# History of Christmas in America



## Ronnie T (Dec 7, 2010)

Lots of interesting info at  http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm



An overview:
*1600's*: The Puritans made it illegal to mention St. Nicolas' name. People were not allowed to exchange gifts, light a candle, or sing Christmas carols.
*17th century*: Dutch immigrants brought with them the legend of Sinter Klaas.
*1773*: Santa first appeared in the media as St. A Claus.
*1804*: The New York Historical Society was founded with St. Nicolas as its patron saint. Its members engaged in the Dutch practice of gift-giving at Christmas. 
*1809*: Washington Irving, writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, included Saint Nicolas in his book "A History of New York." Nicolas is described as riding into town on a horse.
*1812*: Irving, revised his book to include Nicolas riding over the trees in a wagon.
*1821*: William Gilley printed a poem about "Santeclaus" who was dressed in fur and drove a sleigh drawn by a single reindeer.
*1822*: Dentist Clement Clarke Moore is believed by many to have written a poem "An Account of a Visit from Saint Nicolas," which became better known as "The Night before Christmas." Santa is portrayed as an elf with a miniature sleigh equipped with eight reindeer which are named in the poem as Blitzem, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder, Prancer, and Vixen. Others attribute the poem to a contemporary, Henry Livingston, Jr. Two have since been renamed Donner and Blitzen.
*1841*: J.W. Parkinson, a Philadelphia merchant, hired a man to dress up in a "Criscringle" outfit and climb the chimney of his store.
*1863*: Illustrator Thomas Nast created images of Santa for the Christmas editions of Harper's Magazine. These continued through the 1890's.
*1860*s: President Abraham Lincoln asked Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some Union soldiers. This image of Santa supporting the enemy had a demoralizing influence on the Confederate army -- an early example of psychological warfare.


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## gordon 2 (Dec 7, 2010)

Santa on a Coke bottle...now what's more ice cream and mince pie than that... And Marilyn Munroe asking for a 54 convertable from Santa Baby.....now there is something real wholesome about that, don't care who you are....


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## jason4445 (Dec 8, 2010)

The Puritans were a off shoot of the Anglican or Church of England.  As the Church of England developed in ceremony and doctrine it got more and more away of the Catholic.  A certain population of the Church of England did not like this and called themselves Puritans or people who wanted the Church of England to go back to it more Catholic ways or the Pure Church.  The Puritans were the ones to come to America for Religious freedom (England did not like the Puritans and put them in jail and hung them) and they settled mostly in the Massachusetts Bay Colony or Boston.  Yeah the Pilgrims were the first to come and some Pilgrims were Puritans who came for freedom, but most came for other reasons financial being the greatest.

At the time the Bay Colony was being settled even the more liberal Church of England thought the secular Christmas celebrations were to wild and outlawed any secular celebrations of Christmas - when the Puritans were in religious and political control of the Bay Colony they followed this and outlawed any secular Christmas celebrations in the Bay Colony or Boston.

The Sinter Klaas was brought in from the Dutch and his arrival has already been celebrated in Holland.  Sinter Klaas comes a couple of weeks before our Santa and is considered a winter celebration not a Christmas one - for most Christmas Day in Holland is more a religious thing since Santa has already come and gone.Sinter Klaas also has a Moorish helper, was portrayed for the first time as black African and called Zwarte Piet (Black Peter).  He is a black boy who accompanies Sinterklaas and helps him on his rounds (possibly derived from the Dutch colonial experience, or the Moorish occupation of Spain.  But all through Europe the St Nickolas figure of a old bearded man flying through the air pulled by horses was common.

Once a dedicated moderate believing Christian friend of mine asked why Santa was so accepted and believed in one way by so many, yet Jesus is believed in so many different ways and not accepted like Santa is in just one way.

I told her that Santa is believed in now like Jesus was originally.  You believed in Santa, you tried sincerely to behave your self and you were rewarded positively with presents- if you were not good you were rewarded negatively with switches or coal.  That is how Jesus started off - you believed and try sincerely to do good things you were rewarded with heaven - you did not try to be good then you went to Hades.  Then same the feel goody doctrines of once saved, and all you needed to do is believe and that messed things up on the Jesus side.


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## 1gr8bldr (Dec 8, 2010)

If, you google "origin of Christmas", there is alot of information  whether true or not, I don't know. It tells of pagan influence, which I don't care to explain for fear of someone thinking that I believe it all to be true. Honestly, how will we ever know. If anyone reads up on this, ask yourself, Does it not all fit to well? Does it sound "reverse enginered" to you?


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## dawg2 (Dec 9, 2010)

1gr8bldr said:


> If, you google "origin of Christmas", there is alot of information  whether true or not, I don't know. It tells of pagan influence, which I don't care to explain for fear of someone thinking that I believe it all to be true. Honestly, how will we ever know. If anyone reads up on this, ask yourself, Does it not all fit to well? Does it sound "reverse enginered" to you?


You lost me there.  Can you explain?


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## 1gr8bldr (Dec 9, 2010)

dawg2 said:


> You lost me there.  Can you explain?


There is much talk about celebrating the birth of Christ on Dec 25 that says that the 25th came from pagan influences. They say it came from a pagan holiday that mostly would resemble mardigraw.


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## Sargent (Dec 9, 2010)

The use of a tree comes from pagan nature celebrations.


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