WEBVTT - When Did Christmas Become an American Holiday?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bogabam Here. Once upon a time in America,

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<v Speaker 1>Christmas was not a big deal. It might be difficult

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<v Speaker 1>to fathom now when ads for chocolates and jewelry pop

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<v Speaker 1>up around Halloween and decked out trees appear in living

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<v Speaker 1>rooms by Thanksgiving. In fact, Christmas used to be flat

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<v Speaker 1>out illegal. When the Mayflower landed at what is now

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<v Speaker 1>Cape Cod, Massachusetts in sixteen twenty, the Pilgrims brought some

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<v Speaker 1>serious baggage. They were aiming to establish a colony and

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<v Speaker 1>a new way of life in the New World. One

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<v Speaker 1>thing the Puritans wanted to leave behind was Christmas. In England,

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<v Speaker 1>as in much of Europe, Christmas was rife with unbridled partying.

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<v Speaker 1>The harvests were done, The cattle were slaughtered so that

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<v Speaker 1>they wouldn't have to be fed throughout the winter, and

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<v Speaker 1>that made fresh meat and fresh wine, as well as

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<v Speaker 1>time to eat, drink and carry on plentiful. Pure didn't

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<v Speaker 1>buy into the idea of Christmas. The Bible notes no

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<v Speaker 1>date for Jesus's birth, a Scholars still disagree about why

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<v Speaker 1>Christmas is celebrated on December though one popular theory goes

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<v Speaker 1>that the date was picked to overlap Saturnalia, a celebration

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<v Speaker 1>honoring Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture. In effect, the

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<v Speaker 1>date could have co opted a pagan holiday to encourage

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<v Speaker 1>the acceptance of Christianity throughout the world. At any rate,

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<v Speaker 1>in the Puritan mind, there was nothing to celebrate. But

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<v Speaker 1>we spoke with Penny Reestad, a history professor at the

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<v Speaker 1>University of Texas and author of the book Christmas in America,

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<v Speaker 1>a History. She said, Christmas time has really gotten out

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<v Speaker 1>of hand. What was going on in England with the

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<v Speaker 1>feasting and the gambling and the general debauchery. They took

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<v Speaker 1>as a sign of the decline of civilization and a

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<v Speaker 1>decline of all the things that they valued. So they

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<v Speaker 1>were really positing this idea of not celebrating Christmas as

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<v Speaker 1>an opposition to all the decay of English society. They

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<v Speaker 1>were so serious about treating December twenty five as just

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<v Speaker 1>another day that everyone on the Mayflower, some of whom

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<v Speaker 1>mind were not Puritans, worked on the first Christmas Day

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<v Speaker 1>in America. They didn't get time and a half either.

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<v Speaker 1>The non Puritans in the bunch were not as keen

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<v Speaker 1>on a Christmas van Riese Dad says it wasn't long

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<v Speaker 1>before they acted out. She explained some of these newcomers

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<v Speaker 1>refused to work. One of those first Christmas is William Bradford,

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<v Speaker 1>the English separatist and early governor of Plymouth Colony, said okay,

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<v Speaker 1>that's fine, until you're better informed. That's okay. Apparently they

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<v Speaker 1>went out on the street. The word at the time

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<v Speaker 1>was frolicking, playing street games. He basically told them to

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<v Speaker 1>take it indoors, and he said, I don't mind if

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<v Speaker 1>you're doing this, but I don't want to see any

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<v Speaker 1>of it. It sets a bad tone that those were

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<v Speaker 1>not his exact words. Not all of the colonies were

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<v Speaker 1>so against the idea of celebrating Christmas, though settlements further south,

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<v Speaker 1>like the one in Jamestown, Virginia, let loose. The ban

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<v Speaker 1>in New England never was completely successful. Here's a quote

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<v Speaker 1>from Stephen Nissenbaum's book The Battle for Christmas, A Social

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<v Speaker 1>and Cultural History of our most cherished Holiday. It was

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<v Speaker 1>fishermen and mariners who had the reputation of being the

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<v Speaker 1>most incorrigible centers in New England. The region's least reformed

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<v Speaker 1>inhabitants maritime communities such as Nantucket, the Isles of Shoals,

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<v Speaker 1>and especially the town of marble Head were notorious for irreligion,

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<v Speaker 1>heavy drinking, and loose sexual activity. There were also repositories

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<v Speaker 1>of enduring English folk practices, places that ignored or resisted

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<v Speaker 1>orthodox New England culture. It's no coincidence that marble Head

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<v Speaker 1>was also a site of ongoing Christmas keeping. A changing society,

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<v Speaker 1>though would not be denied. Here's a quote from Christmas

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<v Speaker 1>in America, a history in the end. Whether slowly in

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<v Speaker 1>New England or more rapidly in the Middle Colonies. In

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<v Speaker 1>the South, the forces of pluralism and the need for

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<v Speaker 1>social harmony shaped and encouraged Christmas celebration, Yet its status

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<v Speaker 1>as a holiday remained haphazard and varied widely. It would

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<v Speaker 1>take the project of nation building in the wake of

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<v Speaker 1>the Revolution to begin to define an American conception of Christmas.

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<v Speaker 1>Even after the colonies declared independence, years passed before Christmas

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<v Speaker 1>became the holiday we know it as today. Congress was

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<v Speaker 1>in session on Christmas Day in seventeen eighty nine, the

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<v Speaker 1>year after the Constitution was ratified. The Senate worked on

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<v Speaker 1>Christmas Day in seventeen ninety seven, the House met on

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<v Speaker 1>Christmas Day. In eighteen o two, Christmas began to take

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<v Speaker 1>its present form. Later in the eighteen hundreds, different religions

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<v Speaker 1>and denominations, Protestants and Catholics among them, emerged in America,

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<v Speaker 1>and they held Christmas as both the Holy day and

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<v Speaker 1>a day of celebration. The Puritans couldn't help but be influenced.

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<v Speaker 1>People of different religions made up local governments, and trade

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<v Speaker 1>between various networks helped calm the antipathies between the factions.

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<v Speaker 1>As America prospered, partially thanks to the labor of the

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<v Speaker 1>enslaved and partially thanks to win US realization, a middle

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<v Speaker 1>class was born, and the idea of giving and receiving

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<v Speaker 1>Christmas gifts took hold. An emphasis on home and family

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<v Speaker 1>followed away from the frolicking in the streets and raucous drinking,

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<v Speaker 1>feasting and sex. Finally, in eighteen seventy two, and fifty

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<v Speaker 1>years after the Puritans landed at Plymouth and put the

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<v Speaker 1>squeeze on the idea of Christmas as a celebration, the

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<v Speaker 1>US declared Christmas a national holiday. Ever since, celebrations big

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<v Speaker 1>and small, secular and non secular, have marked the day.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by John Donovan and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Clang. For more on this amounts of other merry topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit hous to forks dot com. Brainstuff is production of

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<v Speaker 1>I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit

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