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The American Social Experience Series
The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving
In days of old, Christmas was defined by the custom of exchanging simple handmade gifts. Today, it has become a multi-billion industry, synonymous with commercialism and consumption. How did this transformation occur?
In this incisive and engaging examination of how Christmas has evolved since 1880, Waits chronicles the history of the holiday, from its origin to its current form. The book is illustrated with dozens of historical photographs and will be of interest to cultural and social historians alike.
Christmas was a relatively modest occasion in the English- speaking world, celebrated by the exchange of modest handmade gifts, until the Victorians invested the holiday with immense significance as part of a larger effort to celebrate home, family, and a mythic past of well-ordered communities. By the late 19th century, Christmas had become a major American festival. Today, it is a multi-billion dollar industry and easily the most important seasonal event of the year.
In this survey of the modern American Christmas, William Waits shows us how this holiday emerged, tracing its evolution from the days prior to 1880 when people presented one another with simple crafted presents to the turn of the century when industrialization brought with it waves of inexpensive, tawdry gimcracks. In the early twentieth century, reform-minded Americans reflecting on the new Christmas prompted a backlash against this cheapening of the Yule tradition, and the Christmas card was born. Henceforth, family members and close friends exchanged useful, costly items, while cards were sent to acquaintances and distant relatives. These reformers also persuaded retail stores to keep their regular hours of business during the holiday, rather than lengthening them, to give trade workers the opportunity to join in the celebration. They also rationalized the collection and distribution of holiday charity, resulting in the Christmas celebration we have today. Waits's book clearly illustrates that the notion that Christmas is uncontrollable is simply untrue.
An incisive and engaging history of giftgiving, The Modern Christmas in America also examines the differing traditions of giftgiving to friends, employees, the poor, and among entire communities. Handsomely illustrated with dozens of historical photographs, this book is not only the perfect holiday gift but will also be of interest to any student of American history and culture.
In this incisive and engaging examination of how Christmas has evolved since 1880, Waits chronicles the history of the holiday, from its origin to its current form. The book is illustrated with dozens of historical photographs and will be of interest to cultural and social historians alike.
Christmas was a relatively modest occasion in the English- speaking world, celebrated by the exchange of modest handmade gifts, until the Victorians invested the holiday with immense significance as part of a larger effort to celebrate home, family, and a mythic past of well-ordered communities. By the late 19th century, Christmas had become a major American festival. Today, it is a multi-billion dollar industry and easily the most important seasonal event of the year.
In this survey of the modern American Christmas, William Waits shows us how this holiday emerged, tracing its evolution from the days prior to 1880 when people presented one another with simple crafted presents to the turn of the century when industrialization brought with it waves of inexpensive, tawdry gimcracks. In the early twentieth century, reform-minded Americans reflecting on the new Christmas prompted a backlash against this cheapening of the Yule tradition, and the Christmas card was born. Henceforth, family members and close friends exchanged useful, costly items, while cards were sent to acquaintances and distant relatives. These reformers also persuaded retail stores to keep their regular hours of business during the holiday, rather than lengthening them, to give trade workers the opportunity to join in the celebration. They also rationalized the collection and distribution of holiday charity, resulting in the Christmas celebration we have today. Waits's book clearly illustrates that the notion that Christmas is uncontrollable is simply untrue.
An incisive and engaging history of giftgiving, The Modern Christmas in America also examines the differing traditions of giftgiving to friends, employees, the poor, and among entire communities. Handsomely illustrated with dozens of historical photographs, this book is not only the perfect holiday gift but will also be of interest to any student of American history and culture.
