A Sermon by the Reverend Ellen Rowse Spero
First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church,
Chelmsford, Massachusetts
December 14, 2003
Reading: by Samuel A. Eliot, from Celebrating Christmas: An Anthology, Boston, MA: UUA Bookstore.)
Copyright 2003, Ellen Rowse Spero. All rights reserved.
Amongst Unitarian Universalists, Christmas and Easter remain the two most attended services of the year. Christmas Eve in particular is held dear. But if we generally no longer believe that Jesus is the Messiah and Divine Son of God, then why celebrate Christmas? There are many reasons. The story of Jesus’ birth contains deeper, more hopeful truths, even if we don’t take it literally. And it is not just the story, or as Samuel Eliot said, not just a holiday. It is also Santa Claus, cookies, Aunt Sarah’s inedible fruitcake, the Nutcracker, and reindeer. It is the music, a star on a tree, the gathering of family and friends, the exchanging of gifts, candlelight services, and sharing our wealth with those in need. It is the hope for the return of light and peace on earth.
Many of the traditions associated with Christmas have little to do with Christianity and more to do with changes in American culture. Most were essentially created by the middle class during the early 1800’s. Three Unitarians: Edmund Sears, Catherine Sedgwick, and Charles Follen, made important contributions to how we celebrate and understand Christmas today.
Until the 1800’s, Christmas was not widely celebrated in New England. Our Puritan ancestors, some of whom founded this church, did not like Christmas, seeing it as an excuse for wantonness, drunkenness, and other sinful activities. In Europe in the fourth century, the Church adopted December 25th as the day of Jesus’ birth because it coincided with the winter solstice celebrations of the pagan cultures they were trying to convert. The newly converted Christians refused to give up their past. In his book, "The Battle for Christmas" Stephen Nissenbaum writes, "…the Christmas season was a time to let off steam—and to gorge. It is difficult today to understand what this seasonal feasting was like. For most of the readers of this book, good food is available is sufficient quantity year-round. But early modern Europe was above all a world of scarcity. Few people ate much good food at all, and for everyone the availability of fresh food was seasonally determined… December was the season—the only season—for fresh meat. Animals could not be slaughtered until the weather was cold enough to ensure that the meat would not go bad; and any meat saved for the rest of the year would have to be preserved (and rendered less palatable) by salting. December was also the month when the year’s supply of beer or wine was ready to drink. And for farmers too, this period marked the start of a season of leisure. Little wonder, then, that this was a time of celebratory excess.
Excess took many forms. Reveling could easily become rowdiness, lubricated by alcohol, making merry could edge into making trouble. Christmas was a season of ‘misrule,’ a time when ordinary behavioral restraints could be violated with impunity…Christmas misrule meant that not only hunger but also anger and lust could be expressed in public." (pp. 5-6).
The Puritans fled England and settled in Massachusetts seeking not only religious freedom but a place to create a "pure" Christianity. There was no mention of December 25th in the Bible. And they found the misrule and merrymaking of Christmas to be not only unrelated but dishonoring to the name of Christ. They made Christmas illegal, subject to a five shilling fine. And so the law stood from 1659-1681. And even after the ban against Christmas was lifted, the Puritan influence would hold for another century and a half. Courts and schools were in session, businesses were open. Here at First Parish, there were no Christmas Eve candlelight services. Jane Drury, our church historian, sent me these excerpts from the diary of the Reverend Ebenezer Bridge. At first, he did not make any reference to Christmas at all. (He called each Sunday "the Lord’s Day."). "(Sunday) Dec. 22, 1771: Lords Day. I preached all day from Psalm 119.127.128 - old sermon - propounded Covt to Jonathan & Abigail Barrat & they own'd it. Dec. 25, 1775. My wife & I dined at Colo Stoddard's pr invitation - no other company but Hannah Peirce the Taloress! Dec. 29, 1771 Lord's Day. I preached all day from Luk 19.44. Old sermon - baptized Benjamin Son of Jonas & Mary Marshall - propounded Philip Parkhurst & his wife, to own Covt."
However, by 1792 (the last Christmas included in his diary) he had changed a bit": "December 25, 1792. Christmas day & Lords day. I preached all day from Gal 4.4.9. Very cold day." Rev. Bridge’s entries affirm the larger pattern of change that began to take hold slowly in Massachusetts to once again acknowledge Christmas. Typical for the time, Rev. Bridge mentioned that it was Christmas, but he did not indicate any particular special celebration.
The impetus for the cultural changes around Christmas came with the Industrial Revolution. First, there was the creation of an economy dependent of the production and consumption of goods. Second, you may remember a couple weeks ago when I talked about the history of marriage that during the Industrial Revolution, the status of women and children changed radically. As men now left the house to work, women and children could no longer contribute to the family economy. Until this time, children were considered "miniature adults" who were expected to contribute to the running of the family business and household. But from this new middle class with women and children at home, the ideals of Motherhood and Childhood were developed. Children were seen as needing special nurture and care, and the parents had the responsibility to mold and build their children’s character. The third event was the publication of a poem entitled "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Moore. Moore’s story of Santa’s midnight visit gave American parents a vision of what Christmas was supposed look like. It created a whole mythology, including the names of the reindeer and Santa’s red suit, his slide down the chimney, and stockings stuffed to the brim. Moore’s poem has probably had a greater effect on our celebration of Christmas than Matthew and Luke!
