In the previous post, I looked at two Advent and Christmas traditions with roots in the Middle Ages, crèches and caroling. There are others, of course, but most of them involve decorations: holly, mistletoe, wreaths, and Christmas trees. All of these also connect us into the Victorian era, the period that saw the beginning of a great many of our Advent and Christmas customs.

Christmas Trees

Let’s start with Christmas trees. They date back to the late 1400s or early 1500s in Germany and were the descendants of “Paradise Trees” in medieval mystery plays. They were popular in Germany but did not come into the English-speaking world until Queen Victoria’s consort Prince Albert brought the custom from Germany to England. The Royal Family’s tree appeared in 1848 in the Illustrated London News, which then popularized the custom in England. It spread from there to the United States. The trees were originally decorated with candles (later replaced by electric lights),

Mistletoe, Holly, and Wreaths

Mistletoe had been a sacred plant among the Celtic druids, particularly in the British Isles. It was believed to have protective powers, and so was brought into Christian traditions at Christmas for that reason. By the eighteenth century, the practice of kissing under the mistletoe began, but it only became widespread in the Victorian period.

Similarly, holly was a sacred tree in paganism that was brought into Christianity, with the pointy leaves symbolizing the crown of thorns and the berries Christ’s blood. This is illustrated in the Christmas carol “The Holly and the Ivy.” Although the symbolism goes back to the middle ages, the earliest record of the carol only dates to about 1823. Victorian era romanticism sought to recover medieval imagery and ideas, and this is one of may examples connected to Christmas.

The German and Scandinavian countries had adopted the pre-Christian practice of making evergreen wreaths but reinterpreted them as a symbol of eternal life. These had been picked up in England, but in the Victorian period had become far more elaborate and were often hung on doors as a sign of welcome.

Advent Wreaths and Advent Calendars

Advent wreaths are another story, however. The first Advent wreath was set up by Lutheran pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern in 1839 in Hamburg, Germany. It was a cartwheel which he hung from a ceiling with 24 small red candles for weekdays and four large white candles for Sundays which he used to help the children in his orphanage count down the days until Christmas.

The custom spread throughout Germany in both Lutheran and Catholic churches. A white Christ Candle was often added to the middle of the wreath to be lit Christmas Eve, and the daily candles were dropped, leaving a wreath with four or five candles. The custom only made it to America in the 1930s. In some traditions, three are blue or purple and one rose. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday. In other traditions, all four candles are red.

Advent calendars are in a sense an outgrowth of the original Advent wreaths. German Lutherans found various ways to mark the days counting down until Christmas. In 1903 Gerhard Lang printed the first Advent calendar, though it worked more like a clock than our Advent calendars. Five years later, in 1908, he printed the first Advent calendar with 24 doors for the days from December 1-24, each with a picture or Bible verse behind it. Starting in the 19502, Advent calendars with chocolate, toys, and eventually alcohol, and all sorts of other things have been produced; particularly after the 1980s, these have often been detached from any religious overtones.

Gift Giving

From a cultural rather than a religious perspective, Christmas is probably more associated with gift giving than anything else. This wasn’t always the case, however. The history of gifting in the period around Christmas is complex, and I can’t summarize the whole story here. But to simplify things, Christmas wasn’t originally the main gift giving day. Saint Nicholas Day (December 6) or New Year were more common days, at least among family, friends, and social peers.

Gift giving up to around the Protestant Reformation was primarily social inferiors giving gifts to their patrons—exactly the opposite of what one might expect. The thinking seems to be that the Magi gave gifts to Christ, who was their superior, so that should be the pattern for us. From there, gift giving more or less reversed, so that the wealthy began giving gifts to clients and the poor; gift giving also began to focus on children.

The practice of giving gifts around Christmas spread to the United States in the nineteenth century. Prior to that, the Puritan antipathy to Christmas celebrations seems to have had an on-going influence on American culture. Even then, though, there were calls to reign in Christmas celebrations due to the growing problem of groups of often rowdy young men who went wassailing to the houses of the wealthy demanding handouts.

In the Victorian period, due to the influence of Clement Clarke Moore’s “Account of a Visit of St. Nicholas” (“The Night Before Christmas”) in 1823 and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843), the date of gift giving began to shift to either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and sometimes Twelfth Night, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, as well. Gifts were initially small—fruit, nuts, handmade gifts or small toys—but with the industrial revolution, the kind and number of gifts expanded tremendously.

Christmas Cards

The Victorians also gave us Christmas cards. The first commercial Christmas card appeared in 1843, and the practice of sending cards soon became very popular in Victorian England and spread to America from there. And if you have turkey for Christmas dinner, you also are partaking in a Victorian tradition.

So there’s the story of some of our Christmas traditions. However you celebrate Christmas, I hope it is merry and blessed, and that you are filled with the joy and wonder of the Incarnation of our Lord.