290 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1992
About the author
William B. Waits
4 books1 followerWilliam B. Waits was in the doctoral program in anthropology at Yale in the 1980’s, an experience that is the basis for The Blue Disc. Prior to that, he earned an M.A. in anthropology at Rutgers. He also holds a Ph.D. in American cultural history and is the author of The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift-Giving (NYU Press, 1993). Outside academia, he worked as an attorney (J.D., 1983) and as the head of the state governmental unit that supervises all New Jersey chartered banks, savings banks and savings and loan associations. He lives in Lambertville, NJ, and continues to play golf with an ever-shortening backswing.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 25, 2023
A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF CONSUMERISM AND GIFT-GIVING ON THE HOLIDAY
Author William B. Waits wrote in the Preface to this 1993 book, “Most Americans believe that our way of celebrating Christmas is old, that we have observed the Yule season in essentially the same way for centuries… But in fact we have had no single form of celebration and have enjoyed several types of Christmases during our history. Moreover, our current form of celebrating is not very old, dating only from about 1880… About 1800 Americans began to celebrate Christmas on a somewhat larger scale…During the late nineteenth century, America was transformed economically and socially… the nation developed not only a modern culture, but also a modern Christmas. It was during these years that the celebration achieved its present gargantuan scale… the emergence of this modern celebration and its subsequent history are the focus of this work…” He adds in the Introduction, “This book does not discuss the religious aspects of Christmas. The reason is simple. Religion has not played an important role in the emergence of the modern form of the celebration… This book tells how the modern Christmas emerged by focusing on gift giving.”
He notes, “Christmas was similar to two other winter events: New Year’s and the winter solstice. The historical relationship between Christmas and both of these is very close. Christmas and New Year’s have been so intertwined over the centuries that for many purposes we should regard them as parts of a single festive season. For example, the early Christmas celebrants simply copied many of the observances of an already existing pagan celebration, the Roman Kalends… which marked the … new calendar year… In more recent times, the relationship between Christmas and New Year’s has remained close. For example, since 1800 New Year’s Eve has become the accepted date for engaging in revelrous behavior that had, in earlier times, taken place on Christmas…” (Pg. 8)
He explains, “The custom of presenting handmade Christmas gifts began to change after 1880 because of rapid industrialization and the dramatic expansion of the country’s transportation system… The productive capacity of the industrial sector of the American economy expanded significantly following the Civil War… so that, by the turn of the century, the nation’s industries … were able to make items designed to meet needs other than the basic ones. For the most part, the manufactured items that Americans began to present as Christmas presents after 1880 were from this category. The shift from homemade to manufactured gifts occurred gradually between 1880 and 1920.” (Pg. 17-18)
He recounts, “After 1880, with the emergence of the modern Christmas celebration, holiday duties began to be allocated unequally. Women became responsible for virtually all preparations for the celebration, while men only provided the money… Women also began to play a larger role in the acquisition of Christmas trees by accompanying their husbands to the place where trees were sold and participating in their selection…women began to dominate Christmas shopping after 1880 because they were also beginning to do most of the nation’s regular, year-round shopping. They were expected to purchase most of the items that their families needed.” (Pg. 80-81)
He reports, “If the authority of parents was minimized during the holidays, it was not totally absent. Parents used one mechanism in particular, the Santa Claus myth, to maintain some control over their offspring at Christmas. The myth restrained children because it taught that Santa Claus would give them presents only if they were good; if they were bad, Santa could leave them only switches and ashes. Today’s parents still tell their children this, but between 1800 and 1880 the threat was carried out more frequently than it would be thereafter. The Santa Claus of the first eighty years of the nineteenth century both rewarded and punished children.” (Pg. 121)
He points out, “In spite of the vividness and popularity of [Clement Clarke] Moore’s verbal description of St. Nicholas, some of Santa’s features were not set until the 1860s. In 1863, Thomas Nast, the famous political cartoonist, produced a series of drawings for Harper’s Weekly that defined, finally, how the jolly saint must look… gone---along with the religious name of St. Nicholas---were the mitre, staff, and bishop’s robe that had adorned the European St. Nicholas. The Nast Santa---plump, jolly, rewarding, secular, and of normal adult height---has remained the modern standard.” (Pg. 128)
