“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!”
Tis the most wonderful time of the year! It is the season for Santa Clause, reindeer, elves, stockings, cookies, wreaths, and carolers. December is the season of Christmas!! Oh, Christmas…you certainly top many people’s lists of favorite holidays! All the joy and the warmth and the festivities…all the hot cocoa and the crackling fireplaces…all the snow and the ice skating and the gift-giving. And let’s not forget the food and drinks! Some people are grinches…but most of us love Christmas! Why do we? There are numerous reasons.
If nothing else, Christmas has a special aura that most of the other days of the year don’t have. But, as far as those other reasons are concerned, let’s dig a little deeper. We’ll start with the holiday’s historical origins. How did the tradition of Christmas begin?
The Twenty-Fifth?
The nativity sequence of Jesus Christ is rooted in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but writers have suggested various dates for its anniversary.1. People celebrated the first recorded Christmas on December 25, 336 C.E.2,3. The Chronograph of 354- written in 336 under the pontification of Pope Mark- noted the Roman celebration that took place eight days before the “calends” (first day) of January.4,5.
The date of Jesus Christ’s birth was the subject of great debate and interest in the 3rd century C.E. According to Clement of Alexandria:
“There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [May 20] … Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [April 20 or 21]”14.
Why did people eventually settle on December 25? It was the date of the Winter Solstice in the Roman Calendar, and most early Christians (who lived in the Roman Empire) considered Christ the “Sun of righteousness” that the Biblical figure Malachi had prophesized.15,16,17.
The “Calculation Hypothesis”
The “calculation hypothesis” holds that December 25 fell exactly nine months after the New Testament’s Feast of the Annunciation, in which Mary announced her pregnancy. December 25 also coincided with the Roman festival of the god Sol Invictus (“Unconquerable Sun”)18. The cult that Aurelian established in 274 C.E. celebrated this holiday during the Winter Solstice.
According to 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi:
“It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries, the Christians also took part. Accordingly, when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day.”19.
The First Emergence
Christmas did not appear on the official list of festivals that early Christian writers Irenaeus and Tertullian drew up, but it did appear in the late 4th century C.E. under early church fathers John Chrysostrom, Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome.6,7. Eastern Christians meanwhile didn’t celebrate Christmas on December 25 but on January 6, the date of the “Epiphany” (baptism of Christ).8,9,10.
Following the death of pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople (378 C.E.), eastern Christians promoted Christmas as part of the revival of Orthodox Christianity. They introduced the first Christmas feast in Constantinople one year later, and in the coming decades celebrants held feasts in Antioch and Alexandria (Egypt) as well.11,12. In the 6th century C.E., a Jerusalem feast in Georgian Iadgari incorporated celebratory hymns.13.
Sleigh Bells and Fir Trees
Now the question you’re all wondering- what about all the modern traditions? Why did the trees and the decorations and the big, red, and jolly, arctic philanthropist become a thing? According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Renaissance humanist Sebastian Brant recorded the first practice of people placing fir tree branches in their homes in his 1494 book, Ship of Fools (Das Narrenschiff).20
Indoor fir trees with apples decorating their boughs and branches first appeared in Strasbourg in 1605, and the first use of lit candles by a Silesian duchess was recorded in 1611.20. The Advent wreath (with four symbolic candles) was a more recent invention.20.
It wasn’t until the end of the 18th century that family members began exchanging gifts in earnest (although there are records of people exchanging gifts as early as the 15th century). The tradition alludes to the story of the Three Wise Men (Magi) in the story of Jesus’s birth. The three gifts- gold, frankincense, and myrrh- represent kingliness, divinity, and death (respectively).
St. Nicholas Across the Pond
In some European traditions, St. Nicholas appeared on the Feast Day of Christmas (December 6th), bringing small gifts and candies to children.20. St. Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (Demre, Turkey, presently) in the Lycian region of ancient Rome. Nicholas was known for his generosity towards the indigent. He once allegedly provided three young, impoverished sex workers with dowries so they could escape their sorrowful situation.21. Most images of St. Nicholas (including a painting of him in Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai) depict him with a beard and in canonical robes.