The cultural changes created tension for parents. On the one hand, parents felt pressure to lavish their children with gifts. On the other, they did not want to spoil them. The Puritan tirades against the licentiousness and misrule of Christmas gave way in the 1830’s to tirades against the selfishness and greedy consumerism corrupting the children. Enter two Unitarians, Charles Follen and Catharine Sedgwick. They introduced the tradition of the Christmas tree to New England, and with it, some new ideas about children and gift-giving.
Charles Follen was born in Germany in 1796. A student radical, he was forced to flee his native land and came to America. He taught German at Harvard, and married Eliza Lee Cabot, of the prominent Boston Cabots. Through them, he met William Ellery Channing, who introduced him to Unitarianism and encouraged Follen to become a Unitarian minister. He would later become the founder of the Follen Community Church in Lexington, although a terrible accident took his life before he was able to assume the pulpit there. Eliza and Charles had a son, Charley. Follen wanted to share with his son the tradition of a Christmas tree from his native Germany. He and Eliza would decorate the tree in secret and then open the door to let little Charley in to see the beautiful tree blazing with candles. His good friend, Harriet Martineau wrote a story about the Follen family Christmas, presenting it as if she had just stumbled upon this quaint tradition in her travels through New England.
Catharine Sedgwick also popularized the Christmas Tree. Unlike Follen, Sedgwick had never had a Christmas tree in her youth. She was the member of a prominent family from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Her father, Theodore, was prominent congressman. Like many Unitarians, Catharine was an independent spirit. She never married. She wrote novels and short stories, often about women of independent spirit as well. She also wrote stories about Christmas. In one, a German maidservant, Madeleine, introduces her American family to the Christmas tree. She and her young ward, the story’s heroine, decorate the tree as a gift for the parents. In another story, the young heroine, Lizzy, makes fun of her gentlemen callers who brag about the expensive they have bought and received. Lizzy also provides wonderful gifts for her numerous younger siblings. But in her case, they were all hand-made by Lizzy herself.
Sedgwick probably learned of the Christmas tree tradition from Follen himself. She and Follen were good friends and it was she who introduced Follen to Eliza Cabot. As Unitarians, Follen and Sedgwick rejected the idea of original sin. They believed that children were essentially good beings who needed to be guided with a gentle hand. Both saw Christmas as a time to celebrate and nurture the spirit of childhood. One of the underlying purposes of the traditions of the tree and gift sharing introduced by Follen and Sedgwick was to get away from the growing greediness and consumerism that was tainting Christmas by introducing two new ideas. One was that the tree, not the gifts, was the central "surprise" of the holiday. The second was that the giving of gifts by children was as important as the receiving.
A third Unitarian who had an influence on how we celebrate Christmas was Edmund Hamilton Sears. He came as the minister at the First Congregational Church and Society in Wayland in 1838. He loved it there but found that he needed a larger and more prosperous congregation to support his family so moved to the Congregational Church in Lancaster in 1840. He was there for seven years but suffered from illness and depression, and so returned to Wayland’s less demanding parish. Sears was opposed to the Mexican-American War. He spoke out strongly against slavery. Out of his struggles with depression, and man’s inhumanity to man, he penned his famous carol, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." He saw the message of Christmas as God’s extending an opportunity for humankind to respond to God’s love and that that opportunity, not yet taken, was eternally present.
Once again, children were involved. Christmas carols were not sung in church because they were considered too childish or too secular. It is unclear where Sears’ carol was first sung. Some reports have it that he wrote it for the family Christmas. Others say that he wrote it for a children’s Sunday school for the Unitarian church in Quincy.
As Nissenbaum notes the changes in attitude, tradition, and understanding of Christmas grew out of a larger change in the understanding of what it means to be human and to love: "(First) There were important similarities between the antislavery sensibility and the new attitude toward children. Abolitionists and educational reformers shared a joint empathy for people who were powerless to resist the wrath of those who wielded authority over them—slaves and children, respectively…Second…the way that middle-class people in the early nineteenth century went about creating for themselves a private space cut off from the pressures of the world outside and centered around the happiness of children" (pp. 186-87). It is no surprise then, that these three Unitarians made contributions to Christmas traditions, not just of Unitarian Universalism but beyond. And that their contributions grew out of their firm beliefs in the rights of all peoples, in human potential for goodness, and in the hope that we will yet hear and honor the love of which the angels sing.
Bibliography:
Stephen Nissenbaum. The Battle for Christmas. New York: Random House, 1996.