Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, Brainstuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. Oh. When you imagine a classic Christmas, you
Speaker 1: might think of things like Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and
Speaker 1: twinkling lights. Oh. While some traditions are descended from more
Speaker 1: ancient practices, Christmas as we know it here in the
Speaker 1: United States is pretty much a product of the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: The eighteen hundreds were a time of remarkable change in
Speaker 1: the Western world, including the birth of many holiday customs.
Speaker 1: A For a long time before the mid eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: people in England and by extension, the United States, barely
Speaker 1: celebrated Christmas at all. For the article, this episode is
Speaker 1: based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with doctor Bruce David Forbes,
Speaker 1: Professor Emeritis of Religious Studies at Morningside University in Sioux City, Iowa.
Speaker 1: He said the Puritans opposed Christmas. They thought it was
Speaker 1: a Catholic thing and that people were partying too much.
Speaker 1: Even though the Puritan Revolution was in the sixteen hundreds
Speaker 1: and didn't last very long, the discouragement of Christmas lasted
Speaker 1: like a century and a half. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: Christmas disappeared. However, beginning around the middle of the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: forces began gathering around the holiday. We've already talked on
Speaker 1: the show about how gardening trends and successful marketing during
Speaker 1: that time made the poinsettia a Mexican winter plant and
Speaker 1: inner continental phenomenon. But let's talk about another plant mainstay,
Speaker 1: the Christmas tree. It turns out we may have that
Speaker 1: largely thanks to the young and fashionable British royal family
Speaker 1: of the mid eighteen hundreds, headed by Queen Victoria and
Speaker 1: her husband Prince Albert. Forbes explained the Christmas tree we
Speaker 1: usually credit was starting in Germany. It comes to England
Speaker 1: because Victoria is of the House of Hanover and that's German.
Speaker 1: Prince Albert is German. In eighteen forty eight, London newspapers
Speaker 1: published a photo of Victoria and Albert, along with several
Speaker 1: of their children, gathered around a decorated Christmas tree on
Speaker 1: a table in England, and soon thereafter in America, families
Speaker 1: everywhere began putting up their own Christmas trees. A Forbes
Speaker 1: said it took off immediately. In that image of Victoria
Speaker 1: and Albert, their Christmas tree is on a table and
Speaker 1: the presents are hanging from the tree or on the table.
Speaker 1: As the presidents get more and more crazy, of course,
Speaker 1: then we're going to need the bigger Christmas tree. And
Speaker 1: now we have Florida stealing trees in our houses. And
Speaker 1: then there's Santa While Saint Nicholas was probably a real
Speaker 1: person celebrated in certain religious circles for centuries, it was
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century that transformed him into Santa Claus. Forbes said,
Speaker 1: what's Saint Nicholas. We don't know what's legend and what's historical.
Speaker 1: He supposedly lived in the three hundreds in what's now Turkey,
Speaker 1: and he was a bishop. Nicholas had a reputation for
Speaker 1: generosity and was canonized a Forbes said, after that, he
Speaker 1: kind of becomes the protector of everybody. He's like a
Speaker 1: guardian angel. His Saint's Day is December sixth, so it's
Speaker 1: not Christmas, but it's in that season leading up to Christmas.
Speaker 1: Saint Nicholas was especially popular in the Netherlands, where he's
Speaker 1: known as Center Claus. It was the Dutch who imported
Speaker 1: him to the Americas. Of Forbes said, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Quakers,
Speaker 1: all those people did not do Christmas in early America.
Speaker 1: It was not a huge cultural thing. But in New
Speaker 1: York at the time New Amsterdam the Dutch continue these traditions.
Speaker 1: That's how Saint Nicholas gets his toe in the door
Speaker 1: and the Dutch term Center Claus gets angelicized to Santa
Speaker 1: Claus A. Saint Nicholas's transformation to the modern Santa comes
Speaker 1: partially courtesy of writers like Clement Moore, who published a
Speaker 1: Visit from Saint Nicholas, perhaps better known as Twas the
Speaker 1: Night Before Christmas in eighteen twenty three, and Washington Irving,
Speaker 1: who wrote a number of as celebrating old English holiday
Speaker 1: festivities and the Christmas spirit. These works introduced Saint Nicholas
Speaker 1: to a wider audience, and then Santa morphed from a
Speaker 1: jolly old elf with a miniature sleigh and eight tiny
Speaker 1: reindeer to the figure with a fur lined coat, a
Speaker 1: bushy white beard, and rosy cheeks. Thanks to a political
Speaker 1: cartoon from eighteen sixty two, inspired by tales of Saint
Speaker 1: Nicholas and folk art of elves from his native Germany,
Speaker 1: cartoonist Thomas Nast published the image of Santa bringing good,
Speaker 1: cheer and warm socks among other gifts to Union soldiers
Speaker 1: on the title page of Harper's Weekly. Meanwhile, electric Christmas
Speaker 1: lights didn't become common in American households until the nineteen thirties,
Speaker 1: but like so many other Christmas traditions, they were born
Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds. In eighteen seventy one, businessman Edward
Speaker 1: Hibbert Johnson hired a young inventor named Thomas Edison at
Speaker 1: the Automatic Telegraph Company. When Edison left to form his
Speaker 1: own company, Johnson went with him. Edison famously patented the
Speaker 1: electric light bulb in eighteen eighty, and Johnson invested some
Speaker 1: of his own money to start the Edison Lamp Company. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Christmas was candlelight, and that gave Johnson a great idea.
Speaker 1: He wired together eighty multi color Edison bulbs and wrapped
Speaker 1: them on a Christmas tree. The decoration got a lot
Speaker 1: of press, though they were still too expensive for most
Speaker 1: people to afford for another few decades. But okay, there
Speaker 1: is one more part of the traditional Christmas season that
Speaker 1: we haven't discussed yet, commercialism. Okay. In eighteen forty three,
Speaker 1: English writer Charles Dickens published a story that would cement
Speaker 1: a particular form of Christmas cheer or should we say
Speaker 1: spirit in pop culture forever. In a Christmas Carol, grouchy
Speaker 1: businessman Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by four ghosts. Marle accounts literally,
Speaker 1: it's what he does too much of anyway, and Scrooge
Speaker 1: winds up learning a lesson in humanity. But long before
Speaker 1: Christmas Carol was a December mainstay of local theaters and
Speaker 1: singing muppets alike. Dickens was, in his own time, wildly popular.
Speaker 1: Forbes said he was a rock star. He toured the
Speaker 1: United States and people lined up for tickets. Businesses that
Speaker 1: were open on Christmas Day saw themselves represented by Scrooge's attitude.
Speaker 1: Forbes said, businesses recalculate they're thinking about it and saying
Speaker 1: oh Christmas doesn't just equal lost business. There are business
Speaker 1: possibilities here. Businesses embraced the holiday, and suddenly it was commercialized,
Speaker 1: perhaps an ironic result for a story about the true
Speaker 1: meaning of Christmas Thanks nineteenth century. Today's episode is based
Speaker 1: on the article how the nineteenth century Invented Modern Christmas
Speaker 1: on how stuffworks dot com, written by Kate Morgan. Brainstuff
Speaker 1: is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
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