In 16th century England (under the reign of Henry VIII), people envisioned “Father Christmas” as a man in green/scarlet robes lined with fur. He typified the spirit of good cheer and brought peace, joy, good food, and wine with him.22. Victorian-era England revived “Father Christmas” as the image of good cheer with the publication of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843). In Belgium and the Netherlands, Sinterklaas became de Kerstman (the “Christmas Man”), and in France, he was known as Père Noël (“Father Christmas”).
In Germanic folklore, the midwinter event of Yuletide gave rise to many of Santa Clause’s “modern” features. Odin (Wodan)- bearing the names of Jólnir (“Yule figure”) and Langbarðr (“long-beard”) in Old Norse- performed nightly rides across the sky on a gray horse named Sleipnir.23. According to Folklorist Margaret Baker:
“…the appearance of Santa Claus or Father Christmas, whose day is the 25th of December, owes much to Odin, the old blue-hooded, cloaked, white-bearded Giftbringer of the north, who rode the midwinter sky on his eight-footed steed Sleipnir, visiting his people with gifts. Odin, transformed into Father Christmas, then Santa Claus, prospered with St Nicholas and the Christchild, became a leading player on the Christmas stage.”24.
The American Clause
In the United States in 1773, Washington Irving anglicized Sinterklaas into “Santa Clause” in The History of New York (1809).25. He pictured him as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat, and that became one image. However, it wasn’t until 1821 with the anonymous publication of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (“The Night Before Christmas”) that the modern image of Santa Clause first appeared. St. Nick was “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf” with “a little round belly” that “shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.” He had a “miniature sleigh” and “tiny reindeer.”
He named his reindeer Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem (Dunder and Blixem came from the old Dutch words for thunder and lightning, which were later changed to the more German sounding Donner and Blitzen).26. Thomas Nast depicted an image of Santa Clause in an 1863 publication of Harper’s Weekly, and, over the course of the next century, as explorers reached the Arctic Circle (North Pole), people envisioned Santa Clause living/working in and traveling from there.
The Meaning of the Season
Let’s come full circle. What is the meaning of Christmas…why do we love it so much, and why is it such a special holiday? Plenty of Christmas films– including It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, and A Christmas Carol—have all tried to answer these yearly questions. The main reason is of course the birth of Jesus Christ, and the most common modern reason is the importance of family, friends, and community. We want to show people that we love them and that we care about them, and so we sing, we exchange gifts, and we share food. We also, of course, festively decorate our homes—outfitting them with warm, welcoming, and colorful lights, glass ornaments, and wintry verdure.
Let’s consolidate the two above reasons into one, though. As the early celebrants noted, the birth of Christ signified the “light of redemption” that would eventually save humanity.
Give It’s a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol a second viewing/reading. Both stories ooze with Christian themes because, in both stories, supernatural forces intervene in the lives of broken and/or lost individuals. Economic stress weighs heavily down upon and clouds George Bailey’s vision of life. He becomes so despondent when he loses $8,000 that he contemplates suicide…that is until Clarence shows up and leaps into an icy river. George, a truly benevolent spirit at heart, jumps in to rescue him, and he then views what life would be like if he (George) was never born.
With that, he poignantly mends his ways and reprioritizes what is most important to him. “Every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings,” George’s daughter ecstatically remarks. Ebenezer Scrooge, of course, has a similar “Road to Damascus” experience when the ghosts of the past, present, and future show him what will happen if he doesn’t change his ways…if he remains a cold-hearted, avaricious curmudgeon.
One Small Light
Darkness is the rule not the exception. Is darkness inherently miserable and evil, though? No. Plenty of creatures, such as bats and big cats, thrive in the darkness. Reptilian critters do so as well. In the inorganic sphere of existence, most of everything is darkness…a hundred-billion light years across. Stars and planets and moons and suns are all virtually inconceivable anomalies given the incredible distances between them. But for us human beings– with all our various strange and inexplicable, conscious orientations—darkness is anathema.
