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THE HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS 🎄

History in 20 Podcast • 2021-11-28 • 20:09 minutes • YouTube

📚 Chapter Summaries (21)

🤖 AI-Generated Summary:

Christmas Through the Ages: A Historical Journey of Festive Traditions

As the festive season unfolds with twinkling lights and joyful cheer, it’s fascinating to explore how Christmas celebrations have evolved throughout history. From ancient winter solstice feasts to the commercialization of the modern holiday, Christmas has a rich tapestry of traditions shaped by cultures, religions, and historical events. Join us on a journey through time to discover the origins and transformations of Christmas—from prehistoric times to the 21st century.

Christmas Before Christ: Celebrating the Winter Solstice

Long before the birth of Jesus, ancient peoples marked the winter solstice—the shortest day of the year around December 21st—with celebrations. Archaeological evidence from the Neolithic era (circa 5000 BC to 750 BC) shows communities near Stonehenge in England hosting feasts to welcome the return of longer days. They consumed meats like beef and pork, cheese, and fermented drinks such as mead and barley beer.

In Scandinavia, the Norse people celebrated Yule, a festival lasting from the winter solstice through January. Central to Yule was the burning of a massive Yule log, which could burn for up to two weeks. Each spark from the log was believed to signify the birth of a piglet or calf in the coming year. Gift-giving was also part of these early festivities, with wealthier members exchanging bronze weapons, gold necklaces, and other valuable items. Music played a role as well, with instruments like gold harps and bone flutes accompanying the celebrations.

Roman Saturnalia: The Festival of Saturn

The Romans contributed significantly to winter festivities with Saturnalia, a five-day festival starting December 17th honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture and plenty. Social norms were temporarily overturned—slaves dined with their masters, and gambling was permitted. Both slaves and masters wore the pileus, a cap symbolizing liberty. Gift exchanges involved small wax or pottery figures called sigillaria, sometimes humorous or satirical.

The Birth of Jesus and Early Christian Christmas

The earliest Christians focused more on Easter than Christmas. It wasn’t until the mid-4th century that the Church, under Pope Julius I, designated December 25th as the official date to celebrate Jesus’s birth. This date was likely chosen to coincide with existing pagan festivals like Saturnalia to encourage the conversion of pagan communities to Christianity.

Known initially as the Feast of the Nativity, this celebration spread across the Roman Empire, reaching places like Egypt by 432 AD and England by the 6th century. Early Christmas celebrations featured feasting and gift-giving, intertwining Christian and pagan customs.

Medieval Christmas: A Blend of Christian and Pagan Traditions

Between 100 to 1500 AD, Christmas in medieval Europe was a lively, community-centered event lasting from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night on January 6th. After periods of fasting, villagers enjoyed food, drink, music, and games. Gift exchanges continued, and some pagan traditions, such as the Yule log, were revived.

A notable medieval custom was the Lord of Misrule, where a commoner was appointed to preside over festivities, demanding food and drink from wealthier households and orchestrating playful pranks—reminiscent of modern-day Halloween mischief.

Tudor to Early Modern Christmas: Pageantry, Gifts, and Political Upheaval

From 1485 to 1800, Christmas celebrations in England saw both continuity and change. The Tudor period featured elaborate feasting, music, dancing, and theatrical performances. Twelfth Night games involved baking a bean into a cake, crowning the "King or Queen of the Bean," with guests mimicking their every move.

King Henry VIII, a talented musician, composed Christmas songs and encouraged festive dressing. Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed dancing and hosted lavish sugar banquets that showcased imported Caribbean sugar.

However, during Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan rule (1649–1660), Christmas was banned as sinful decadence. The holiday was restored with the monarchy’s return under Charles II in 1660. Interestingly, in colonial America, Puritan Boston outlawed Christmas celebrations from 1659 to 1681, while other settlements like Jamestown continued celebrating.

Victorian Christmas: The Birth of Modern Traditions

The 19th century Victorian era shaped many Christmas traditions we recognize today. The focus shifted toward family, charity, and cozy home celebrations. Influential figures included:

  • Washington Irving, whose 1819 stories romanticized Christmas as a time for community and goodwill.
  • Charles Dickens, whose 1843 A Christmas Carol emphasized charity, compassion, and festive spirit.
  • Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s German husband, introduced the Christmas tree to England, popularizing decorated trees with lights and candles.

