Christmas Alternate History

So as it is Christmas, I think it's a good time to ask:

How early a POD can you have, and still have Christmas recognisable as it is?

At what point in time did Christmas become about gift giving?

Have fun answering!
 
The gift-giving is actually older than Christmas itself. Much of Christmas stems from Germanic traditions, where Yule was celebrated at the time of the winter solstice. Even the Christmas tree (an evergreen) can be associated with the Germanic World Tree and the notion that life still persists in the midst of winter.

Santa Claus? Derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas (itself a a Dutch folk name for Sint Nikolaas; 'Saint Nicholas'), who brought the tradition to America when New York was still Nieuw Amsterdam. But Sinterklaas is not justy based on a catholic saint: his representation owes much to Odin. That's where the gift-giving is believed to stem from: in Germanic culture, a great king showed his wealth by giving gifts. And Odin, greatest of all, king of the gods, could give gifts to all men.

There are more connections, too many to sum up, but my point is: erven without christianity ever existing, Germanic Yule could still exist in its place, and would share many of its characteristic elements. (Which is kind of awesome, when you think about it.) :)
 
Have Dickens either never writing the Christmas Carol or changing the ending so greed is seen as the way forward, so people grow up being greedy and cruel to their fellow men
 
In just about every sedentary culture where there is a winter, there is a festival in the middle of that winter to celebrate life.

That being said, modern Christmas as is known in the English-speaking world(predominant gift giving, the most important Christian holiday, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Christmas cards, tinsel, caroling*) became widespread in the Victorian era, so you'd need a pre- or early-Victorian POD to remove or lessen those aspects from the culture.


*All of these ideas and practices predate the Victorians considerably, but it was the Victorians who made them an integral part of Christmas as we know it.
 
In just about every sedentary culture where there is a winter, there is a festival in the middle of that winter to celebrate life.

That being said, modern Christmas as is known in the English-speaking world(predominant gift giving, the most important Christian holiday, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Christmas cards, tinsel, caroling*) became widespread in the Victorian era, so you'd need a pre- or early-Victorian POD to remove or lessen those aspects from the culture.


*All of these ideas and practices predate the Victorians considerably, but it was the Victorians who made them an integral part of Christmas as we know it.

The most common way to get a non-Britwank TL is Napoleon winning: in this case, the Catholic and Latin way of celebrating Christmas will
expand over the world instead of the Protestant and Germanic one.
 
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