 the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 (Lynch v Donnelly) that a city-owned Christmas display including a Christian
nativity scene was not a violation of separation of Church & State as required by the First Amendment of the Constitution
("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."). The court ruled that the symbols served a secular
purpose by depicting the historical origins of Christmas. In 1999 a U.S. District Court dismissed a suit by a Jewish lawyer
claiming that observance of Christmas as a holiday by the federal government violates the First Amendment. The ruling was
based on grounds that "the Christian holiday has become largely secularized."
A Christian legal group called the Alliance Defense Fund has a large number of cooperating attorneys who have volunteered to
handle complaints about "improper attempts to censor the celebration of Christmas in schools and on public property." The
American Civil Liberties Union has appeared to some people to be on different sides of the issue, in some cases fighting
displays with religious themes on public property and on other occasions defending the "right of religious free speech". The
ACLU has taken the position that schools may celebrate secular aspects of Christmas and "objectively teach about their
religious aspects", but not observe them as religious events.
Growing numbers of non-Christian immigrants exposed to Christmas traditions find it easier to adapt when the religious
aspects of Christmas are de-emphasized. As all elements of society become increasingly politicized — with particular emphasis
on acknowledgement of ethnic diversity — it seems probable that the non-religious aspects of Christmas will predominate and
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