Traditions of Christmas – Part Two

We continue to look at this unique holiday and some of the various customs surrounding it.  We are looking for the origin of the custom or how it got started and what basis it has in the true teachings of Christ.  This week we discuss the customs of giving gifts, and decorating a tree.  As we learned last week Christmastime as was initiated in America has become a family time and it is centered on children.  (As I have warned before: This is not an attempt to create any doctrine or say that any traditions are or are not right. It is not an attempt to make anyone feel justified or guilty in what traditions they keep or they do not keep. It neither justifies keeping Christmas or not keeping Christmas.)   In this way we can bring knowledge and understanding to each of us.  We each can know the history of various customs so that we may determine and choose which customs we wish to honor, keep and teach in the future. 

Christmas Presents

The first tradition I’d like to talk about today is gift giving.  Christmas has become quite commercial.  In American our economy is dependent on Christmas sales.  Merchants regularly report hat over 60% of their annual retail sales occur during the Christmas shopping season. This represents a tremendous amount of gift buying.

Most today believe that gift-giving comes from the Bible example of the “three wise men” (the Bible gives no number) presenting gifts to Christ. Is this true? Where did exchanging gifts come from, and what does God’s Word say about it?

In addition, to go along with what I was saying last week, there are several similar mythological figures, known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and Santa Claus among other names associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season.

Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.

The Bibliotheca Sacra states, “The interchange of presents between friends is a like characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and must have been adopted by Christians from the pagans, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows” (Vol. 12, pp. 153-155).

Like every other aspect of Christmas, the truth is that even this supposed Christian custom does not come from the Bible. It is an irony that people love to believe they are following the custom of the wise men giving to Christ, when actually they are giving almost exclusively to each other. Let’s briefly look at the “wise men” described in Matthew 2:1-11: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews?…And when they were come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”

A long-standing, ancient custom of the East was to present gifts when coming before a king. These men understood they were in the presence of the “King of the Jews.” The Bible carries many examples of people sending gifts to kings or presenting them upon arrival into their presence. This custom is common today when ambassadors or others come into the presence of a world leader or royalty.

The Adam Clarke Commentary, volume 5, page 46, states about what really happened on this occasion: “Verse 11. They presented unto him gifts. The people of the east never approach the presence of kings and great personages, without a present in their hands. This custom is often noticed in the Old Testament, and still prevails in the east, and in some of the newly discovered South Seas Islands.” Gifts were customarily presented to kings.

The Bible does speak of gift giving but not necessarily at this time of year.  Matthew 7:11 and Luke 11:13 Christ’s own words are “give good gifts unto your children.”  We are specifically looking at this season though so let us look elsewhere for more gift giving customs. 

Human beings have always given each other presents, as expressions of goodwill, friendship and love.  And, yes, the Romans exchanged gifts during their midwinter festival held at this time of year.  Still as far as Christmas was concerned the giving of presents was never the formalized tradition it is today.  In colonial America, a holiday gift might consist of cured bacon, or molasses or honey for pie baking.  It was still a matter of ‘wassailing’ between peasants and landlords and from poor folks to rich folks.  A store bought gift was a rarity.  Christmas shopping was unheard of.  Then “gift books” were invented.

In the second quarter of the nineteenth century, a “gift book” fad swept England and later the United States that played an important role in the development of the Christmas we know today.  Gift books were “literary annuals” – compilations of stories, poems and essays – designed to be given to ladies, primarily at Christmastime, by their admirers as an object of “kindness and esteem.”  Gift books were also printed for giving to children. The books were elegant silk and leather volumes outside and in with a presentation page for names and appropriate sentiment to be added and beautiful illustrations.  Gift books became status symbols and treasures to be proudly displayed.  This brought the gift exchange inside and limited to the family circle.  It didn’t make sense to give to the family members what the family already shared.   By the time of the Civil War the gift book fad had faded but not the expectation of receiving presents.  It was expected that gifts would be bought in stores and so began the age of Christmas shopping that has turned into the multibillion dollar business it is today.  As to the commercialism and harking back to a time when Christmas was simpler, I recommend reading Chapter four of The Battle for Christmas, a Cultural History of America’s Most Cherished Holiday, written by Stephen Nissenbaum.  

Christmas Tree

This will come as a real surprise to many but there is mention in the Bible of an ancient custom that sounds a lot like the Christmas tree:

Jeremiah 10:2-6: "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen .... For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."

I quoted this passage from the King James version because it actually says ‘tree’.  It is translated from the same Hebrew word used in fruit tree, tree of life, fig tree, oak tree, and all manner of pleasant trees.  The same Hebrew word is also sometimes translated wood or timber particularly speaking of a carpenter or craftsman working with wood.  Keeping this in context with the other verses surrounding it in Jeremiah, we find that Jeremiah is talking about the useless customs of worshipping and fearing manmade idols when there is the one true living God who is evidenced in all of heaven and earth. Some people misread this passage to prove that Christmas trees are wrong and that keeping Christmas is Biblically wrong.  Rather than picturing a “tree” it is most likely an idol or shape carved from wood and covered in gold and silver.  Amazingly such idols still exist in museums and temples today.