Victorian Christmas also saw the emergence of:

  • Christmas cards
  • Christmas crackers
  • Turkey as the centerpiece meal (replacing the traditional goose)
  • Christmas pudding
  • The character of Father Christmas, inspired by Saint Nicholas, a Turkish monk known for gift-giving.

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (“’Twas the Night Before Christmas”), painting the picture of Santa Claus as a jolly man delivering toys via flying reindeer. The modern red-and-white Santa suit is often traced to political cartoonist Thomas Nast’s 1881 illustrations and later popularized by Coca-Cola’s 1931 advertising campaign.

Modern Christmas: Commercialization and Cultural Staples

Since the 20th century, Christmas has become highly commercialized, with shops promoting toys and gifts. Despite hardships like World Wars and the Great Depression, people maintained the festive spirit, exemplified by the 1914 Christmas truce during World War I.

Post-World War II “Baby Boomers” embraced gift-giving as a way to provide children with what they themselves lacked. Christmas carols, both traditional and contemporary, remain a beloved part of the season, with classic hits from artists like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and more recent songs like Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody and Wham!’s Last Christmas.

Conclusion

Christmas has a rich and varied history, evolving from ancient solstice festivals through religious transformations to the family-centered, commercial holiday we celebrate today. Its traditions—feasting, gift-giving, music, and merriment—have endured and adapted, reflecting cultural changes while maintaining the spirit of joy and togetherness.

So as you hang your decorations, exchange gifts, and enjoy festive songs this year, remember you’re partaking in a celebration that spans thousands of years and countless cultures—a true testament to the enduring power of community and celebration.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

📝 Transcript Chapters (21 chapters):

📝 Transcript (589 entries):

