[GCFL-discuss] Christmas

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

I've been jumping in and out of a couple of the inevitable debates about
the role of Christmas in public life. I thought I would pass this excerpt
along for discussion or comment.

Siarlys

> The practice of celebrating Christmas was NOT 
> a part of our national culture at the time our nation
> was founded. It certainly was not part of national, state or village
> life. Puritans, Pilgrims, Baptists and Presbyterians would have nothing
> to do with it. Puritan Massachusetts actually had a law for 30 years or
> so making observance of Christmas a criminal offense. Even after the
law
> was repealed, the practice was severely frowned upon as "Papist
> idolatry."
>
> Anglicans celebrated Christ Mass. Immigrants from Germany, especially
in
> New York and Pennsylvania, brought their traditional celebrations
> (Lutheran, Moravian). Dutch families around New York carried on old
> country traditions. Some Methodists observed the holiday, because
Wesley
> began within the Anglican church. Other Methodists adopted the Baptist
> disdain for the holiday, along with condemnation of playing cards,
> dancing, and other frivolity.
>
> Celebrating Christmas did not really begin to become part of our
national
> culture until around 1840. A LOT of the original motivation came from a
> committee of New York businessmen who wanted to boost sales! They more
or
> less invented the modern Santa Claus. So when you hear the call, "Put
> Christ back into Christmas," that wasn't a 1950s response to modern
> agnostic materialism, it is a repeated response to the commercial
ORIGINS
> of the modern celebration.