The phrase “Christmas gift” was used as early as 1844 as part of a greeting on Christmas Day. Rather than saying “Merry Christmas” as is customary today, people would give a token of appreciation on Christmas Day to anyone who greeted them by saying “Christmas gift.” It was particularly used by African Americans and poor whites who used the expression literally as a begging formula on Christmas morning. In other cases, it means nothing more than “Merry Christmas,” which has now become the common holiday greeting.
The actual practice of exchanging Christmas gifts is much older than the nineteenth century, however. The custom of exchanging charms or small tokens of good luck at the end of the year goes back to very ancient times. The Egyptians gave each other small, symbolic presents conveying good luck wishes on New Year’s Day. When the tombs of the pharaohs were unearthed, small blue-glazed bottles, probably scent flasks, with New Year’s blessings written on them were found intact. The Romans exchanged gifts and New Year’s greetings on the Kalends (or first day) of January. Originally these gifts were quite simple: typically laurel or olive branches picked from the holy groves dedicated to Strenia, the goddess of health. However, with the passage of time these gifts (strenae) became more elaborate, often consisting of symbolic objects such as lamps, the symbol of light, or silver and gold, representing wealth.
Within the Christian tradition, St. Nicholas, the bishop of Myra, has most famously been linked to the practice of gift-giving. He liked to help people in need without drawing attention to himself. Poor families would often find on Christmas morning a gold piece or a well-filled purse without knowing where it came from. This tradition continues today, with more elaborate gifts, on December 6 in the Netherlands, but this practice did not transfer to the United States. In American folklore, Santa Claus carries on the gift-giving tradition by delivering presents in his sleigh on Christmas Eve, accompanied by his eight reindeer.
In Russian legend, it is Babushka (the Grandmother) rather than St. Nicholas who brings gifts at Christmas. Supposedly, Babushka was the same old woman who deliberately misdirected the Three Wise Men on their way to Bethlehem. Another version of the story says that they invited her to go with them to see the newborn Jesus, but she refused. Either way, going around the world on Christmas Eve and distributing gifts to good children was Babushka’s way to make amends for her past wrongs.
Most countries have their own Christmas gift-giving traditions, usually the result of evolving legends through the years. Today, the growing commercialism surrounding Christmas, particularly in the United States, emphasizes Christmas shopping to such an extent that many people feel that the holiday has lost its religious importance. Popular slogans such as “Put the ‘Christ’ back in Christmas” or “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” appeal to some Christians who oppose the commercializing of events they hold sacred. In 1892 William Dean Howells wrote such a warning in his short story “Christmas Every Day,” in which a child learned that it might be unwise to wish that every day was Christmas, with the endless stockings full of gifts. The author’s overall message still resonates with some readers today. Yet nothing stops the annual custom of “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving that moves the profit margins of many businesses from the red into the black on this first day of the shopping season.
The formalities of Christmas that we now celebrate really emerged in the nineteenth century as a combination of merchandising and gift giving, a celebration of conspicuous consumption. This was a dramatic transformation of national attitudes from those of the New England Puritans who made Christmas observances illegal in 1659. The Massachusetts Bay General Court declared that the celebration of Christmas was a criminal offense. As recently as the early nineteenth century, Christmas reveling often resulted in violence and riots.
The increased length of the shopping season between Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November and Christmas Eve was the result of a proclamation in 1939 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt changed the date of Thanksgiving to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, hoping to stimulate the economy. Changing the date of Thanksgiving seemed harmless enough, but in actuality proved quite controversial. It was so upsetting that thousands of letters poured into the White House. Some retailers were pleased because they hoped the extra week of Christmas shopping would increase profits, but smaller businesses complained they would lose business to larger stores. According to the most recent Census Bureau figures, estimated retail sales by the nation’s department stores in December 2013 was $24.4 billion. This represents an estimated 40.9 percent jump from the previous month when retail sales were estimated at $17.3 billion. No other month-to-month increase in department store sales in that year was as large. The estimated percentage of total 2013 sales for department stores in December was 13.9 percent. For jewelry stores, the estimated percentage was 19.1 percent. The estimated value of retail sales by electronic shopping and mail-order houses in December 2013 was $44.5 billion. These figures highlight the importance of Christmas gifts in contemporary American culture.
Martin J. Manning
See also Christmas Tree; Santa Claus
Further Reading
Cassidy, Frederic G., ed. 1985–1986. Dictionary of American Regional English. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Forbes, Bruce D. 2007. Christmas: A Candid History. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Griffin, Robert H., and Ann H. Shurgin, eds. 1998. The Folklore of World Holidays. 2nd ed. Detroit and London: Gale.
Henderson, Helene, ed. 2009. Holiday Symbols and Customs. 4th ed. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics.
Nissenbaum, Stephen. 1996. The Battle for Christmas. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Schmidt, Leigh E. 1995. Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Waits, William B. 1993. The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving. New York: New York University Press.