YES, VIRGINIA...IT'S CHRISTMAS IN NYC!
New Yorkers didn’t invent Christmas…but they sure had a lot to do with how it looks in America.
The first New Yorkers brought us Santa Claus, though at the time it was New Amsterdam and he answered to Sinterklaas. It was Clement Clark Moore, who lived in what’s now Chelsea, who moved the jolly old elf from Saint Nicholas Day in early December to “The Night Before Christmas” in 1823. Pretty soon, Christmas Eve was the one night of the year that New Yorkers didn’t mind the idea of some strange old guy showing up in their houses. (Only because he was bringing presents, of course.)
Santa also gets his “look” from a New Yorker. Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized the portly bearded guy in the fur-trimmed suit riding around in a sleigh from the 1860s to 1880s. Those illustrations made Santa a very American character, jolly and fun and open-handed, as opposed to the rather solemn and distant European Father Christmas in his robes. That one is still around in much of the world, but he doesn’t get invited to the party around here very often!
Christmas trees didn’t start in New York, either. Queen Victoria popularized them with her German Prince Albert. And the City quickly jumped on the bandwagon. The first Christmas trees were sold at a downtown stand in 1851, and they were selling by the hundreds of thousands by the 1880s. And of course New Yorkers trimmed them up their way.
New York, and particularly Gilded Age New York, also led the charge on the whole idea of holiday excess. Now, the idea of going a little wild, whether in spending or eating, is part of the fun for us. Holiday gifting and partying were just getting off the ground in the late 1800s, and the robber barons and their families did their bit to urge it along.
And, yes, Virginia, New York also gave the world…Virginia! It was the New York Sun, and editor Francis Pharcellus Church whose answer to a little girl who wasn’t too sure about Santa that set off generations of stories in just about every available medium.
Probably the only Christmas-season icon that New York didn’t influence is Scrooge. Charles Dickens’ reformed villain is an entirely British invention, just like his creator. New Yorkers had plenty of Scrooge-alikes, but they didn’t touch the original.
Which is fine, by the way, for one Ella Shane. Neither she, nor her cousin Tommy, wants to hear the heartrending tale of Tiny Tim – those tenement kids made good saw too much real-life tragedy. But sign them up for “The Night Before Christmas!”
They’ll happily read it to friends’ children, or the kids at the Holy Innocents Church School. Of course they have a great big tree at their Washington Square townhouse, and they go to Aunt Ellen’s on Christmas Day with plenty of presents for the cousins.
If you’re wondering how it’s possible that Ella takes every bit as much joy in her Christmas celebrations as the Hanukkah festivities of her Jewish heritage, I’ll let her clarify it for you: “God knows what I am, and He’ll figure it out when the time comes. In the meantime, I do no harm celebrating everything.”
Whatever you’re celebrating – may you have much joy! Merry Christmas!
Got a Throwback Thursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
The first New Yorkers brought us Santa Claus, though at the time it was New Amsterdam and he answered to Sinterklaas. It was Clement Clark Moore, who lived in what’s now Chelsea, who moved the jolly old elf from Saint Nicholas Day in early December to “The Night Before Christmas” in 1823. Pretty soon, Christmas Eve was the one night of the year that New Yorkers didn’t mind the idea of some strange old guy showing up in their houses. (Only because he was bringing presents, of course.)
Santa also gets his “look” from a New Yorker. Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized the portly bearded guy in the fur-trimmed suit riding around in a sleigh from the 1860s to 1880s. Those illustrations made Santa a very American character, jolly and fun and open-handed, as opposed to the rather solemn and distant European Father Christmas in his robes. That one is still around in much of the world, but he doesn’t get invited to the party around here very often!
Christmas trees didn’t start in New York, either. Queen Victoria popularized them with her German Prince Albert. And the City quickly jumped on the bandwagon. The first Christmas trees were sold at a downtown stand in 1851, and they were selling by the hundreds of thousands by the 1880s. And of course New Yorkers trimmed them up their way.
New York, and particularly Gilded Age New York, also led the charge on the whole idea of holiday excess. Now, the idea of going a little wild, whether in spending or eating, is part of the fun for us. Holiday gifting and partying were just getting off the ground in the late 1800s, and the robber barons and their families did their bit to urge it along.
And, yes, Virginia, New York also gave the world…Virginia! It was the New York Sun, and editor Francis Pharcellus Church whose answer to a little girl who wasn’t too sure about Santa that set off generations of stories in just about every available medium.
Probably the only Christmas-season icon that New York didn’t influence is Scrooge. Charles Dickens’ reformed villain is an entirely British invention, just like his creator. New Yorkers had plenty of Scrooge-alikes, but they didn’t touch the original.
Which is fine, by the way, for one Ella Shane. Neither she, nor her cousin Tommy, wants to hear the heartrending tale of Tiny Tim – those tenement kids made good saw too much real-life tragedy. But sign them up for “The Night Before Christmas!”
They’ll happily read it to friends’ children, or the kids at the Holy Innocents Church School. Of course they have a great big tree at their Washington Square townhouse, and they go to Aunt Ellen’s on Christmas Day with plenty of presents for the cousins.
If you’re wondering how it’s possible that Ella takes every bit as much joy in her Christmas celebrations as the Hanukkah festivities of her Jewish heritage, I’ll let her clarify it for you: “God knows what I am, and He’ll figure it out when the time comes. In the meantime, I do no harm celebrating everything.”
Whatever you’re celebrating – may you have much joy! Merry Christmas!
Got a Throwback Thursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
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