Ah Christmas, that nostalgia filled time when families come together and rejoice in traditions. However, the holiday was not created simply by the passing of a law, Christmas has a history as rich as that festive food we devour every year and much of it was created and sold to us via advertising.
Before the birth of Christ was noted, Europeans had always celebrated the winter solstice when they could anticipate better weather and extra daylight hours. Fall's end was a prosperous time for most, spirits had fermented and cattle was slaughtered to save the cost of feeding them through winter resulting in the only time of the year there was fresh meat. Scandinavia celebrated Yule from December 21 to January to rejoice the return of the sun. Men brought home large logs and the festivities lasted until the log burned out, about 12 days.
In Rome, Saturnalia honored the god Saturn. The abundance of food and drink added a hedonistic quality to the festivities and chaos was the order of the month with slaves becoming masters, laymen commanding and schools and businesses closed allowing everyone to participate in the festivities. On December 25, they celebrated the birth of Mithra, infant god of the sun and Juvenalia, a feast that honored children.
Easter had long been the main observance in Christianity and it wasn't until the 4th century that the birth of Christ became a holiday. It's believed that Pope Julius I chose December 25 to blend with the pagan Saturnalia festival. It reached Egypt by 432 and by the end of the 8th century, the Feast of the Nativity had spread across the known world. While the Church made the idea law, it couldn't control how it was celebrated. As a result, after attending mass, revellers engaged in raucous and sometimes immoral activities. The poor would go to wealthy houses demanding food and drink. Most homeowners complied or else risked being terrorized and so it became customary to entertain the poor at Christmas.
"Old Ironsides" Oliver Cromwell abolished Christmas in 1645 and King Charles II, the "Merrie Monarch" brought it back when the throne was restored to him. The Pilgrims were even more orthodox than Cromwell and Christmas didn't make it to America's shores with them, in fact, it was outlawed in Boston until 1681. It was however celebrated in Jamestown with the first cup of eggnog but after the Revolution, anything British was scorned and Congress was in session on Christmas Day in 1789. In 1870 Christmas finally became a federal holiday.
In the early 19th century, there was growing discontent among the poor class who resorted to rioting during the season. Indeed, New York's first police force was created as a result of an 1828 riot. It was during this time the American concept of Christmas began to develop. Owing to the heavy presence of the Dutch in New York, newspapers in the 1770s reported the celebration of Sinter Klass' December 6th death date. In 1804, John Pintard of NY Historical Society gave out woodcuts of the saint with backgrounds showing stockings filled with toys hanging over a fireplace. Furthering the popularity of Sinter Klass was Washington Irving who in 1809, in the "History of New York", referred to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of the city.
In 1819, a major turning point occured with Irving's compilation work, "The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent". One story was about a squire who invited peasants into his English manor house at Christmas. Irving was one of the first writers to describe the holiday as a peaceful time when people of all walks of life could come together as equals. Incidentally, he helped inspire Halloween too; this book also contained The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In 1821, William Gilley published the poem "Santeclaus" (from Sinter Klass) about a man dressed in fur riding a single reindeer pulled sleigh. The legend actually goes back to about 280 AD with a Turkish monk named St. Nicholas. Stories abounded of his great generosity and he became the protector of children and sailors. Sinter Klass was a man of many names; Kris Kringle to the Germans, Jultomten in Scandinavia, Pere Noel in France, Father Christmas in the UK and soon, he would become Santa Claus to us.
The next turning point in the evolution of an American Christmas came in 1822 when professor Clement Clarke Moore wrote "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" for his 3 young daughters. "'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house" began this timeless poem that is largely responsible for the concept of Santa Claus today. In the poem, the "jolly old elf" travels around the world in his miniature eight reindeer-pulled sleigh and can magically drop down chimneys with a nod of his head.
Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843 which not only emphasized goodwill but the blessings of family as well. Coupled with this was an emerging awareness of a childhood stage and greater interest in child welfare. Suddenly, Christmas was seen as a family holiday based on old traditions that embraced childhood. However, a still young America was rich in spirit but had little in the way of "old" traditions so it looked to other countries and adopted ideas like sending cards and gifts. Ultimately, America would re-invent Christmas.The idea of the Christmas tree comes to us from Germany and it's believed that 16th century Protestant reformer Martin Luther was the first to add lit candles. Trees were first noted in the 1830s among German Pennsylvania settlers but in 1846, when a sketch of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert standing with their children around a Christmas tree appeared in the Illustrated London News, their popularity grew. Royals had a tremendous influence on American culture and by the 1890s, Germany was successfully mass producing ornaments for the American market. Electricity brought about Christmas lights and soon every town square across the USA boasted it's own Christmas tree. Having one in the home became a permanent American tradition.
In 1863, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew the first image of Santa similar to how we see him today. Santa appeared on the cover of Harper's Weekly that year wearing a white fur trimmed tan suit that was later to become red. Nast also created the North Pole workshop, Mrs. Claus and the elves.
Other notable contributors include Francis P. Church and American artist, Norman Rockwell. Church was the Editor of the New York Sun who in 1897 responded to a letter from eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon who asked, "Is there a Santa Claus?". His published response was of course, "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus". Rockwell's influence can never be underestimated. His portraits can evoke instant emotion like no other medium I know. Many of the images we associate with Christmas come to us from him and are forever sketched in our hearts and minds. Beginning in 1916, Rockwell published a total of 322 original covers for The Saturday Evening Post over a period of 47 years. Here's my favorite where a stunned lad first learns the truth about Santa.
Christmas ads were first seen in 1820 and by the 1840s holiday advertisments were placed in a separate section of the newspapers. Child-magnet Santa was prominent in all the ads but in 1841, store owner J.W. Parkinson went a step further in Philadelphia by presenting the first "real" Santa, a man hired to dress the part and climb the store's chimey. And so began the annual custom of the tormenting of parents by their children who were delighted to line up to sit on a live Santa's lap.
Along with Santa are many seasonal icons that were products of advertising. To help boost traffic, in 1939 Montgomery Ward department store copywriter Robert L. May wrote about Rudolph, a reindeer who was teased about his glowing red nose but saved Christmas by helping Santa deliver presents one foggy Christmas Eve. The store sold a whopping 2.5 million copies that year and even more when it was re-issued in 1946. Johnny Marks wrote a song recorded by Gene Autry in 1949 but I think what most of us remember is that wonderful 1964 Burl Ives narrated special. Christmas just wouldn't be the same without those nostalgic Rankin Bass claymation cartoons! 
Now you just can't mention Christmas advertising without mentioning Coca Cola. The company's first holiday ads in the 1920s used Nast's version of Santa. In 1930, artist Fred Mizen painted a department store Santa in a crowd drinking a Coke at the world's largest soda fountain located in the Famous Barr Co department store in St. Louis. The painting was used in print ads and appeared in the Saturday Evening Post December that year. The ad campaign was successful and in 1931, the company hired illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create ad images for Santa Claus. Sundblom was partial to Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas" in which Santa was described as "chubby and plump". For the next 35 years, Sundblom painted those warm, cheerful and always timely portraits that ultimately formed our vision of Santa today.
Christmas advertising today is as much a driving force for retailers as it has been over the last two centuries. Like today, ads ranged from the nostalgic to the naughty but the vintage ads were far more animated. I love these ads!
As a Canadian, I can honestly say no one does it like the Americans! When we conjure up images of an old Victorian Christmas, it's really an American Christmas that springs to mind and it's spread across the entire world. Though they borrowed their traditions from cultures all over, look now how many of those cultures have incorporated the American spirit of Christmas into their own customs. The image of Coca Cola's Santa is known to nearly every child regardless of country, color or creed. I'm with Francis Church, "May He continue to make glad the heart of childhood".
Wishing everyone a Blessed and safe holiday!
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