The Top 40 Traditions of Christmas: The Story Behind the Nativity, Candy Canes, Caroling, and All Things Christmas (4 page)

The reduction in price caused by mass production (way down from the $300 cost to light a tree in the early 1900s) has led to “fairy lights” being used for all kinds of events.

Where?

The idea of lighting up a tree with candles came from Germany and moved to England with the German-born relatives (and husband) of Queen Victoria.

American Thomas Edison’s work with electric light was directly responsible for the invention of Christmas lights. The vice president of his company produced Christmas lights only two years after Edison patented the electric lightbulb.

Now shopping malls and sporting arenas cover themselves in light displays to encourage people to join in the festive fun.

Many homeowners go to incredible lengths to illuminate their homes at Christmas, sometimes just for fun but often as a way of raising money for charity.

When?

Originally candles were stuck to the Christmas tree branches with melted wax. It took until almost the end of the nineteenth century for candleholders to come into fashion.

The vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, Edward Johnson, had eighty red, white, and blue miniature lightbulbs made for his Christmas tree in 1882. This is believed to have been the first time electric lights decorated a Christmas tree. Unfortunately the cost was prohibitive, and it wasn’t until almost fifty years later that affordable Christmas lights arrived in the shops.

In 1895 the White House displayed its first electrically lit Christmas tree, encouraging the fashion to spread across America.

Why?

There are lots of reasons for liking Christmas lights! We could be representing the Christmas star or the lamps in the stable where Christ lay. We may be harking back to seemingly simpler and cozier times, when people gathered around the lamp and held services by candlelight. In the early days of electricity it would most certainly have been a status symbol. It might just be because they are pretty, and people like pretty things.

Or it might be that those bright, sparkly lights remind us there is something purer, something brighter in each of us than what we show the world through the rest of the year.

Who?

The German, Austrian, and Polish peoples came up with the idea of midwinter or Christmas markets. It is an idea that does seem better suited to dark, cold nights (although the markets are open through the day and well into the evening.)

Faith-based groups often set up Nativity scenes, and some even welcome the Christ child in when the market begins. But mostly it is a good opportunity for small traders and craftspeople to make the most of a Christmas shopping spree that might otherwise pass them by.

While most markets cater to local people, some have grown large enough to become tourist attractions in their own right.

What?

The Christmas market may be simply a gathering of local traders selling their wares. But they can often be much larger, incorporating amusement parks, ice rinks, and live music. Many markets have become so organized that instead of makeshift stalls they have what amounts to miniature Alpine cabins to sell from.

The goods for sale will be anything festive! Hot food and warm drinks will feature heavily, as will warm clothing and Christmas decorations.

If you have ever joined Nat King Cole in singing about “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” and wondered what they tasted like, the Christmas market would be a good place to find out.

Where?

The Christmas market idea seems to have developed in Germany and surrounding countries. It has spread across Europe and is now a major feature in the festive celebrations of a handful of American cities.

Dresden in Germany, Vienna in Austria, and Bautzen in Poland can each make a claim to having the oldest Christmas Market.

The markets are usually held in town squares or city centers, public places that are close to traffic and allow pedestrians to wander and shop but are large enough to have, on some occasions, several hundred market stalls.

The Christmas market in Edinburgh, Scotland, actually boardwalks over part of an ancient cemetery.

When?

A “December market” was held in Vienna as far back as 1294. At some point this became known as a Christmas market. Other markets sprang up around the same time. The Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, has been held continually in the same location around the cathedral (wars permitting) since 1570.

Traditionally, the markets tend to open on the first week of Advent, or simply the first day of December. Being primarily sales opportunities, they try to make the most of the festive season, stopping on the most suitable day before Christmas (often Christmas Eve!). Of course, they are very good fun as well!

Why?

Another name for the Christmas market is the
Christkindlmarkt
, or “Christ-child market,” which might imply a spiritual origin. But while the traders and chambers of commerce who instigated them may well have been spiritual men, the market (in the days before High Street stores) would simply have been a good retail opportunity and a way to liven up the dreary midwinter.

Strangely, though, they often do have a feeling of camaraderie, a way of bringing people together. Usually everyone is cold, happy, and sharing in an experience that only happens once a year. Materialistic or not, the Christmas market is a good place to find some free Christmas spirit!

Who?

The traditional round shape and general recipe for the Christmas pudding was established in Victorian England. Before that it was made, in various forms, by agricultural folk all across Europe.

The Victorians added some of the more exotic spices and ingredients, making it a dish for the wealthier members of society. Thankfully those ingredients are now more easily available, and whether or not a Christmas pudding appears on a Christmas dinner table is more related to the individual tastes of the family involved than money and social status.

Jesus and the twelve apostles are represented in the mix, which is traditionally supposed to have thirteen ingredients.

What?

Christmas pudding is the traditional second course to the Christmas dinner (third, if there is a starter). It consists of flour, suet, bread crumbs, spices, nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar, sultanas, raisins, currants, mixed peel, almonds, apple, orange, lemon, eggs, rum, barley wine, and so on. There is no definite recipe because different families have different ways of preparing their family’s favorite Christmas pudding. Some families have recipes handed down over several generations.

