Christmas is a truly remarkable phenomenon. What other holiday causes such a commotion – inspires so many songs, books, films and TV specials; lights up so many houses and even entire cities for weeks on end; crams our mail boxes, empties our wallets, warms our hearts and creates so many memories as Christmas?
What is really remarkable is that Christmas is a holiday that people made. It wasn’t decreed by any king or government; it wasn’t even created by the Church, at least not at first.
The major feast days of the early Church were Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost.
There was no day for the birth of Christ. It would be three and a half centuries before Pope Julius would place Christmas in the middle of a holiday people were already celebrating anyway, and doing it with mistletoe and gifts.
All the ways we do Christmas today are equally as old. In England and America Puritan influences tried to quash them for a while, but the Victorian era brought them back. In 1843, six years after Victoria took the throne, Charles Dickens recorded and encouraged this comeback in his story “A Christmas Carol “ There is a Christmas spirit deep inside mean old Mr. Scrooge; it just needs to be set free.
Washington Irving’s generous Sinte Klaus, Thomas Nast’s fat, jolly Santa, Rev. Clement Moore’s St. Nick and his reindeer, and Horace Greeley’s “Yes, Virginia . .” editorial are all records of traditions that already existed in the popular culture. That they all appeared in the 19th Century New York media at the right time, just put us all on the same page.
There’s no better way to see Christmas through the age than in antique shops, where the ornaments are not like the old ones; they are the old ones. They were part of people Christmases and you can feel the warmth, the humor, the excitement. As I’ve said before in this space: Christmas is about memories and traditions. Antique shops are full of both. You should go see.
Through the stuff of Christmas people have imagined a better world and a better life and have sought the better part of themselves. If there wasn’t a Christmas, we would have to invent one. Thank heaven we did.
Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser, is the author of “The Antique Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” and co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques on Route 9 in Swainton. Send your
comments, questions and appraisal requests to: aschwerdt@cmcherald.com.
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