## [00:00] hi everyone welcome back to the history 20 podcast hope you're all doing well today is a slightly different one we are officially in the festive period i mean that's pretty much from like mid-november onwards for me already got my tree up um so i thought i would do a special christmas episode um i thought we'll call it something like christmas through the ages and we'll just discuss how celebrations of christmas have gone on through through time so i mean christmas time season of joy traditions so but how was it celebrated so today like i said we'll be looking at how christmas festivities took place right from the earliest christmases even before christ so how that worked right up to the 21st century so i'm going further back than i've ever been before and further forward than i've ever been before so enjoy so firstly christmas before christ so ## Christmas before Christ [00:50] we're looking at kind of circa 5000 bc or ca bce whatever you prefer to call it to 750 bc or bca so although christmas celebrations as we know them originate from celebrating the birth of jesus christ which is commonly known as the year zero um celebrations around the winter solstice period have always existed so for instance archaeologists discovered that the neolithic which is just a fancy term for new stone age people near stonehenge down in south coast of england celebrated the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year which is the 21st of december with festivities so around 2000 bc this was so even the stonehenge monument is actually erected in such a way that the tallest stone lines up with sunrise on that day now in addition to celebrating the shortest day meaning that longer days were then coming archaeologists also discovered how the neolithic people held huge feasts within their communities and the meats including beef and pork which are often driven from hundreds of miles away on the back of carts and stuff and as well as cheese on top of this the drunk mead which is a fermented wine made with honey you can still get it today and sometimes barley beer as well now over in scandinavia which is the term generically refers to those norse countries such as well iceland denmark norway sweden and finland the norse people celebrated the festival ## The Festival of Yule [02:17] of yule which you might recognize the term from the yule log which i'll talk about in just a second and that was from the 21st of december winter solstice right through to january so to commemorate these long nights which is sometimes up to 23 hours of darkness a day in the far north a place like lapland and so on the men and boys of the community would bring home huge logs to burn like basically huge felled trees and the festivities would last until the log had burned out which would often take up to two weeks and that log was ## The Yule Log [02:48] known as the yule log and the norse people believed that each spark that came from the yule log marked the birth of a piglet or a calf for the forthcoming year but it wasn't just these early christmas dinners that their similarity to all modern celebrations gifts were also exchanged so the wealthier members of those communities exchanged bronze weaponry which is imported from europe not quite the next day delivery we're used to and gold necklaces and sometimes gold buttons to make clothes with and it's also highly likely that these ancient communities also celebrated with music and instruments they'd use would be harps that would be made from gold for the wealthier uh members or flutes which were constructed with bones the bones of animals would put holes in the mix of flute or a kind of recorder with them so the next kind of area i'm looking at ## The Romans [03:36] is going to be the romans so pre-christian origins again will go from roughly 750 bc up to the zero so the romans also held winter celebrations both before and after the birth of christ but we're mainly looking at before here um excuse me ## Roman Celebration [03:55] the original roman celebration was in honor of the god saturn obviously the planet saturn is named after him and he was a god of agriculture and plenty and this festival was called saturnalia and this celebration began on the 17th of december and lasted for approximately five days so again it's round about the christmas period that we know today now similarly to the neolithic people the romans also celebrated with feasts but interestingly all social rules were overturned so this meant that not only were slaves allowed to eat with their masters but their masters actually served them so in order to celebrate this both slaves and masters wore something that was called a pileus which was a cap of liberty which was presented to slaves when they were freed so it was as if they were free and their masters were serving them now on top of all social norms being removed some usually illegal activities were also allowed in saturn earlier including gambling with dice and people also wore colourful clothing rather than the usual white togas and people also celebrated at home after the public feasting and again exchange gifts with each other so an example of a typical roman gift would be something called a sigellaria which was a small wax or pottery figure so sometimes romans gave each other satirical presents as well in the form of jokes or songs and additionally slaves could even criticize their masters with little to no repercussions and it was the one time in the year that they were given time off the next section we're looking at is ## The Birth of Jesus and the Early Christmases [05:19] going to be the birth of jesus and the early christmases from naught a day up to about the year 1000 or 100. so in the earliest years of the christian faith christmas wasn't really considered a holiday as the primary celebration was easter which celebrated the resurrection of jesus when he died on the cross however in the mid-fourth century the church actually decided to mark the birth of jesus as a celebratory holiday but the bible itself doesn't actually mention a birthday here for jesus but pope julius the first actually ultimately decided on the 25th of december and that's obviously still the date that we celebrate christmas on today but why did he decide on this date so it's commonly believed that he chose this date based around saturn earlier the pagan festival we mentioned earlier but it wasn't originally called christmas either it was actually ## Feast of the Nativity [06:13] referred to as the feast of the nativity again food was a major part of these celebrations and this custom spread and there's accounts that record this celebration in egypt in the earth 432 and it's reached england by the sixth century now another reason for choosing this date is that by embracing the traditional pagan festivals based around the winter solstice the church hope that people would embrace the festivities and thus embrace christianity as well so moving on a bit this time to the medieval period which we're looking