THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS

Nope, this is not that Virgin Mary and Three Wise Men version. This is written in the spirit of my SIMPLE SOLUTIONS books.

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Christmas is usually celebrated on December 25, and by some on January 7 (having something to do with the Julian calendar), honoring the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. All signs point to the actual date being debatable, and even the year off by two to seven years, but the year zero, when BC (before Christ) changes to AD (no, not after death, but anno Domini, Medieval Latin for the year of our Lord) was selected five to eight centuries later. But what is historically accurate and what is not? Let me begin with an excerpt from Chapter 5 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

…place yourself back to circa 50 AD. Nothing much can be found about Jesus. Conflicting descriptions can be unearthed about this individual, but absent any miracles and the connection with Son of God. Is it possible that a group, say, the Antioch Jesus Movement, sees an opportunity to spur something called Christianity? So they pick a mortal of those days who might just fit a concept called the Messiah. They borrow selectively from early Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Mexican (nah, scratch this, Columbus came 1500 years later) and Greek writings to create the legend of Jesus Christ around a real-life martyr. He was in his prime at the age of 30, so they choose 30 AD as the founding of Christianity. Could this incredible PR ploy have started it all? Did all this led to the Catholic Church of today?

If the above sounds ridiculous to you, attempt to convince me why much of what is written in The Bible is taken as Gospel. In any event, a case can be made that Jesus might well be the most significant human who ever lived.

Emperor Charlemagne was crowned on December 25 in 800, and so was King William I of England in 1066. In this later time frame, the day began to be called Christmas, as derived from “Christ’s Mass.” In early Greek versions of the New Testament, the letter X (chi) is the first letter of Christ, hence, Xmas as an abbreviation.

During the Middle Ages, King Richard II hosted a Christmas feast in 1377, serving 28 oxen and 300 sheep. Caroling then became popular and gifts began to be exchanged. But the Puritans during the Reformation in the 1500’s into the 1600’s condemned the celebration and the Roman Catholic Church responded by shifting the emphasis towards a religious festival. Nevertheless, England banned Christmas in 1647.

Puritans in Colonial American also disapproved of this day, but Christians in Virginia and New York continued the celebration. Christmas, though, was abandoned after the Revolutionary War in the later 1700’s for it was deemed an English custom. Washington Irving’s short stories in the 1820’s began to change attitudes. Clement Clarke Moore’s 1822 poem, “A visit from St. Nicholas” (remember…Twas the night before Christmas?) and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in 1843 helped to re-invent Christmas, focusing on family goodwill and gifts, opening the door for commercializing the period. Harriet Beecher Stowe of Uncle Tom’s Cabin fame wrote that these shopping sprees detracted from the meaning of Christmas, but in 1870, President Ulysses Grant declared this a federal holiday. Thomas Nast, whose caricatures undermined Boss Tweed, sort of drew the image of what we today know as Santa Claus today. Up till then, Father Christmas stood for merrymaking and drunkenness, and till today is still used as Santa in England.

Christmas, itself, is the least active day for commerce, but, ironically, has become the greatest annual economic stimulus for much of the world. It begins on Black (being in the black means making a profit) Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and this year will see a second Black Friday the day after Christmas. Hope this only applies to shopping and not the stock market. While the whole history of this day has Western links, a country such as Singapore goes over the top in terms of commerce and decorations.

There is now, though, some controversy regarding separation of church and state on what can be officially represented by government. The “War on Christmas” means you shouldn’t now say Merry Christmas, but, instead, Happy Holidays. The popular Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is officially titled “The Tree at Rockefeller Center.”

The period from the first Black Friday to the day after Christmas makes or breaks retailers. The official numbers vary quite a bit, but something on the order of close to $1,000/person for gifts has been mentioned on the high side. No doubt 2008 will see a significant drop because of the economic collapse, but the Story of Christmas is what you make of it. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Hold on. Is that Santa on the roof? The North American Aerospace Defense Command operates a Santa tracking web site, and he can be seen on December 24 moving at warp speed from the North Pole first to New Zealand, then eventually to Hawaii.

Last year, NORAD's Santa tracking center answered 94,000 calls and responded to 10,000 e-mails. About 10.6 million visitors went to the Web site, which can be viewed in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese. The number has increased each year, so our youngsters are certainly not getting any smarter. But, then, even I, at that age, could not comprehend the idiocy of Santa and his flying reindeers needing to move at several million miles/hour to get the job done in 34 hours (yes, this is an excellent question to ask at Christmas party game time…think about it).

Now why would NORAD stoop to all this frivolity? Well, there is a history. It was started by a Sears-Roebuck ad in 1955, with a phone number if you wished to talk to Santa. Alas, there was a typo, and the number listed was that of an earlier form of NORAD, the Continental Air Defense Command. All in good fun, and now that we don’t have to worry about missiles from the USSR or North Korea, what harm does this do? Also, the military plays Santa around the world and this gentleman is a symbol of good will and cheer.

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