Comments!

alphonsegaston blathered on about something on Thursday December 24 2009 @ 11:41am

http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/suny/2003suny-axelrad.html

This link is to a long, detailed explanation of Christmas in the James Fenimore Cooper family, as revealed in the work of Susan F. Cooper, his daughter, and his 1823 novel, The Pioneers, which describes a Christmas at Cooperstown, NY in the early 1790s, based on Cooper's own family memories.

Odd to find that Dickens invented Christmas in 1843. Cooper's frontier town has a feast, a church service, the custom of being the first to call out Merry Christmas, etc.

There was a considerable time between the Puritans and the 18th century. And they never had much influence in frontier New York.

Actually, the book review you cite does not really prove that Dickens "invented" Christmas, just that he popularized it in one area, charitable giving.

I also suggest a Google search of continental Christmas traditions--after all, we aren't all descendents of folks from Great Britain.

For a superb history of America's material Christmases, I recommend Karal Ann Marling's Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday (Harvard, 2000).

Tommy blathered on about something on Thursday December 24 2009 @ 12:06pm

Cool! Thanks for the references.