at from kind of the later medieval years actually from about 100 to 1500 so by the middle ages christianity had largely replaced pagan celebrations in europe so after a period of fasting medieval christians ## Medieval Christians [06:56] celebrated from the 24th of december obviously christmas eve as we know it now to the 6th of january which was called 12th night upon which they would exchange gifts with each other now these festivities involved a lot of alcohol so on christmas day christians would attend church and then celebrated in a booze field festivity often with whole villages celebrating together and it's also during england it's also in england sorry during the middle ages that the term christmas is first recorded it's found in a saxon book written in 1038 and was written as christos miss literally meaning christ's mass now although celebrating the birth of jesus medieval christmases also involved ## Pagan Traditions [07:39] many of the pagan traditions which were mainly those from saturn earlier including the slaves as masters antics and the gift-giving now the medieval people also looked back to their norse forebearers and reintroduced the tradition of the yule log so the wealthier people also decorated their houses with evergreens during the festive period and ate and drank very well so an idea of the food they ate included bar's head which is often decorated with different vegetables and styled in certain ways as much as you can style a bar's head i guess and a drink called mulled braggart which was a strong ale with honey and cinnamon with brandy added into it just for good measure now medieval people also enjoyed games at christmas time and one was called the ## The Lord of Misrule [08:18] lord of misrule and that was a medieval tradition where a beggar or a peasant or a student would be crowned as the lord of misrule and they would go to richer people's houses and demand their best food and drink for his subjects who are all the people he was playing with now if the richer person failed to comply they would often be targeted with pranks so it's almost a little bit halloweeny in this respect i guess but the idea behind the lord of misrule was so that the richer upper classes could repay their debts to society that whether real debts or imagine debts by providing and entertaining the poor so the next section we're looking at is going into the early modern period so ## The Tudor Era [08:57] i'm going to sort of discuss the tudor era first and then we'll go on from there we're looking circa 1500 to about 1800 here so in the tudor era which was if you were counting from the very first like the reign of king henry the seventh up to the end of elizabeth's first round we're looking at 1485-1603 so obviously in this period england underwent numerous religious reforms from henry viii breaking with roman establishing the protestant church to then queen mary mary the first that's bloody mary bringing back catholicism only for elizabeth the first to then bring back protestantism again however christmas celebrations were generally not too badly affected by this so an example of an early tudor christmas involved plenty of drinking and games there's a theme emerging here isn't there um so once again celebrations often went on to twelfth ## Twelfth Night [09:45] night which as a reminder is the sixth of january so on twelfth night a bean was baked into a cake and whoever got the bean was crowned king of the bean or if a woman got it she chose her king and everyone had to imitate the king such as drinking when he drank or coughing when he coughed bit of a weird one but whatever floats the boat i guess and obviously in the tudor era dressing up players and music were also popular and these antics actually inspired shakespeare's play 12th night so henry viii himself was actually a talented musician and he wrote the christmas song green growth the holly and many of henry viii's friends and courtiers would also dress up as robin hood's men or moors which were like the muslim population of the iberian peninsula and they'd pretend not to recognize each other as another party game under queen elizabeth she was much more into dancing at christmas time and she even had her own dancing chamber at kennelworth castle but with the introduction of more global trade particularly after christopher columbus's inverted commas discovery of the americas in 1492 more spices and seasonings were available for the food now elizabeth is known to have hosted sugar banquets with refined sugar or cane sugar which would have likely been imported from the caribbean and they included elaborate sugar models of castles holly dragons and goblets all of which were edible so it's little wonder that elizabeth's teeth turned black and rotted from the sugar that she ate and elizabeth also expected lavish gifts at christmas time and she was known to open them on new year's day and actually list their exact value so talk about being a bit petty or what however in the mid 17th century ## Oliver Cromwell [11:23] when oliver cromwell took leadership of england from 1649 to 60 his puritan government banned christmas and made illegal which wasn't part of their strict rules as part of the vow to rid england of decadence and sin however everyone's favorite horrible history is monarch or mine at least charles ii who ran from 1660 to 85 was restored to the throne in 1660 and he restored much of what the puritans had banned including christmas and interestingly this decision has still never formally been through parliament so technically christmas is still illegal in england but let's ignore that better however in america the pilgrims who arrived at plymouth rock in 1620 were even more puritan than cromwell and they actually outlawed christmas from 1659 to 81 in boston and anyone who was seen to be celebrating christmas there in that period was fined five shillings but in contrast in the jamestown settlement in virginia christmas was actually still celebrated although after the american revolution many english traditions fell out of further and christmas wasn't actually declared a federal holiday in the states until the 26th of june 1780 now we're moving on to the best bit which is the christmas that we all associate with when we see decorations and cards and stuff and that is of course the victorian christmas christmas in the 19th century so it's fair to say that christmas as we know it today is largely thanks to the victorian period the drunken rowdy celebrations from the middle ages in the early modern period were torn down and christmas became more family focused um so in the us the man often credited to changing christmas as the author washington irving who in 1819 wrote a book called the ## The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon Gent [13:05] sketchbook of geoffrey crayon gent which was a collection of stories about the celebration of christmas in an english manor house and as part of this this included the tale of a squire who invited peasants into his