We close our eyes in its presence, and we let the fictitious characters we conjure up in our dreams do our bidding. But we must eventually face the darkness. The darkness will inevitably devour us…the creeping darkness of age, illness, and mortality. For most of human history—before we invented electricity or gas-powered furnaces—the Winter Solstice frequently boded misery and death. The days were dark…and, thus, they were also cold and short. Food was scarce. Freezing and starving occurred often. The Starks’ motto “winter is coming” from Game of Thrones made sense as an ominous refrain for the medieval world (even though Game of Thrones’ universe is fantastical/fictitious).
But…what if? What if the darkness can’t fully devour us? What if the slightest vestige of hope always exists?! The “tiny pinpricks of light in an ocean of darkness” are so movingly special because they shine in the darkness, and it is for that reason that they shine brighter! Their brightness falls into much greater contrast with the darkness that surrounds it.
In the Christian tradition, Jesus Christ is that slightest vestige of hope…rescuing wayward souls from the darkness of selfishness, resentment, and eternal misery. But that slightest vestige of hope transcends all human cultures and religious traditions. The “light of Galadriel” from The Lord of the Rings is a variation on this theme (the Light of Galadriel shines when it is most needed…when all the other lights have gone out!). And, thus, the magic of the Christmas season maintains its enduring appeal!
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As a child, my Christmases (spent out-of-town) were as stereotypical as you could get (and I mean that in a good way). See my article “317: An Ode to My Grandmother” as a corollary to this one. My grandmother’s home was quaint, cozy, and Victorian. There were numerous stories and levels and hidden alcoves, and five or more extended families would all fit in there for the holidays. Our dinners were sumptuous, and our presents were numerous. The tree was as big and as wide as the one in Rockefeller Plaza. There were plenty of cakes and cookies and pies, and, while the weather outside may have been “frightful,” it was quite “delightful” in the daytime.
This was Upstate New York in the 1990s/early 2000s. Snow always blanketed the ground. It was always a “white Christmas” (as the old expression goes). Most importantly, though, we all had each other, and that made it a truly joyous and magical time of life! My grandmother passed away in 2003 at the age of 72. The home no longer belongs to her or her late husband (who passed away in 2015). Every year since her passing though (up until about 2018), my aunt and uncle held sumptuous Christmas Eve dinners that poignantly paid homage to the ones my grandmother held!
Conclusion
And thus, come Christmas time, we see the true importance of good family members, friends, and other people in our lives with a heightened sense of appreciation. Their redemptive spirits and the life-efforts they make (which we may have taken for granted) become clear to us. Our loved ones and others become as distinct to us as lit candles in the night sky, and we can experience with sincere gratitude that they’re part of our lives. We can appreciate that, if they are like candles in the dark, then we’re happy that the icy winds haven’t yet snuffed them out (and if the icy winds have done so, then we remember them fondly!)
With that…I wish you a very Merry Christmas (2023)!!
SOURCES
[1] Hijmans, S.E., Sol: The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome, 2009, p. 584.
[2] “Christmas and its cycle”. New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). Catholic University of America Press. 2002. pp. 550–557.
[3] Hyden, Marc (December 20, 2021). “Merry Christmas, Saturnalia or festival of Sol Invictus?”. Newnan Times-Herald. Archived from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2023. Around 274 ADᵃ, Emperor Aurelian set December 25—the winter solstice at the time—for the celebration of Sol Invictus who was the ‘Unconquered Sun’ god. ‘A marginal note on a manuscript of the writings of the Syriac biblical commentator Dionysius bar-Salibi states that in ancient times the Christmas holiday was actually shifted from January 6 to December 25 so that it fell on the same date as the pagan Sol Invictus holiday,’ reads an excerpt from Biblical Archaeology. / Could early Christians have chosen December 25 to coincide with this holiday? ‘The first celebration of Christmas observed by the Roman church in the West is presumed to date to [336 AD],’ per the Encyclopedia Romanaᵃ, long after Aurelian established Sol Invictus’ festival. (a) “Sol Invictus and Christmas”. Encyclopaedia Romana.
