A Scrooge No More
From Art Railton’s Just a Thought, of December 16, 1988:
About this time each December I begin to wonder: Is Christmas worth it? Frazzled and frantic, with a long list of things still undone, presents still not bought, cards still not written, the tree to put up, I’m tempted to chuck it all in. Bah, humbug!
How did Christmas get to be so hectic? Why not go back to the “good old days,” the way Christmas used to be?
Perhaps we should, but if you go back very far, you won’t find any Christmas at all. At least not here in New England. Christmas is a relatively new holiday in these parts. The Puritans refused to celebrate it. Christmas was something for those Anglicans or, even worse, for those Catholics.
In 1722, Judge Samuel Sewall was asked by the English Governor of Massachusetts, an Anglican, “to adjourn the General Court to Monday next because of Christmas.” The good judge, a pious man, protested in his diary: “I said the Dissenters came a great way for their Liberties and now the Church had theirs, yet they could not be contented, except they might Tread all others down.”
Not one to be trod upon, the judge took delight in writing each December 25th in his diary such lines as: “Carts come to Town and Shops open as is usual. Some somehow observe the day; but are vexed I believe that the Body of the People profane it, and blessed be God no Authority yet to compel them to keep it.” As far as the judge was concerned, Christmas could be skipped, even profaned.
No wonder then that the good jurist was upset when some young folks in his church took it upon themselves to celebrate Christmas: “I hear of a Number of young people belonging to my Flock who have had on the Christmas-night a Frolick, a revelling Feast and Ball, which discovers their corruption. I must endeavor to bring them unto Repentance.” A frolic, a feast and a ball — on Christmas! Such idolatry must not continue.
One hundred years later, on our own little Island, nobody celebrated Christmas. Even the estimable Parson Joseph Thaxter, religious leader of Edgartown, paid it no attention. Business went on as usual, folks went to work, shops were open, just as in Judge Sewall’s day. On Dec. 25, 1818, Parson Thaxter’s wife walked into Joseph Mayhew’s shop on Main street and bought four yards of India cotton, two hanks of cotton thread, a half ounce of spices and a comb, charging them to the family account.
On Christmas day, 1820, Constant Norton bought a pair of shoes from Joseph Mayhew and on Christmas, 1824, Frederick Baylies, missionary to the Indians, went into Mayhew’s shop and gave him $4 on account.
The most devout layman on the Island at the time was Jeremiah Pease, who kept a diary every day of his life, right up until the day he died in 1857. In it, there’s not a mention of Christmas. December 25 was just another day to him. There were lots of church services, on lots of days, but none to celebrate Christmas.
In 1852, the idea of celebrating Christmas surfaced, but it was a money-making festivity, not a religious one. The ladies of the Congregational Church in Edgartown announced a “Social Levee at the Union House on Christmas evening. Oysters will be served to those who do not feel inclined to ‘go in’ for the entire supper. Tickets: 50 cents; without supper, 12 1/2 cents.” The levee was to raise money to “make alterations and repairs upon the Pews.”
The notion of celebrating Christmas kept growing and by 1865 the Gazette came out in favor of the Christmas holiday, at least as far as eating was concerned: “Christmas is a special time for roast beef and plum puddings, for fowls and pastry. There are those who regard holidays as lost time, but we shall observe Christmas ourselves and hope all our readers will do the same.”
Then came the start of something that is still growing, an advertisement, a very small one:
Christmas & New Year’s Presents!
J. L. Burrows
That’s all it says, but it was a start. Two years later, another:
Christmas & New Year’s Presents!
Choice Presents
Charles Bates Edgartown
Just a trickle, but soon it was a stream, then a torrent, and today it has become a deluge. Christmas is America’s shopping orgy. And one wonders if the stress is worth it. What to get. Lying awake wondering about that gift you bought. Is it all really worth it?
And then, on Christmas Eve, the tree decorated, the presents piled under it, those cards from old friends to read over, an old Christmas record by Nat King Cole on the turntable, a bottle of wine to share and suddenly you know. Suddenly, we all know. It is worth it. Worth every frantic, frenzied minute of it. Merry Christmas.
Compiled by Cynthia Meisner
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