If you’ve not read the diary of Thomas Robbins, a Congregationalist minister in early 1800s Connecticut, I commend it to your reading list. In it you see how one man’s observation of Christtmas reflected the burgeoning Protestant Christmas celebrations in America. What early on was a day of fasting became by the 1820s a community celebration in Hartford, as even the Calvinist churches began to celebrate the day. In New York, the celebration had spread from just one mention of “Christmas” in the paper in 1815 to a week long festival by 1819. Philadelphia and Boston, likewise, has similar explosions of the day’s celebrations during that time.

These were some of the great times for the American middle class, as sobriety, refinement, virtuous living, and well-ordered social structures became virtues and attainable, worthwhile goals, especially in New England. In a time when our middle class has so rapidly discarded piety and discipline and accepted living for the selfish now rather than for future generations, it is high time we might look for clues at how to rediscover virtue, as it underpins the strong pillars of a healthy society. Today’s middle class American wanton values have blazed a dangerous trail, as we now congratulate children out of wedlock, drunkenness, gambling, and for some, drug use. Even those who might consider themselves good still spend hours before the TV watching sports which glorify violence and the objectification of the human body. The American middle class of 200 years ago, on the other hand, encouraged sound morality and religion, piety and purpose.

America was becoming in the early 19th century a more pluralistic Christian nation, and no one single denomination dominated any state. The nation needed a pseudo-national religion, a common identity and common celebrations. Christmas was becoming the national pseudo-religious holiday. Even in Puritan strongholds this was the case. In these places, there was a push to ensure that Christmas was seen as a religious day, as Congregationalists feared the debauched, secular celebrations with heavy drinking and gun shooting common amongst the lower class. Congregationalist philosopher Horace Bushnell wrote, “Otherwise so beautiful and appropriate, taken as a Christian commemoration of the greatest fact of the world’s history, has been so commonly associated with traditional loseness and excess.”

No one example better exemplifies this debauched celebration of the new national holiday than the Eggnog Riot at West Point, Christmas of 1826. There 70 cadets participated in smuggling gallons of whiskey and rum for a party that would make Silenus blush. The degenerates included Jefferson Davis, two future Confederate generals and a Supreme Court Justice. Middle class Americans repudiated any alcohol involvement with Christmas, and some have suggested the rise of the Temperance Movement began at this time, as many hoped a sober America would usher in the millennium.

The birth of the national Christmas celebration began with a riotous bang, but it would not last long. Soon, an orderly, congenial, Hallmark-like Christmas filled with non-alcoholic eggnog, green garlands, ice skating, and Santa Claus would find its place in the American life. More on that next time.

INTERLUDE

Williams Sonoma is a fancy cooking store. Whenever someone’s wedding registry limits my choices to purchases at Williams Sonoma, I roll my eyes. Almost without exception such people are getting married in a plantation or some trendy outdoor setting, not a church or religious institution, which is where a dignified husband and wife marry. I’ve spent upwards of $100 on a baking tray there. I can get a lesser quality one at Walmart for $3, but I don’t want to appear cheap or rude, so I lavish such people with their request. It’s the least I can do for people with such poor taste.

There’s not a whole lot else I can say about this store. It sells overpriced, yet high quality cooking goods. The majority of people who shop here probably don’t need such high quality wares, but they’d rather spend big bucks on an instrument they may use twice than give to a worthwhile charity. As Tony says, “What are you gonna do?”

I’m going to share with you TulaneLSU’s Top 10 Christmas Decorations from Williams Sonoma!

This post was edited on 12/6/19 at 5:59 am