[4] The manuscript reads, VIII kal. Ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae. (“The Chronography of 354 AD. Part 12: Commemorations of the Martyrs Archived November 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine”, The Tertullian Project. 2006.)
[5] “Depositio Martyrum”. Archived December 25, 2021, at the Wayback Machine New Catholic Encyclopedia. The last name in the Martyrum is Pope Sylvester I (d. 335); the inclusion of Pope Mark (d. 336) and Julius I (d. 352) is clearly a later addition.
[6] Martindale, Cyril Charles (1908). “Christmas”. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
[7] English, Adam C. (October 14, 2016). Christmas: Theological Anticipations. Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-1-4982-3933-2.
[8] Wainwright, Geoffrey; Westerfield Tucker, Karen Beth, eds. (2005). The Oxford History of Christian Worship. Oxford University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-19-513886-3. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
[9] Roy, Christian (2005). Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-57607-089-5. Archived from the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
[10] Pokhilko, Hieromonk Nicholas. “History of Epiphany”. Archived from the original on September 23, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
[11] Roy, Christian (2005). Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-57607-089-5. Archived from the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
[12] Hastings, James; Selbie, John A., eds. (2003). Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Vol. 6. Kessinger Publishing Company. pp. 603–604. ISBN 978-0-7661-3676-2. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
[13] Frøyshov, Stig Simeon. “[Hymnography of the] Rite of Jerusalem”. Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology.
[14] McGowan, Andrew, How December 25 Became Christmas Archived December 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Bible History Daily, February 12, 2016.
[15] Hale Bradt (2004). Astronomy Methods (PDF). p. 69. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2018. Roll, p. 87. These two references say that March 25 was the equinox, and Roll refers to a work called De Solstitiis et Aequinoctiis Archived February 5, 2022, at the Wayback Machine which gives December 25 as the solstice. However, at the time of Julius Caesar the winter solstice was actually on the 23rd or 24th.
[16] “Bruma”, Seasonal Festivals of the Greeks and Romans. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 18:59 Archived June 16, 2022, at the Wayback Machine (paragraph 220 in Latin Archived May 4, 2022, at the Wayback Machine)
[17] Hijmans, S.E., Sol: The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome, 2009, p. 584.
[18] Bradshaw, Paul F., “Christmas” Archived January 9, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The New SCM Dictionary of Liturgy of Worship, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd., 2002.
[19] (cited in Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p. 155).
[20] Christmas | Origin, Definition, Traditions, History, & Facts | Britannica
[21] “Santa Claus: The real man behind the myth”. NBC News. 22 December 2009. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2009.
[22] William J. Federer (2002). “There Really Is a Santa Claus: The History of St. Nicholas & Christmas Holiday Traditions” p. 39. Amerisearch, Inc., 2002
[23] For example, see McKnight, George Harley (1917). St. Nicholas; his legend and his rôle in the Christmas celebration and other popular customs. New York and London, G.P. Putman’s sons. pages 24–26, 138–139 ; Fruehling Springwood, Charles (2009). “If Santa Wuz Black: The Domestication of a White Myth”. In Denzin, Norman (ed.). Studies in Symbolic Interaction. Emerald Group Publishing. pp. 243–244. ISBN 9781848557840.
[24] Baker, Margaret (2007 1962). Discovering Christmas Customs and Folklore: A Guide to Seasonal Rites Throughout the World, page 62. Osprey Publishing.
[25] “Last Monday, the anniversary of St. Nicholas, otherwise called Santa Claus, was celebrated at Protestant Hall, at Mr. Waldron’s; where a great number of sons of the ancient saint the Sons of Saint Nicholas celebrated the day with great joy and festivity.” Rivington’s Gazette (New York City), 23 December 1773.
[26] “What Are the True Names of Santa’s Reindeer?”. snopes.com. 6 June 2001. Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
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