Amazingly Christmas puddings and mince pies began as the same thing. Meat would be preserved during the winter months by wrapping it in what was basically Christmas pudding mix, becoming, in essence, large meat pies. In modern times, though, meat has generally disappeared from Christmas puddings and pies.

Where?

The mix that became Christmas pudding and mince pies was commonly used among farming folk in Europe. It was particularly popular in Germany, and the prince-elector of Hanover brought it to Great Britain when he became King George the First. He was affectionately known in Britain as “the Pudding King.”

The habit of hanging the pudding in a cloth for several weeks to allow it to “ripen,” thus giving it its distinctive spherical shape, was firmly established in Victorian England. Since coming to the United States and becoming more commercially available, the pudding has developed a much more practical flat base—to stop it rolling off the plate!

When?

The original mix that became the Christmas pudding and the mince pie is known to have been used as a meat preservative as far back as the early fifteenth century.

In medieval times the church ruled that Christmas puddings should be made on the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday (Trinity Sunday being late May or early June, depending on the church and the year).

The mix was known by many different names, such as “pottage,” “plum porridge,” and “plum pudding.” The first time it is known to have been referred to as Christmas pudding was in the cookbook
Modern Cookery for Private Families
, published in 1845.

Why?

So if the Christmas pudding mix was used to preserve meat, the mince pies that evolved from it must have been quite substantial. Why then, do we now have mince pies that are so small?

It’s all down to Oliver Cromwell banning Christmas! The original mince pies were large enough to feed whole families, but difficult to hide. People celebrating Christmas in Cromwell’s England risked jail if they were caught, so they had to be prepared to hide all signs of Christmas from Cromwellian spies.

So the pies became “bite-sized,” and, more often than not, Cromwell’s men were left with nothing more than a delicious aroma—and no proof!

Who?

The man behind the unlikely tradition of Christmas stockings is usually thought to have been Nikolaos of Myra. He was a Greek Christian who became bishop of Myra, a city of Asia Minor.

Nikolaos, or Saint Nicholas as he became known, was a kind man, and his faith was such that he became known as Nicholas the Wonderworker for the miracles he performed. The title “Saint Nicholas” was expressed in Dutch as
Sinterklass
, and this came into American English as “Santa Claus.”

Nicholas’s personality and piousness was such that he is revered by both Catholic and Protestant churches. He is the patron saint of sailors, children, archers, students, and even thieves!

What?

Christmas stockings used to be the stockings people actually wore. They would be hung from the mantelpiece in anticipation of finding small gifts inside them on Christmas Day morning.

Some families fill stockings for their children with little “stocking fillers” and put the larger gifts under the Christmas tree. But in poorer times and places the stocking fillers might be all the child received. Cold ash from the fire was often used to fill out stockings with only a few gifts. Naughty children traditionally received a lump of coal.

In modern times large, decorated Christmas stockings can be bought in stores. And some of them even come already filled with treats!

Where?

The city of Myra, where Nicholas was bishop, was a part of Lycea during his lifetime. These days it is known as Demre and is situated on the Antalya coast in Turkey. Nicholas was a Greek Christian, and a sizable community of Greek Christians lived in the same location until the 1920s.

The original stockings would have been hung up at the fireplace to dry overnight. In modern times stockings might be pinned to the wall or hung by the foot of a child’s bed.

Bishop Nicholas’s kind gift has become part of children’s Christmases wherever the holiday is celebrated—although some people do leave out shoes rather than stockings!

When?

Nikolaos of Myra was born in 270 AD and died in 343 AD, so the idea of leaving gifts in stockings probably originated in the early fourth century. It continues to be a Christmas favorite seventeen centuries later.

Those families who lay aside a “Christmas room” and decorate it all through December might hang their stockings up at any time during that month. Otherwise the Christmas stocking is usually hung up on Christmas Eve, although, with fewer houses having fireplaces these days, parents may have to be more imaginative about where they are hung.

The stocking is often the first thing explored on Christmas Day morning!

Why?

Bishop Nicholas (before he was a saint) was wandering through town one evening, according to legend, when he overheard a father’s lament. His three daughters all had men they wanted to marry, but he couldn’t provide them with dowries, so the weddings couldn’t go ahead.

Nicholas waited until the middle of the night then slipped into the man’s house. He carried with him three bags of gold, one for each daughter. Looking around for a place to put them, he spotted the daughters’ stockings hanging over the fire to dry. He left the bags of gold in the stockings—and a Christmas tradition was born!

Who?

Saint Boniface was an eighth-century English missionary to the pagan tribes in the land that became Germany. Finding that they worshipped a large oak dedicated to Thor, Boniface decided to chop it down. If Thor were the true God, he told the assembled tribesmen, then Boniface would die. If he didn’t, it was proof that his God was the mightier one.

After one stroke of the ax, a strong wind came and blew the oak over. No one was going to argue with Boniface after that!