12/7/22
I know people who pooh-pooh tradition of any sort – except when it comes to Christmas. . . and don’t dare mess with it!
What is Christmas without its traditions? Last week, I wrote about those on-line who constantly scream about the “pagan” origins of Christmas and its traditions. Too much is made of that. Christmas critics act as if Christmas is celebrated the same way all over the world, and that’s simply not true. As Americans, our Christmas celebrations are a melting pot of traditions from many different cultures, but the biggest influence is a novel from 1843.
I have a young friend who is fit to be tied because his parents are planning something different for Christmas Eve this year. For his entire 25 years, his family has gone to an early church service, then to dinner somewhere nice, ending their day at home, watching George C. Scott as Scrooge in the 1984 version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. But this year, they’re visiting out-of-town family . . . and he’s bitter! It’s only December 7, but his Christmas is ruined!
Probably a lot of you would include A Christmas Carol somewhere in your traditions, too! Christmas isn’t Christmas for me until I’ve watched the 1951 British version with Alastair Sim. Of course, the best way to enjoy the story is to read the book! It’s not long, by the way, and can be read in about 3 hours (or you can listen to the audiobook . . . I’m told that counts as reading).
Dickens’ classic 1843 novel certainly has shaped the way we think of and celebrate Christmas. In fact, there was a recent movie with the pompous title, The Man Who Invented Christmas. It’s a fairly accurate (and fun) account of Dickens writing his beloved story. The relationship with his father, the struggle to get the book written and illustrated in 6 weeks, and the enormous success of the book (the first printing completely sold out in 5 days) are all true. The biggest problem I had with the movie (besides the title – the credit of “inventing Christmas” belongs to Someone else!) is that it doesn’t tell us much about how Christmas was celebrated in England before Dickens’ book was published.
The truth is . . . it wasn’t celebrated much. By the time of Dickens, Christmas was a minor holiday – just a one-day affair, if celebrated at all. In previous centuries, Christmas was a time for revelry until Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans banned Christmas celebrations in 1644. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution, people didn’t have much time to celebrate anyway. It wasn’t until the beginning of the 19th century that Queen Victoria, influenced by her German husband, Albert (the Germans weren’t plagued by the Puritans) popularized Christmas once again. The 1840s were a key decade in establishing several Christmas traditions we enjoy today – Albert put up Windsor Castle’s first Christmas tree; Henry Cole sent the first Christmas Card (1843), and Dickens published his novel.
And it was Dickens who did the most to reinvent Christmas. The novel’s popularity with its delightful descriptions of holly sprigs and berries, of Christmas puddings and roasted goose, and over-all merriment, convinced readers that this is the way Christmas SHOULD be celebrated, even if it wasn’t in fact.
While there’s no obvious Christian message in Dickens’ book, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge is a story of Redemption, and the greatest contribution Dickens adds to Christmas is one that is dear to the heart of the Christian message: concern for those in need. Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, describes Christmas as:
"a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”
After his book was published, charitable giving surged, Christmas caroling soared, more people began to put up Christmas trees in their homes, gift-giving and card-sending increased, AND (some of you may think best of all) employers began giving employees PAID VACATIONS. That’s right – there’s a strong message of Labor Reform in all of Dickens’ writings, but especially in A Christmas Carol, and Dickens painted a frightening picture of what could happen to stingy bosses! Paid time off for Christmas became the norm thanks to Scrooge and Cratchit.
Many of our American Christmas traditions can be traced back to Dickens and the 19th century renewal of the holiday. So, go ahead and read Dickens, put up your trees, send your cards, give gifts and enjoy your paid vacations! Just don’t let the Baby get lost in the wrappings! Remember that at the heart of all our revelry is a celebration of the goodness and grace of God in sending Jesus to redeem humankind.
So . . . keep Christ in Christmas, not just Dickens!
And you might just find, when you combine our love of the Babe in the manger with Dickens’ concern for those less fortunate, that your Christmas celebration can be a tangible way of living out our Mission: “Loving God . . . Loving Others.”
Blessings,
Pastor Terry