Celebrating However We Choose

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Dec. 21, 2024

Christmas can be a solemn symbolic celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, or it can be
a purely secular event, or it can be a combination of both. The real beauty of Christmas is we can celebrate however we choose or not at all.

It was commonly believed the first Christmas celebrations occurred in 336 CE, a holiday declared by Emperor Constantine, the first Christian head of state, who had declared Christianity to be the official and only religion of the realm. It was also a reaction to the excesses of a pagan ritual known as Saturnalia, a two-week-long bacchanal that needed a more honorable alternative.

However, subsequent texts have been found from as early as 200 CE indicating Dec. 25 as Jesus’ birthday.

The truth is there is no definitive proof of Jesus’ birthday, and many, if not most, Christian scholars think, if the descriptions in the Bible are even close to being accurate, he was most likely born in the spring (sheep would have likely been sheltered in that part of the world in winter, not wandering around in fields).

Whatever the reality of the birthday, religious ceremonies had begun almost immediately, but it took a while before any of what now passes for modern celebrations of Christmas took hold.

For example, according to nychristmastrees.com, the first record of a Christmas tree was in Freiburg, Germany, in 1419. Erected by the local bakers’ guild, it was decorated with candles and called the Paradise Tree. History.com tells us the first records of a tree in what would become the United States was constructed, appropriately enough, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was essentially a wooden pyramid made of planks and boards serving as a community tree provided by the German Moravian Church. First put up in 1747, it was also the first illuminated tree in the U.S., though candlelit trees would become a serious fire hazard in the ensuing years.

The idea of a tree caught on, and the first cut live trees also began showing up in German communities in Pennsylvania. In addition to candles, trees were frequently decorated with fruits, nuts, sweets, and strings of popcorn and cranberries. Fancier ornamentation also started in Germany, but the first glass baubles didn’t show up until the early 1800s.

Giving gifts during the celebrations predates Christmas by several centuries, as it is an old pagan custom usually tied to the changing of the seasons. Gifts around late December were especially meaningful as a form of gratitude for a gradual return of longer daylight. For Christians, of course, the first Christmas gifts were gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Our gift-giving “right jolly old elf” didn’t show up until about 700 years ago courtesy of St. Nicholas, the Greek patron saint of children. The Dutch converted that—and the tradition of giving gifts or sweets to children and the poor—to Sinterklaas, who they brought with them to the New World and became our Santa Claus.

Our politicians have yammered on about an alleged “war on Christmas” for years and years as long as it generates campaign contributions and division. There is no such war, but Christmas was attacked in the distant past. It was partially banned in England from 1643 until 1660, during which time it was required to be marked by solemnity, not celebration.

American Puritans, who escaped religious persecution in England and then the Netherlands only to create their own here, banned Christmas in Massachusetts from 1659 through 1681, claiming the “disorderly conduct” of Christmas celebrations had become “offensive to God.” Celebrations or displays could result in a five-shilling fine.

Quirky holiday laws became somewhat normal. In Arkansas in 1838, they created a law that said if you had a debt that came due on Dec. 25, you had to pay it on the 24th. It might have been an odd response to an 1837 Louisiana law that allowed bills due on the 25th to be paid on the 26th. Lots of our bigger cities have ordinances prohibiting real Christmas trees in high rise buildings or those with multiple dwelling units for obvious reasons.

Our friends down in Mexico have a rule we rather like: All companies must pay a Christmas bonus equal to at least 15 days of pay, and it must be paid before Dec. 20.

Not everybody, not even a majority of the world, celebrates Christmas. There are now about 8.2 billion people on the planet and about 2.6 billion are Christian, so the religious ceremonies do not extend beyond that. It is not clear how much of the non-Christian world celebrates the secular parts of Christmas, though History.com estimates that for at least four billion people, Dec. 25 is just another day.

Worship, celebrate, both or neither, let’s choose to go forth safely and joyfully.