Marshall McClung
I suppose I was like most children, in thinking that it sure took a long time for Christmas to arrive.
Strange how quickly it seems to roll around now.
If you think Christmas took a long time in childhood days to come, take a look at the first Christmas: Christ’s birthday which is really what Christmas is about and not the commercial mess some have made of it today.
Bible scholars have recorded at least 11 prophecies of the coming of Christ in the Old Testament. The first one in Genesis is some 1,500 years before his birth in Bethlehem. Dec. 25 was officially declared as Christmas Day in 336 AD by Pope Julius I.
The first record of a Christmas celebration in America was in 1539, when Desoto – with some 600 soldiers and 12 Catholic priests – held a Christmas Mass in what is now Tallahassee, Fla.
Some of the early pilgrims who came to America were Puritans, who had a strict code of religious beliefs which forbade some types of celebration of Christmas.
It was reported that settlers in the Jamestown colony did celebrate Christmas. Christmas celebrations were forbidden in Boston and those caught doing so were fined.
Christmas trees made their appearance in America in the 1820s, when German settlers in Pennsylvania had them in their homes.
Giving gifts at Christmas is said to have started as a way to recognize Christ as the greatest gift and also to recognize the Wise Men who gave gifts to Christ. Gift giving at Christmas was said to have been underway in America by the 1830s.
It seems that Congress has always been slow: they didn’t declare Christmas as a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
On a more local note, several old-timers told me that they never received a single Christmas gift when they were children. Those that did said it might be one orange or one stick of peppermint candy or one piece of homemade clothing. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe in celebrating Christmas, but a lack of money.
This was especially true during the Depression.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.