Christmas Every Day

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.”

Altoona, Pennsylvania, and a growing number of communities in the Boston area celebrate Buzzlewitz Day on November 11. According to the Lowther tradition, Buzzlewitz is the elf that is sent by Santa to collect children’s Christmas lists. On 11 November of each year at 11 pm, children leave their Christmas lists and a snickerdoodle cookie on the mantle or in the kitchen. Buzzlewitz comes in the night to collect the lists. In return, he leaves a mint and an acorn.

(Take this with a grain of salt. I have only found this on one site and the rest of the internet does not seem to have heard of Buzzlewit Day. Pity.)

An American group founded in 1979 which sought to reform Christmas by eliminating much of its commercialism. Charles Langham of SCROOGE suggested spending a maximum of 1% of income on Christmas gifts. Its Four Principles are:

1. Try to avoid giving (and receiving extremely expensive gifts, particularly the heavily advertised fad/status symbol items that are often not very useful or practical.
2. Make every effort to use cash rather than credit cards to pay for the items that you do purchase.
3. Emphasize gifts that involve thought and originality, such as handicraft items that you make yourself.
4. Celebrate and enjoy the holidays but remember that a Merry Christmas is not for sale in any story for any amount of money.

From the Jesuit Relations

All our savages, but especially the Hurons, profess to have a special esteem for the all-endearing mystery of the birth of our lord Jesus Christ. I have seen some notable proofs of this given by these latter; they themselves entreated the father, long before the feast-day, to make arrangements so as to celebrate it in the most solemn manner possible. They sent their children to seek for what could be used in constructing a grotto, in which they were to make a representation of the mystery; and I took pleasure in hearing a little girl who, having brought with much care a beautiful sort of grass, said that she had done it in the thought and hope that the little infant Jesus might be laid upon that grass. Our good Christians made some more serious preparations, For they all confessed; and those to whom permission was given to receive Communion, did so very devoutly, at the midnight mass. The grotto, which was well fitted to inspire devotion, was Incessantly visited; and it rendered a very pleasing although rather protracted Service,—to draw from them the expression of their feelings as they themselves express them, when addressing the divine child. As a climax to their devotion, they asked that the infant Jesus should do them the favour of visiting them, by being carried through their village. But, as they thought that they had rendered themselves unworthy of this by some things that had taken place, they held grand Councils and took great precautions to obtain this favour from their missionary. The Matter was conceded to them, and carried out on the Day of the epiphany in a manner that seems to me worthy of being recorded. For my part, I was much touched by it.

They desired, then, in execution of their design, to imitate what in other ages had been done by the three great stranger Captains, who came to confess and adore Jesus Christ in the Manger, and afterward went to preach him in their own country. All the Hurons, Christians and non-Christians, divided themselves into three companies, according to the different nations that constitute their village; and, after choosing their Chiefs, one for each nation, they furnished them with porcelain, of which they were to make an offering to the infant Jesus. Every one adorned himself as handsomely as he could. The three Captains had each a scepter in his hand, to which was fastened the offering, and wore a gaudy head-dress in guise of a crown. Each company took up a different position. The signal for marching having been given them at the sound of the trumpet, they heeded the sound as that of a voice Inviting them to go to see and adore an infant God new-born. Just as the 1st company took up their march,—conducted by a star fastened to a large standard of the colour of sky-blue, and having at the rear (head) their Captain, before whom was carried his banner,—The 2nd company, seeing the first marching, demanded of them (aloud) the object of their journey; and on learning it, they Joined themselves to them, having in like manner their chief at their head with his banner. The third company, more advanced on the road, did as the second; and, one after another, they continued their march, and entered our Church, the star remaining at the entrance. The 3 chiefs, having first prostrated themselves, and laid their Crowns and sceptres at the feet of the infant Jesus in the Cradle, offered their Congratulations and presents to their saviour. As they did so, they made a public protestation of the submission and obedience that they desired to render him; solicited faith for those who possessed it not, and protection for all their nation and for all that land; and, in conclusion, entreated him to approve that they should bring him into their village, of which they desired he should be the master.

I was engaged in carrying the little statue of the divine infant, which inspired great devotion; I took it from the grotto, and from its cradle, and carried it on a fine linen cloth. Everyone seemed touched, and pressed forward in the crowd, to get a nearer view of the holy Child. Our Hurons left the church in the same order in which they had come. I came after them, carrying the little statue, preceded by two Frenchmen bearing a large standard, on which was represented the infant Jesus with his holy mother.

A parasitic shrub, Viscum album, mistletoe has a long history in folklore and legend. The Druids supposedly solemnly collected it around midwinter and it was deemed to have magical healing powers and be a token of peace. It is perhaps from this origin that the Christian use of it at Christmas proceeded. Like many evergreens it was used a church decoration (despite prejudice against it in some parts). At York Minster during the Middle Ages a branch of mistletoe was laid on the altar during the Twelve Days of Christmas and a public peace proclaimed in the city for as long as it remained there.

The custom of kissing under the mistletoe was long in developing. Some medieval English homes hung an effigy of the Holy Family inside a wooden hoop decorated with winter greenery under which it was customary to exchange an embrace or kiss. After the Reformation when the image of the Holy Family disappeared,  the kissing bunch or bough, a collection of greenery which often included mistletoe, remained as a Christmas custom. Kissing beneath it, or just a sprig of mistletoe, seems to have been a custom confined to the servant class until the nineteenth century when it was more generally adopted. In the Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens describes its use in the early nineteenth century:

From the centre of the ceiling of this kitchen, old Wardle had just suspended with his own hands a huge branch of mistletoe, and this same branch of mistletoe instantaneously gave rise to a scene of general and most delightful struggling and confusion; in the midst of which, Mr. Pickwick, with a gallantry that would have done honour to a descendant of Lady Tollimglower herself, took the old lady by the hand, led her beneath the mystic branch, and saluted her in all courtesy and decorum.

Each kiss necessitated the removal of a berry from the sprig and when all berries were gone the merriment ceased. The custom was for a long time confined to the English-speaking world though it has spread abroad in recent years. The only European tradition that appears similar is the Austrian New Year’s custom when the Sylvester figure is permitted a kiss under any sort of greenery.