He observes, “Although charity has historically been a part of Christian celebrations for centuries, its importance in the American celebration increased markedly in the mid-nineteenth century, inspired by the work of Charles Dickens. ‘A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, was the first major literary piece in several centuries to advocate Christmas charity and it caught the public fancy. The book became popular in America soon after its publication and has remained popular to the present, making it the most widely read literary statement on Christmas charity.” (Pg. 164)
He states, “When it entered the welfare field during the Depression, the government used rational, bureaucratic forms to collect and dispense aid to the needy. In using these forms, it built upon the rationalization of non-Christmas charities begun the late nineteenth century and on the rationalization of Christmas charity that had begun during the 1910s. As the government assumed an increasingly larger role in caring for the nation’s poor, the older, more personal forms of charity were pushed to the background. By the 1930s, personal individualized Christmas charity was rationalized almost out of existence.” (Pg. 175)
He says in the concluding chapter, “A widespread popular interpretation of Christmas dominates our thinking about the festival. Since 1900, most Americans have believed that ‘in the good old days’ Christmas was delightfully simple, and that its simplicity was derived from … the nation’s agricultural economy… Unfortunately, so the popular interpretation goes, this simple rural Christmas of ‘the good old days’ was overwhelmed by a new form of celebration on a much larger scale. They gave not only more presents, but also more expensive ones… The simplicity of the earlier celebration was lost in the bustle of expanded shopping and gift giving. In short, the festival became commercialized.” (Pg. 200)
He continues, “Broadly sketched, this is what most Americans regard as the major transformation in the celebration of Christmas over the last century. In many respects, this interpretation is correct… However… it is misleading in other significant respects. First, the popular interpretation of chronologically imprecise, as it never defines accurately when the nostalgic Christmas existed… Second… [it] tends to talk about the ‘festival as a whole,’ and … to overgeneralize about the celebration… Third, those who adhere to the popular interpretation … overlook the enthusiasm with which Americans have embraced the modern form of celebration with its manufactured gifts… Finally, the popular interpretation of Christmas infers that the celebration is out of control at present and will probably be uncontrollable in the future.” (Pg, 200-202)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying the development of the Christmas celebration.
Author William B. Waits wrote in the Preface to this 1993 book, “Most Americans believe that our way of celebrating Christmas is old, that we have observed the Yule season in essentially the same way for centuries… But in fact we have had no single form of celebration and have enjoyed several types of Christmases during our history. Moreover, our current form of celebrating is not very old, dating only from about 1880… About 1800 Americans began to celebrate Christmas on a somewhat larger scale…During the late nineteenth century, America was transformed economically and socially… the nation developed not only a modern culture, but also a modern Christmas. It was during these years that the celebration achieved its present gargantuan scale… the emergence of this modern celebration and its subsequent history are the focus of this work…” He adds in the Introduction, “This book does not discuss the religious aspects of Christmas. The reason is simple. Religion has not played an important role in the emergence of the modern form of the celebration… This book tells how the modern Christmas emerged by focusing on gift giving.”
He notes, “Christmas was similar to two other winter events: New Year’s and the winter solstice. The historical relationship between Christmas and both of these is very close. Christmas and New Year’s have been so intertwined over the centuries that for many purposes we should regard them as parts of a single festive season. For example, the early Christmas celebrants simply copied many of the observances of an already existing pagan celebration, the Roman Kalends… which marked the … new calendar year… In more recent times, the relationship between Christmas and New Year’s has remained close. For example, since 1800 New Year’s Eve has become the accepted date for engaging in revelrous behavior that had, in earlier times, taken place on Christmas…” (Pg. 8)
He explains, “The custom of presenting handmade Christmas gifts began to change after 1880 because of rapid industrialization and the dramatic expansion of the country’s transportation system… The productive capacity of the industrial sector of the American economy expanded significantly following the Civil War… so that, by the turn of the century, the nation’s industries … were able to make items designed to meet needs other than the basic ones. For the most part, the manufactured items that Americans began to present as Christmas presents after 1880 were from this category. The shift from homemade to manufactured gifts occurred gradually between 1880 and 1920.” (Pg. 17-18)