The Bible is not an easy book to read.  Christ did not teach the parables to make it easier to understand.   He taught the masses in a way that they would not understand and then explained it to His disciples alone.   The Bible cannot be understood unless one has had the change of mind and heart that comes with having the Holy Spirit and then it still takes a lot of seeking and studying.

Many will pull passages from the Bible to try and explain and support their ideas.  I am reminded of my economics class in college where we learned the expression: “Liars figure and figures lie.” (It goes back to Mark Twain saying there are three kinds of lies:  lies, d***** lies and statistics.)  In our economics class we were split into sides and each side was given the exact same statistics which were used to prove opposing sides.  Just as statistics can easily be turned around to prove different ways the Bible is also taken apart piece by piece and used to prove opposing ideas.  Some men get it in their head that they have an understanding that others do not and that they know the truth better than others.  This is why we in the Church of Interfaith Christians must be so careful not to create doctrine and not to judge others in how they believe and why we need to remain as little children ourselves open and forever learning.

Let’s get back to Christmas trees.  I found this information on a Christmas Tree website: http://www.christmas-tree.com/where.html.  The words in blue that follow are written by: David Robson, Extension Educator, Horticulture; Springfield Extension Center.

King Tut never saw a Christmas tree, but he would have understood the tradition which traces back long before the first Christmas, says David Robson, Extension Educator, Horticulture with the Springfield Extension Center.

The Egyptians were part of a long line of cultures that treasured and worshipped evergreens. When the winter solstice arrive, they brought green date palm leaves into their homes to symbolize life's triumph over death.

The Romans celebrated the winter solstice with a fest called Saturnalia in honor of Saturnus, the god of agriculture. They decorated their houses with greens and lights and exchanged gifts. They gave coins for prosperity, pastries for happiness, and lamps to light one's journey through life.

Centuries ago in Great Britain, woods priests called Druids used evergreens during mysterious winter solstice rituals. The Druids used holly and mistletoe as symbols of eternal life, and place evergreen branches over doors to keep away evil spirits.

Late in the Middle Ages, Germans and Scandinavians placed evergreen trees inside their homes or just outside their doors to show their hope in the forthcoming spring. Our modern Christmas tree evolved from these early traditions.

Legend has it that Martin Luther began the tradition of decorating trees to celebrate Christmas. One crisp Christmas Eve, about the year 1500, he was walking through snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of a group of small evergreens. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moonlight. When he got home, he set up a little fir tree indoors so he could share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ's birth.

The Christmas tree tradition most likely came to the United States with Hessian troops during the American Revolution, or with German immigrants to Pennsylvania and Ohio, adds Robson.

But the custom spread slowly. The Puritans banned Christmas in New England. Even as late as 1851, a Cleveland minister nearly lost his job because he allowed a tree in his church. Schools in Boston stayed open on Christmas Day through 1870, and sometimes expelled students who stayed home.

The Christmas tree market was born in 1851 when Catskill farmer Mark Carr hauled two ox sleds of evergreens into New York City and sold them all. By 1900, one in five American families had a Christmas tree, and 20 years later, the custom was nearly universal.

Christmas tree farms sprang up during the depression. Nurserymen couldn't sell their evergreens for landscaping, so they cut them for Christmas trees. Cultivated trees were preferred because they have a more symmetrical shape then wild ones.

Six species account for about 90 percent of the nation's Christmas tree trade. Scotch pine ranks first, comprising about 40 percent of the market, followed by Douglas fir which accounts for about 35 percent. The other big sellers are noble fir, white pine, balsam fir and white spruce.

The Christmas tree is the very emblem of Christmas today.  Its roots run deep to pagan times when evergreens were first used to decorate homes and places of worship in mid-winter.  Something rather like a Christmas tree first appeared in the Medieval period in one of the plays of the time that taught people about religion.  One of the plays, about Adam and Eve, had as a prop a green fir tree trimmed with red apples symbolizing the Garden of Eden.  The tree being evergreen, symbolized immortality and the apples represented Adam’s fall.

The Europeans were fascinated by these trees, and took to setting up their own versions in their homes.  Wafers and cookies were added to the trimmings.  These trees had nothing to do with the Christmas story, they were not used in the observance of pagan holidays, nor did they have lights on them.  Still later another curious device called a ‘pyramid’ became popular.  It was a wooden structure five or so feet high holding candles, local fruits and vegetables and other decorations some of which were religious in nature.  The pyramids, a forerunner of the Christmas tree came to be used side by side with the Garden of Eden trees.  We can still see this custom in use in some places today.

There are many legends that I could sight here about the origin of Christmas trees.  I truly recommend taking the time and reading up on the customs of Christmas.  There have been many books published over the years.  We must keep in mind that Christmas as it is celebrated in America today has its roots in consumerism as well as the broad issues of child rearing within the new middle class family that had not existed before.  No other holiday is more for family and children than this one.  The Christmas tree as we know it today is a big part of that.

We will discuss more holiday traditions next week.  In the meantime, take care of yourselves and protect your health.  Find those moments to enjoy warmth and happiness and be thankful for all you have been given.  As God loves you, love others.  Blessings, Rev. Sharra