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--- Supplemental: Christmas Traditions in Europe and America ---

Excerpts from A Happy Christmas To All: Origins of Christmas Traditions, by Loretta Cole, published by Kennedy Press House, Boston, Massachusetts, in 2007.

Today’s most recognizable symbol of the Christmas holiday is arguably the Christmas tree. Today, these highly decorated trees, covered with ornaments of all shapes and sizes and electric lights of many different colors and sizes, can be found all over the world during the yuletide season. However, just a century and a half ago this was not the case. These trees were first only popular in Prussia, Bavaria, and other German and Scandinavian nations, and first appeared in North America with the arrival of immigrants from these countries. By the mid-1800s, they were fairly common in Texas and in parts of the United States where Germans had settled. They would remain largely a foreign curiosity, however, until the Christmas of 1863. It was the first Christmas after the War Between the States. Hugo Brandt was still serving as Acting President. Brandt, who’s parents had immigrated to the United States just prior to his birth in 1812, had always had a Christmas tree in their family home in Ohio, and Brandt had continued that tradition himself. That year, in celebration of the end of the civil war, the President ordered a large Christmas tree be erected in President’s Square in front of Washington House. This quickly became a national curiosity, and the following year, when Brandt again had a tree put up, communities across the country did the same, as did individual families. By the time Brandt left office in 1871, the Christmas tree had been entrenched as a national tradition.

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German influence on Christmas doesn’t end with the Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve, children all across North America eagerly await the arrival of St. Nicholas on his magic airship, laden with toys for good children, while bad children receive only sticks. The St. Nicholas figure had been around for some time as a Christmas gift giver, most popularly with German communities in Europe, which then spread to North America. After the War Between the States, the Germanic “St. Nicholas” and the English “Father Christmas,” began to merge, so that by 1900, the Germanic name stayed but the figure itself was now more in line with the jolly, elderly, and bearded figure from the English folklore, dressed in green robes and bringing gifts on Christmas eve. This concept of St. Nicholas was first clearly articulated in the 1880 poem “The Flight of St. Nicholas,” written by American author Anthony Perry. In the poem, St. Nicholas flies all through the world on Christmas Eve in a magical hot air balloon delivering gifts. In the 1910s and 1920s, during the height of the airship boom, a clever song written by Borealian Axel Brock called “St. Nick on a Zep” altered the classic story from the Christmas figure flying a hot air balloon to him flying a rigid airship. This song’s use in the 1933 film “Christmas in Manhattan,” helped solidify this change.

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The tradition of a presidential Christmas address began in 1909, when President Cornelius Roosevelt II gave a short Christmas radio broadcast on December 24th of that year, which went out live on FR01 in Franklin. Every subsequent year during his presidency, Roosevelt gave a Christmas message to the American people. His repeated use of “Happy Christmas” is believed to have solidified that greeting as the more common seasonal phrase in the United States, whereas “Merry Christmas” tends to be more common in Borealia, Texas, and California. When Patrick Hannah took office in 1913, he continued the Christmas messages on Christmas Eve, and by the 1920s millions tuned in to hear the yuletide greetings from Washington House.

In 1947, President Henry Freeman changed things up a little, having his Christmas message simulcast on radio and telecinema, life from the presidential study in Washington House. This proved immensely popular, and was repeated by Freeman in 1948 and 1949. President James Nolan continued the tradition of Christmas telecinema broadcast until 1953. That year, Nolan left a unique mark on the Christmas broadcast: First Lady Kathy Nolan gave a special Christmas Eve address to children from the family hall in Washington House, reading the biblical Christmas story while sitting in front of the presidential Christmas tree. Following the story, President Nolan came out dressed as St. Nicholas to give the “first gift of Christmas.” On Christmas day itself, President Nolan gave the usual presidential Christmas address from the official study. These dual broadcasts were a huge success, and Nolan would continue the tradition in 1954, and would be picked up by President Priest in 1955, and it has continued ever since.

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The revival of celebrating the Winter Solstice was started in the Union of European Republics in 1914 under the rule of Mathias Holtz. The infamous communalist leader wanted to purge religion from the UER, and part of that was stopping religious celebrations and observances. But the UER leadership knew that ending a popular celebration in the winter time would be asking too much, so they revived the celebration of the solstice as a secular holiday in 1915. Yule logs replaced Christmas trees in public, though “solstice trees” remained common in the German-speaking regions of the UER. This tradition gained popularity, and so survived the 1926 military coup that ended the Holtzian era in the UER. Even though the ban on religious holidays was lifted in 1926, the state itself remained official atheistic, so the Solstice celebration continued, though the use of “solstice trees” spread across the country. And although officially children in the UER believe that “Father Winter” brings gifts on the night of the Winter Solstice, this figure has increasingly become almost identical to the American St. Nicholas.