Christmas Every Day

Two animals whose presence legend ascribes to the stable where the baby Jesus was laid. The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew claims that they knelt in adoration at the manger. They are frequently depicted in Nativity art and symbolically represent Jews and Christians or the sacrificial and the redemptive aspects of Jesus. Isaiah 1:3 is held to be a prophecy of the ox and ass. A mistranslation of the Greek version of Habakkuk 3:2 led some to read “between two beasts thou art made known” instead of “in the midst of the years make (it) known.”

 The notion that oxen (and other animals) go down on their knees at midnight on Christmas Eve in memory of the Nativity is a widespread legend but it has its regional variations. In some places folk insist that tears run down the cheeks of their cattle as they kneel while others claim that only the three-year old oxen (or seven-year old) bend low, as this was the age of the animals in the Bethlehem stable.

A Christmas novelty popular in Britain and countries of the Commonwealth. A Christmas cracker takes the form of a small cardboard tube covered in decorative wrap and containing a strip of chemically-impregnated paper which, when pulled, creates a miniature explosive snap. When opened the cracker reveals a paper hat, a motto or joke and a small prize.

The cracker was invented in 1847 by a London confectioner named Tom Smith. The idea began with the “bon bon”, a French candy in a twist of paper. To this Smith added a small motto and then conceived the idea of a noise when throwing a log on a crackling fire. After much experiment Smith came up with the right chemical formula and the cracker was born. He soon discarded the candy and began to call his invention “cosaques”, after the crack of the Cossack whip.

Since the 1840s the Christmas cracker has contained mottos humorous, romantic, artistic and puzzling with prizes ranging from inexpensive plastic toys to decorated boxes to real musical instruments to expensive jewelry with special lines prepared annually for the Royal Family. It is now an indispensable part of Christmas dinner in millions of houses around the world.

This is a very peculiar 1966 Italian-American musical fantasy directed by veteran actor Rosanno Brazzi who must have had a bad childhood experience with Christmas. It seems that Santa Claus (Alberto Rabagliatti) is depressed because an evil businessman Phineas T. Prune (Brazzi himself) has bought the North Pole and will soon evict St Nick and his elves. In order to pay his back rent Santa takes a job as a department store Santa Claus but discovers he doesn’t relate well to children.

Writer Paul Tripp must share some of the infamy as it is his book that was the basis of his script. The theme song is sung by Glenn Yarborough of the Limelighters folk group.

A Maxim Gorkystory about a writer who has blithely continued to write his annual Christmas tales about freezing beggars and orphan children and who is visited by the ghosts of these creations. He insists that his stories were meant to inspire readers to acts of charity but the phantoms deride his theory: if cruel reality will not move men to kindness, fiction will not work either.

Continuing on the theme of chilly poor folk at Christmas time is this 1876 story by Feodor Dostoevsky in which a poor orphan child freezes to death on Christmas Eve and goes to heaven where he encounters other children:

And he discovered that these boys and girls were all children like  himself; that some had frozen to death in the baskets in which they had  been deposited on doorsteps; others had died in wretched hovels, whither  they had been sent from the Foundlings’ Hospital; others again had  starved to death at their mothers’ dried-up breasts; had been suffocated  in the foul air of third-class railroad carriages. And now, here they  were all angels, Christ’s guests, and He Himself was in their midst, extending His hands to them, blessing them and their poor, sinful  mothers…. And the mothers stand there, a little apart, weeping; each one knows her little boy or girl; and the children fly up to them, and  kiss them, and wipe away their tears with their tiny hands, and beg them  not to weep, for they, the children, are so happy.

Written by Denmark’s Hans Christian Andersen, this is one of a number of famous nineteenth-century short stories on the theme of childen freezing to death over the Christmas season.

But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall — frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. “She wanted to warm herself,” people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.

Preparing for Christmas in Lithuania means cleaning: the house is cleaned, bed sheets are changed and family members take a bath and wear new clothes. At one time even trees were wrapped in fresh straw. Though the days of a rigorous fast are over and people now longer have to be content on Christmas Eve with a handful of peas, many Lithuanians refrain from meat and will not sit down to dinner until the first star is visible in the evening sky.

A number of eastern Christmas customs can be observed at the Kucios or Christmas Eve dinner: the straw on the table (a sign of fertility and a symbol of Christ’s birth in a stable), the round wafers, a place set for the dead or absent family members and twelve meatless dishes. On the traditional menu would be fish, potato pancakes, sauerkraut, beet soup, mushrooms in sour cream with fruit compote, grain pudding, poppy-seed milk and cookies for dessert. It was customary in some Lithuanian familes to leave some food on the table after dinner in case the Holy Family passed by. Another lovely tradition is for each member of the family to place a straw for every gracious word or act which occurred at Christmas into a cradle which is laid under the Christmas tree for the baby Jesus.

