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Steve
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Here
is a tract done by Brother Daryl R. Coats
As ceramic snowmen and garish decorations begin appearing on American store shelves in late August, it's not uncommon to hear laments over the "commercialization of Christmas." Professing "Christians" are great about denying the reality of what they see around them, feebly protesting that "Jesus is the reason for the season." This claim shows a great ignorance of American history. Had the Lord Jesus Christ actually been "the reason for the season," the Puritans, Presbyterians, Quakers, Baptists, Mennonites, and Methodists who colonized New England would have celebrated "Christmas." They didn't. The sad truth is that MONEY is the reason why "Christmas" became a major commercial (not religious) holiday in 19th century America.
Money is the reason for €hri$tma$ Tree$ There is no record of any "Christmas trees" in America before the 1830s, when one was erected in Pennsylvania as part of a show intended to raise money for a local church. (Before that time, most Americans regarded such trees as pagan.) Within 20 years of this fund-raising effort, "Christmas trees" had become popular enough in America that in 1851 farmer Mark Carr brought "two ox sleds of evergreens" to New York City and sold each one, thus creating "the Christmas tree market." By 1900 American businesses had begun using trees decorated with small electric lights to attract customers to their stores. Starting in New York, businesses succeeded in convincing Americans that they needed to buy evergreens every December. During the first 20 years of the 20th century, the number of Americans who erected trees at "Christmas" rose from 20 percent of the population to nearly 100 percent. So strong was the demand for these trees that during the "Great Depression" of the 1930s, when other businesses went bankrupt or experienced great financial losses, nurserymen who earlier had sold evergreens for landscaping began to make money by converting their businesses into "Christmas tree farms."
Money is the reason for €hri$tma$ Gift$
In 1939, when he officially designated Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November instead of the last Thursday, U.S. President Roosevelt was following the suggestion of an American retailer who wanted to ensure that American stores had a four-week period of shopping each "Christmas season." (Retail sales would help end the depression, you understand.) To mark the start of this four-week shopping period, each year on Thanksgiving Day, Macy's sponsors a parade that ends with an appearance by "Santa Claus" to remind watchers that it's time to start buying "Christmas gifts." Today, the four-week period between Thanksgiving and "Christmas" accounts for about one-half of all the sales generated in most stores. What one writer calls "diligent marketing" has made gift-buying possibly the strongest of all American "Christmas customs."
Money is the reason for €hri$tma$ De€oration$ Around 1860, American retailers began to sell wreaths, holly leaves, and "mistletoe balls" as house decorations. Initially such decorations were marketed only to the wealthy, but in the spirit of consumer capitalism and free enterprise, businesses worked hard to add the poor and middle class to their client base. By 1890, even "discount" retailer F. W. Woolworth was importing and selling glass "Christmas" ornaments. < €hri$tma$ €ard$ The custom of sending cards at "Christmas" started in England in 1843 as a way to get more people to use that nation's Public Post Office. Before 1840 only the wealthy could afford to post letters; "Christmas cards," however, made the postal service accessible to (and "affordable" for) all people. In our own time, the U.S. Postal Service still makes a small fortune on the billions of holiday cards and gifts sent by mail each year, while Hallmark and other makers and retailers make money by selling the cards. Since 1900, even charities such as "Christmas Seals" have used the custom of "Christmas cards" as a way to raise money.
Money is the reason for $anta €lau$e and Rudolph For centuries the Catholic Church has used "St. Nicholas" to make a fortune. In the 11th century 47 men from Bari, Italy, went to Asia Minor, stole the supposed remains (relics) of the supposed Nicholas, and brought them home, hoping to make money off of pilgrims who come to honor the "holy saint." (Money was even made from an annual festival honoring this act of theft.) As one historian points out, "The relics of St. Nicholas have brought wealth to everyone who has possessed them." As a result, "St. Nicholas" came to be the "patron saint" of pawnbrokers, thieves, and pirates, all of whom invoked his aid in making money. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by copywriter Robert L. May and used as an advertising draw to bring shoppers to American retailer Montgomery Ward. May's creation brought in enough customers that Montgomery Ward sold 2.5 million Rudolph books in 1939 and another 3 million when the book was re-issued in 1946. The musical version of Rudolph's story is in essence a "jingle" that has outlived the company it once advertised. If you want to get caught up in the foolish festivities that so permeate the month of December, go right ahead. But please don't blame the Lord Jesus Christ for creating all this mess. MONEY, not Jesus, is "the reason for the season."
Daryl R. Coats
VIDEO
FOR YOU WHO DIFFER WITH DARYL COATS:
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