Pick up any women’s magazine this month and chances
are there’s an article about how to handle the
stress of Christmas. I always assumed this to be a modern phenomenon until
I picked up The Battle for Christmas
by Stephen Nissenbaum.
In it he writes, “The
Ladies’ Home Journal actually published an article in 1897 that
acknowledged [women experiencing stress at Christmas] as a cultural problem.”
Although I couldn’t find the actual article, I did come across this gem from 1898
that reminded me the more things change, the more they stay the
same.
Throughout the book, Nissenbaum also makes the case that
a commercial Christmas is also not a product of modernity, but was an integral
part of the transformation of Christmas from a rowdy, drunken celebration of
the annual slaughter to a more domesticated affair that included women and
children. As he writes, “there never was a time when Christmas existed as an
unsullied domestic idyll, immune to the taint of commercialism…indeed, the
domestic Christmas was itself a force in the spread of consumer capitalism.”
If you’re curious to read more about the origins of
American Christmas traditions - Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and “personalized”
mass-produced presents - add The Battle
for Christmas to your list. You know you have one.