A recent addition to Lithuanian Christmas is the Christmas tree which first became popular in the 1920s and 1930s. The custom was to decorate the tree away from the sight of the children, usually with home-made orrnaments fashioned from straw, fruit and candies and lit by real candles. After dinner the tree and the gifts are revealed to the children who then open the presents brought by Kaledu Senelis, Grandfather Christmas. Often the gift-bringer appears in person on Christmas Eve and before handing over the presents he will demand that the recipient earn the gift by reciting a poem, playing an instrument or singing a song. After the excited kds are put to bed adults go to the midnight church service called the Shepherds’ Mass.

Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season in Lithuania. The tree is stripped of its remaining candies and treats by the children and the decoratiions are put away for another year.

Lithuanian customs include many different means of divination especially for determining one’s future spouse. Unmarried people draw a piece of straw from under the Christmas Eve tablecloth: a long, thin stalk betokens a tall, thin husband; a short, thick stalk indicates a short, fat husband. If a married person draws a thin piece it means a bad year economically, a fat piece means a fat wallet. If a married woman pulls a straw that is thicker in the middle, she will have a baby that year. In a kind of Christmas Rorschach test, interpreting first impressions from a crumpled piece of paper or a blob of wax in cold water can also yield glimpses of the future:  a form of transportation means travel in the new year; a house or building means a move; a flower points to a wedding; a cradle, a birth; and a coffin or burning candle, death. Those with flexible young bodies were urged to attempt this form of divination: after supper on Christmas Eve, go into a room, place a mirror against a door and, bending down, look at the mirror through their legs; in it will be revealed the future husband or wife.

A novelty tune written by Donald Yetter Gardner in 1946, it was a success in 1948 for Spike Jones and the City Slickers. The words were sung in a child’s voice by George Rock, one of the Slickers. Danny Kaye, the Andrews Sisters and Nat King Cole all recorded it and it was a Top Ten hit again in 1955 when it was sung by seven-year-old Barry Gordon.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, 

My two front teeth, see my two front teeth.

Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth,

Then I could wish you “Merry Christmas.”

It seems so long since I could say, 

“Sister Susie sitting on a thistle.

“Gosh, oh gee, how happy I’d be 

If I could only whistle.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,

My two front teeth, see my two front teeth

Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth,

Then I could wish you “Merry Christmas.”

Albert, (1819-61), prince consort to Queen Victoria and exemplar of a German-style Christmas in Britain.

Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel, prince of the Protestant German state Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was the chosen husband of the young Victoria, newly-crowned Queen of England. After their marriage in 1840 Albert was Victoria’s chief adviser and firm supporter. Though never popular with the English people while he was alive, his importing of German attitudes to Christmas did much to lend royal sanction to the holiday in Victorian England. The middle class was quick to adopt novelties such as the Christmas tree and to celebrate the season as they imagined the royal family did. The London News in 1848 ran an illustration of the royal tree with the following description:

The tree employed for this festive purpose is a young fir about eight feet high, and has six tiers of branches. On each tier, or branch, are arranged a dozen wax tapers. Pendent from the branches are elegant trays, baskets, bonbonières, and other receptacles for sweetmeats, of the most varied and expensive kind; and of all forms, colours, and degrees of beauty. Fancy cakes, gilt gingerbread and eggs filled with sweetmeats, are also suspended by variously­coloured ribbons from the branches. The tree, which stands upon a table covered with white damask, is supported at the root by piles of sweets of a larger kind, and by toys and dolls of all descriptions, suited to the youthful fancy, and to the several ages of the interesting scions of Royalty for whose gratification they are displayed. The name of each recipient is affixed to the doll, bonbon, or other present intended for it, so that no difference of opinion in the choice of dainties may arise to disturb the equanimity of the illustrious juveniles. On the summit of the tree stands the small figure of an angel, with outstretched wings, holding in each hand a wreath.

The magazine noted that Prince Albert and Victoria each had a personal tree which was decorated and hung with presents from the other spouse. In a letter he sent to his father Prince Albert described the effect of the tree on his own family: “This is the dear Christmas Eve, on which I have so often listened with impatience for your step, which was to usher us into the present-room.  Today I have to children of my own to give presents to, who, they know not why, are full of happy wonder at the German Christmas-tree and its radiant candles.”