home to celebrate christmas with him and the idea of this story was that christmas should be a time of bringing people together regardless of background or social status however even irving's book mentions a return to the middle ages with a lord of misrule mentioned on more than one occasion now across the atlantic in england another author was hugely influential in shaping christmas as we know it in 1843 charles dickens published a ## Charles Dickens [13:40] christmas carol which had been developed into players and numerous film adaptations over the years and again it tells the tale of charity of morality and the importance of being together at christmas time and another guy we can credit actually ## Prince Albert [13:56] is prince albert who is queen victoria's german husband and he brought over a tradition from his native homeland which ## Christmas Tree [14:01] was the christmas tree and this caught on quickly as did decorating them with lights candles no health and safety protocols back then and presents so as the family became a more central part of christmas children were often given presents although these tended to be quite modest such as oranges nuts and sweets although some wealthier children could be given toys such as a little toy train or something ## Boxing Day [14:25] and boxing day which is the 26th of december also originated in this period with christmas box tips to servants and tradesmen being saved until the 26th of december hence being called boxing day and a multitude of other christmas traditions also emerged in the 19th century including christmas cards christmas crackers and eating turkey rather than the traditional goose shout out to my friend callum there you'll know what i mean and love it or low that christmas pudding was even invented during this period and another one of christmas's favorite most famous characters can also be credited to the 19th century father christmas or santa claus and he is based off saint nicholas who was actually a turkish monk born in around 280 a.d who gave gifts to the poor so that's why he's like the patron center for christmas he gave gifts to those who were less fortunate than himself so in 1822 the american minister clement clarke moore penned a christmas poem which was entitled an account of a visit from saint nicholas which i'm sure you all know but you'll probably know it better by its opening line towards the night before christmas now the poem depicts saint nicholas as a jolly man who rides a slayer that's pulled through the sky by flying reindeer to deliver toys to children all over the world now the iconic red and white version of santa claus we know him today it can be argued that he can be traced back to 1881 or i'll give another description in just a moment where we go to 1881 because the political cartoonist thomas nast drew on mua's poem to create the image of santa that we know today but i'll mention another way in just a minute that you might be more familiar with and also many christmas carols were also written in the victorian era including once in royal david city which was 1849 good king wencelessless 1853 and deck the halls 1862. so the last section will move on to our ## Modern Interpretations of Christmas [16:18] modern interpretations of christmas which will go from circa 1900 to the present no pun intended with the present there now christmas in the modern era is largely inspired by the victorian christmas with the usual christmas cards being exchanged stockings being filled presents sent to one another and christmas crackers being pulled at the dinner table however the main aspect of christmas in the modern era is its commercialization so by the early 20th century many shops had caught on to the christmas bug and advertised unsurprisingly toys for children such as teddy bears dolls and trains and even throughout the first world war the great depression in the 30s and the second world war people were struggling didn't have much money they still ensured that they celebrated christmas as well as they could given the circumstances i mean we just think back to 1914 and the christmas eve troops between the allied troops the british troops sorry and the germans where they played football together um on christmas eve and christmas day and that's just an example of how important christmas has become to people even in the 20th century now another argument for the representation of santa as i mentioned earlier can be traced back to coca-cola in 1931 where the artist hadn't sunblum was commissioned to create the image of santa as we know him today and the big fat jolly man in the red suit and that's because obviously coca-cola's colours are red and white but before there are depictions of santa who he was wearing green and white so you still see that occasionally but not not very often so we normally think of sunshine's red and white which probably is a contribution of coca-cola there now while the post-world war ii era saw a boom in family size and many of the parents in that era who gave birth to ## The Baby Boomers [18:01] the generation known as the baby boomers having grown up either in the great depression or having experienced the great depression they saw it as an opportunity to give their children gifts which they'd never had the chance to have have as children because their family's really poor so that's again another another um sort of development in christmas and why it's very family oriented and it's mainly focused now on children getting gifts now although christmas carols were hugely popular in the victorian era and still are today still got carol concerts often held at churches or people groups choirs going uh christmas caroling around the festive period um contemporary and sometimes secular christmas songs also became much more popular sort of from i mean you had a few people like dean martin and frank sinatra and elvis chuck berry having got songs in the 60s the 50s and 60s with you know sort of interpretations of um classic christmas carols but they also became a lot more popular from the 70s onwards as i mentioned with numerous classics being released including slade's merry christmas everybody which got to number one in 1973 and wizards i wish it could be christmas every day which was also 1973. that finished at number two two absolute christmas classics going in for it there in the 80s we had band-aid do they know it's christmas wham last christmas shakin stevens merry christmas everyone the pogs and kirsty mccall fairy tail new york and my absolute favorite one we go to 2003. i'm going to see them this month and i cannot wait to see this song perform live it is of course the darkness christmas time don't let the bells end that's my favorite christmas song of all time so let me know what your favorite song is in the comment section if you enjoyed this video and don't forget to like comment share subscribe etc and i hope that you all have a very merry christmas and a very happy new year as well see you next time merry christmas you