Our modern "Christmas" was invented over a short period of time during the 1800's, about 1810 to 1860, a period of fifty years. Before that, it was mostly a pagan/Christian holiday, centered around various nature worship religions. Around A.D. 350, the Catholic Church had taken care of rival religions by absorbing their rites into Catholic tradition. Christmas was a big catchall for almost all winter solstice festivals, including Roman, of course. However, the Protestants in the 1600's through the 1700's rejected the Roman holiday if not in practice, then at least in heartfelt condemnation. But the spirit of Christmas lingered on, and in time, as the Reformation lost its spirit, Christmas snuck back in. When George Washington became president of the United States of America in 1789, Christmas as we know it today did not exist.

First, Santa Claus had to be invented. Santa Claus took his lead from a Catholic bishop named St. Nicholas, who, strangely enough, attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325, not too many years before Christmas became an official Roman Catholic holiday. Santa Claus is a reinterpretation of St. Nicholas, 1800's-style. Santa comes from novels and poems written during the 1800's, namely: from Washington Irvine’s History of New York, and Clement Moore’s poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," which we know today as "The Night Before Christmas" This was in 1821 and 1822, respectively. Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, written in 1843, sums up the whole thing. How the name "Santa Claus" was invented has been lost to history, but it is no doubt an adaptation from the Dutch name for St. Nicholas, which was Sinter Klaas.

At any rate, St. Nicholas had been venerated and idolized for over 1400 years, so it was no mere accident Santa took his spirit from the good bishop of Rome. He is a saint to the Catholics because of the following: He bailed some girls out of prostitution by paying off their father. He prowled around at night, throwing secret bags of gold, of which we know everything about. He did some outrageous miracles, like reassemble to life some boys who had been carved up, salted down and put in a pickle barrel. These stories, like other stories of saints, appear to be an early response to Mary worship. Madonna holds her diminutive child and keeps him from wandering off, while the real matters of church and state must be wrestled with by popes and bishops. Alternatively, the average Christian forced to be so by the Catholic Church, doesn’t like the stern Son of God who will judge their wild Christmas partying. Good ol’ St. Nick understands this and will even put them back together if they are diced and pickled. Besides, Mary and her child can be easily fit into little Nativity scenes and thus keep the Christian veneer on the festivities.

The Protestants knew all this and tried to get rid of Christmas, figuring if they could get rid of Christmas, they could get rid of the influence of the Catholic Church. When the Puritans took over the government in England during the 1600's, they even made Christmas illegal, but when the monarchy was restored in 1660, the Catholic Church went back to business as usual. Because the Protestant influence continued to dampen the whole spirit of Christmas, it took over 150 years for things to work themselves out. But in order to wipe out Christmas, they would have had to wipe out history and the spirit of man.

So, Christmas sprang back from ill health to new potency in the 1800's, as the Santa Claus spirit began to reshape the holiday into its magnificence we have today. Santa Claus needed some help. His spirit had been resuscitated by the Americans Washington Irving, Clement Moore and Charles Dickens, but more than a children’s story is needed to launch an industry. In the old days, when people celebrated Christmas, it was usually a rowdy affair, and not for children so much as for licentiousness. Now, Santa Claus was for the children and the gifts were for the children. Before Mary got hold of things, the pagans celebrated Christmas by giving gifts, along with their worship of gods and other spirits. Before the Industrial Revolution, Christians and pagans alike exchanged gifts of food and drink, and, seldomly, handmade gifts for useful purposes. Children were tolerated, but not celebrated. With the newfound wealth of technology, and the spirit of the age as told in story and poem, the need for Christmas became all-consuming, and consume they did.

Now, it has become fashionable to go out and buy things for presents, a spirit unheard of in ages past. Commercial Christmas presents were invented, Christmas cards were invented and Christmas trees were invented, all within a period of less than fifty years. So, today’s Christmas is about 150 years old, but going strong. Without Christmas, our whole society would collapse, because almost one-third of our retail sales occur at Christmastime.

So, our celebration of Christmas was always a part of history, given Christian trappings during the Roman Catholic days and given commercialization during the 1800's.

And, what about putting Jesus back into Christmas? Was He ever there to begin with?

- Chris Simonson

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