Santa and the Christmas tree

While religious types, such as myself, think of the birth of Christ in the manger first at Christmas, so many think of the image of Santa leaving gifts under the Christmas tree. Santa Claus and the Christmas tree have become as much of a part of the American Christmas season as any other icons. It seems to so many that is how it has always been. Frankly, it has not been that way.

The Christmas tree was introduced to the United States in the early 1800s by early German immigrants, who saw the fir tree as a symbol of Christianity. However, for decades, the German Christmas tree stayed among the German immigrants. It was not until the late 19th Century that the Christmas tree as we know it took its place in American Christmas culture.

Indeed, for much of the life of America before 1900, Christmas was an honored holiday, but there were no decorated trees. There were limited decorations of blue and silver color and some holly. Gift giving was limited by today's standards. Instead, people celebrated Christmas with religious observances and feasts. In the South during this period, slaves would have a rare day of rest on Christmas and would celebrate on Christmas Eve with what we now call a party.

However, what we know of the Christmas tree and Santa Claus simply did not exist. While there was the legend of Saint Nicholas that was told, Santa as we know him did not come to be a cultural icon until the image created by Hadden Sunblom was embraced by the Coca Cola Company in the 1930s. Though Sunblom's image was based on other presentations of the jolly man from the North Pole, it was his image of St. Nick that became the Santa Claus we know today. That image of Santa rose about the same time as the idea of it being necessary in America to have a Christmas tree in the living room of every home to celebrate Christmas.

Don't get us at VUI wrong. We enjoy beautiful Christmas trees and we embrace the myth of Santa Claus, because it gives kids the power of hoping and dreaming. However, both the Christmas tree and Santa are relatively recent cultural creations for America and the world. For hundreds of years, the people of the Middle East, Europe and America celebrated Christmas without either trees or Santas. For those who embrace history, a Christmas tree or our current vision of Santa would never be embraced by the Old South, black or white. While we enjoy the traditions of our time, we must not pretend that they are the traditions of all time.