Christmas has always had two powerful forces contending with it: the religious celebration of the Nativity of Jesus and the festivities of midwinter. At times one or the other has been dominant. In the late-18th and early-19th centuries in the English-speaking world, the religious aspect had been neglected – many Protestant denominations refused to mark Christmas at all. The emphasis was on hospitality, consumption of alcohol and food, and social gatherings.
The image above is from an 1847 London Illustrated News. The central figure is that of bearded Old Christmas, wreathed in holly, and holding a tankard of strong drink. Though the caption reads “Heaven bless merry gentlefolks, let nothing you dismay”, there is nothing to suggest Christmas has anything to do with the divine. The rest of the illustration is full of alcohol, dancing, blind man’s buff, and banqueting. The season had yet to be fully reformed by Charles Dickens, Santa Claus, and the Oxford Movement.