HOW-OF-WHY

Originally published Sunday, 1 January 2006
LOOKING BACK: CHRISTMAS

THE GIFT OF GIVING


by Michael John Moynihan

In early America Christmas was often not celebrated. In 1664, when the Netherlanders relocated to New York [New Amsterdam], they carried their customs with them. Dutch youngsters awaited a visit from Sinter Klaas (Saint Nicholas) and presents he’d leave in their wooden shoes on the eve of December 5. But by the 1820’s the Dutch political and cultural domination had been replaced by Americans of English descent. Chief among them was Washington Irving and his wealthy pals who called themselves, ironically the Knickerbockers, a social and literary society which heavily represented the older and more established wealth of the city.

There was no established tradition of gift giving except the plebeian practice of MISRULE, when rowdy bands of the poor would invade the neighborhoods of the rich and powerful for one night, moving from house to house accosting people for money or food and ale.

Irving and his wealthy, aristocratic pals were openly politically conservative, reactionary, and opposed to democracy. He devised a plan to invent an American Christmas that we celebrate today. He convinced his brother in law, John Pintard, to handle introducing influential society to a character called Santa Claus, patterned after Saint Nicholas. Irving’s friend, Clement Moore was assigned to write a holiday poem. Irving even provided Moore specific written descriptions of Santa Clause in order to make it popular and honorable to make Christmas a time to keep your wealth within your own family, by giving gifts to each other. The goal was to put an end to the threats, demands and needs of the growing masses of the immigrant urban poor and make a holiday dependent upon a modern concept of Christmas that could be marketed, especially since it involved the giving and receiving of gifts. A Christmas required rudimentary commercial practices - everything from advertising the idea of exchanging (purchased) gifts, and creating a safe environment in the cities where people of means could shop - which would become popular and widely accepted.

We all know the result of this substantial marketing plan. “The Night Before Christmas:, originally entitled “A Visit from Saint Nick”, was published and soon became a “tradition” of our national consumer identity.

So as you are searching the many unique shops for those last minute gifts, take a moment to silently thank those who long ago made Christmas the first capitalist holiday.