He recounts, “After 1880, with the emergence of the modern Christmas celebration, holiday duties began to be allocated unequally. Women became responsible for virtually all preparations for the celebration, while men only provided the money… Women also began to play a larger role in the acquisition of Christmas trees by accompanying their husbands to the place where trees were sold and participating in their selection…women began to dominate Christmas shopping after 1880 because they were also beginning to do most of the nation’s regular, year-round shopping. They were expected to purchase most of the items that their families needed.” (Pg. 80-81)
He reports, “If the authority of parents was minimized during the holidays, it was not totally absent. Parents used one mechanism in particular, the Santa Claus myth, to maintain some control over their offspring at Christmas. The myth restrained children because it taught that Santa Claus would give them presents only if they were good; if they were bad, Santa could leave them only switches and ashes. Today’s parents still tell their children this, but between 1800 and 1880 the threat was carried out more frequently than it would be thereafter. The Santa Claus of the first eighty years of the nineteenth century both rewarded and punished children.” (Pg. 121)
He points out, “In spite of the vividness and popularity of [Clement Clarke] Moore’s verbal description of St. Nicholas, some of Santa’s features were not set until the 1860s. In 1863, Thomas Nast, the famous political cartoonist, produced a series of drawings for Harper’s Weekly that defined, finally, how the jolly saint must look… gone---along with the religious name of St. Nicholas---were the mitre, staff, and bishop’s robe that had adorned the European St. Nicholas. The Nast Santa---plump, jolly, rewarding, secular, and of normal adult height---has remained the modern standard.” (Pg. 128)
He observes, “Although charity has historically been a part of Christian celebrations for centuries, its importance in the American celebration increased markedly in the mid-nineteenth century, inspired by the work of Charles Dickens. ‘A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, was the first major literary piece in several centuries to advocate Christmas charity and it caught the public fancy. The book became popular in America soon after its publication and has remained popular to the present, making it the most widely read literary statement on Christmas charity.” (Pg. 164)
He states, “When it entered the welfare field during the Depression, the government used rational, bureaucratic forms to collect and dispense aid to the needy. In using these forms, it built upon the rationalization of non-Christmas charities begun the late nineteenth century and on the rationalization of Christmas charity that had begun during the 1910s. As the government assumed an increasingly larger role in caring for the nation’s poor, the older, more personal forms of charity were pushed to the background. By the 1930s, personal individualized Christmas charity was rationalized almost out of existence.” (Pg. 175)
He says in the concluding chapter, “A widespread popular interpretation of Christmas dominates our thinking about the festival. Since 1900, most Americans have believed that ‘in the good old days’ Christmas was delightfully simple, and that its simplicity was derived from … the nation’s agricultural economy… Unfortunately, so the popular interpretation goes, this simple rural Christmas of ‘the good old days’ was overwhelmed by a new form of celebration on a much larger scale. They gave not only more presents, but also more expensive ones… The simplicity of the earlier celebration was lost in the bustle of expanded shopping and gift giving. In short, the festival became commercialized.” (Pg. 200)
He continues, “Broadly sketched, this is what most Americans regard as the major transformation in the celebration of Christmas over the last century. In many respects, this interpretation is correct… However… it is misleading in other significant respects. First, the popular interpretation of chronologically imprecise, as it never defines accurately when the nostalgic Christmas existed… Second… [it] tends to talk about the ‘festival as a whole,’ and … to overgeneralize about the celebration… Third, those who adhere to the popular interpretation … overlook the enthusiasm with which Americans have embraced the modern form of celebration with its manufactured gifts… Finally, the popular interpretation of Christmas infers that the celebration is out of control at present and will probably be uncontrollable in the future.” (Pg, 200-202)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying the development of the Christmas celebration.
January 9, 2019
The writing wasn't anything special, but the information was fascinating. The book is fairly short, written in the early 90s, and the analysis ends mid-twentieth century. I can only imagine how this book would read from a 21st century perspective. If only the author would write a revised version that compared today's e-commerce/etsy/artisan gifting practices to the past...
January 26, 2015
Takes a unique and dispassionate perspective on the marketing aspect of the holiday season in America.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews