Mr. Beat here from iammrbeat.com, and hold onto your butts, as I’m going to say
something that’s perhaps controversial. I love Christmas.
(awkward pause) Oh, you love Christmas, to?
Well perhaps THIS is more controversial to say. I love Christmas movies.
I’m not just talking about the classics. I even like the mediocre ones. Ya know,
like Christmas with the Kranks. Hey speaking of Christmas with the Kranks,
a big part of its plot is the fact that a couple wants to skip Christmas, and then their entire
community basically bullies them because they are not conforming. It’s actually kind of messed up.
Anyway, this got me thinking about just how popular Christmas is. Apparently
it’s really freaking popular.
According to my own research, almost half of the entire world celebrates Christmas in some
form or another. Now, the customs vary. Here in the United States, where 90% of us celebrate it,
we put a tree in our living room and put ornaments and lights on it. We put colorful lights all over
our houses and in our yards. We also exchange gifts after wrapping those gifts with pretty paper
and exchange Christmas cards. We put up wreaths, mistletoe, garland, holly, and nativity scenes-
more on what those nativity scenes are about a bit later. We listen to Christmas music.
I’ve made lots of Christmas music myself over the years, by the way. (You serious Clark?)
And then of course, there’s Santa Claus and all the folklore around that dude. Some of us even
go…Christmas caroling and go see…the Nutcracker. (sigh)
But around the world there are other Christmas traditions, some of which are horrifying.
In Austria, parents have historically told their kids that if they don’t behave,
a horned, hairy beast named Krampus will snatch them up at night and put them in a wicker basket.
In Catalonia, children feed a log every night and cover it with a blanket so it doesn’t get
cold with hope that will poop out presents for them on Christmas. In Iceland, they don't just
get Santa Claus the night before Christmas, they get a bunch of trolls visiting children
and leaving presents for kids in their shoes and rotting potatoes for the kids who misbehaved.
In most Latin American countries, the baby Jesus leaves the presents for kids. In Japan,
the few folks who celebrate Christmas there celebrate by getting a bucket of chicken from KFC.
Geez humans are weird. We’re weird, ok. Anyway, how did this Christmas holiday get
so popular anyway? Hey you know what? Somebody should make a video answering that question.
Squirrel: Mr. Beat, you’re in that video right now
I am? Well that explains the hat. (pointing) Ok then,
here is why and how Christmas became so popular.
There are a lot of Christians in the world. Like, a lot.
First of all, “Christmas” is shortened from “Christ’s mass.” Christ being Jesus Christ,
the central figure in the world’s largest religion, Christianity. And mass being the
main act of worship in the Roman Catholic Church, the largest and oldest Christian denomination.
However, the earliest Christians didn’t celebrate Christmas. It wasn’t until the 4th century that
Christian writers started talking about how there ought to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus
(aka the Nativity). But when? No one knew when Jesus was born, so they debated it for a while.
Soon, though, December 25th became the preferred date. Why? Mainly since it was nine months after
March 25th, the date of the spring equinox, which was a date that had been linked to the conception
of Jesus, interestingly. December 25th also was when the Romans marked the winter solstice,
or the darkest day of the year. After it, the sun stayed visible a little bit more each day.
But there’s even more to the story. Some early Christians connected Jesus to the Sun,
and wouldn’t you know it, there were pagans in the Roman Empire who already celebrated the birth of
Sol Invictus, or the sun god, on December 25th. Pagans, by the way,
were folks who simply held religious beliefs other than those of the biggest world religions. Anyway,
not only that, pagans also celebrated another holiday from December 17th to December 24th called
Saturnalia to honor the god Saturn, and many of the traditions of THIS holiday,
like gift-giving and having a big feast, were carried over to Christmas.
Dr. Andrew Henry has two wonderful videos about the origins of Christmas on his channel Religion
for Breakfast if you’d like to learn more about all this. He basically concludes there’s not
enough evidence to prove that Christians purposefully tried
to make Christmas the new and improved Sun God’s birthday.
Regardless, the first recorded Christmas celebration took place in Rome on December 25,
336. 14 years later, Pope Julius I recognized December 25th as the date to celebrate Jesus
Christ’s birthday, and in the years following the holiday began to spread throughout the Roman
Empire and beyond. By 432, Christmas had spread to Egypt. Up north in Scandinavia,
the Germanic peoples already had their own holiday season going on with the winter solstice,
and it merged with Christmas quite well. Later it became known as Yule.
You know, troll the ancient Yuletide carol? Fa la la la la la la la la
Anyway, after the Roman Empire fell but the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire,
kept on keeping on, Epiphany, or the Christian feast day that celebrates the Three Wise Men
or Three Kings visiting the baby Jesus, was a much bigger deal than Christmas.
It’s still widely celebrated today, by the way, traditionally on January 6th. Still,
they celebrated Christmas, too, and the celebrations were linked with a season known
later as the Twelve Days of Christmas since that’s how many days linked the two holidays.
After Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, which just so happened to be on Christmas
Day in 800, Christmas became a bigger deal, mainly since much of Western Europe had reunited. By
the Middle Ages, Christianity had become the dominant religion in the continent replacing
most pagan religions, and thus Christmas also became pretty widespread. During this time,
it was common for folks to celebrate with big feasts and lots of consumption of alcohol.
It was also when traditions like gathering ivy, holly, and other evergreens for decorations
and caroling became associated with Christmas. However, hardly any of the Christmas songs they
sang back then are remembered today. One song that goes back at least to the 1500s
that we still sing today, however, is “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen.”
The first recorded Christmas tree appeared in modern-day Eastern France in 1576.
By the 1500s, however, there was now a backlash
against Christmas. Talk about cancel culture and a War on Christmas.
True story. The Puritans wanted to cancel Christmas, not only since they believed
it brought out the worst in people with all the excessive drinking and partying,
but mainly since the Bible didn’t say it was ok to celebrate Christmas. In 1647,
the English Parliament even made it illegal to celebrate Christmas. But that didn’t last long.
As much as the Puritans fought Christmas during the 1600s, just
too many freaking people around the world enjoyed the holiday too much. It wasn’t going anywhere.
Flash forward to the 1800s, and Christmas is celebrated by the vast majority of Christians,
but because Christanity had spread all over the world by this time,
Christmas was bigger than ever before.
That said, it’s important to realize that, at that time, Christmas
was nowhere NEAR as huge as it is today. For example, let’s briefly look at Santa Claus.
Yeah, it wasn’t until the 1800s that people started talking about Santa Claus.
Oh don’t get me wrong, the origins of Santa Claus go back to a real, extraordinary person. A dude
named Nicholas, later known as SAINT Nicholas, who was famous for his generous gifts to the
unfortunate. Later kids across Europe would get gifts in their stockings hanging up by the fire,
or shoes to celebrate Saint Nicholas. In fact, the kids were told it WAS Saint Nicholas putting gifts
in their stockings or shoes. Later on, England borrowed the Saint Nicholas meme to come up with
their own personification of Christmas in the form of Father Christmas, a bigger, jollier version of
Saint Nicholas that also gave gifts. Later on, the Germans and Swiss had Kristkindl, which translates
to “Christ child,” who delivered presents to THEIR children. The Dutch and Belgians, meanwhile,
had Sinterklass, but what the silly Americans did was call their version of Father Christmas
“Santa Claus,” or “Kris Kringle,” and ultimately their version is the most
common one the world knows today, mostly due to American dominance in the world in the 1900s.
Literature is a big reason why Christmas is so popular (seriously)
There were three pieces of literature that greatly helped Christmas become as popular as it is today.
First was The Sketch Book, a collection of essays and short stories written by the American author
Washington Irving, first published in 1820. Irving wrote multiple stories about the meaning
of Christmas and its traditions, and it literally changed people's perceptions of Christmas, even
Puritans. In fact, thanks to his writings, people began to view Christmas as more family-oriented,
as a day of peace and nostalgia instead of the crazy, rowdy party-oriented holiday it had
been in previous centuries.Three years later, the second piece of literature was the poem,
A Visit From St. Nicholas, popularly known today as Twas the Night Before Christmas,
which helped popularize the tradition of not only Santa Claus but the whole idea of gift giving on
Christmas. As the poem grew in popularity, so did gift giving and the beginnings of the
commercialization of Christmas. In other words, more and more companies realized they could make
some good money at Christmastime. (Fred Claus clip) Not that far off, really. The third piece
of literature that popularized Christmas during the 1800s was A Christmas Carol, a novella by
Charles Dickens, first published in 1843. That’s the one about Ebenezer Scrooge. (bah humbug).
Dickens actually was partially influenced to write
the story based on the revival going on in Britain of old Christmas traditions,
and it was a smash hit. I’d argue that it remains one of the most influential stories of all time
and is even a big reason why people first started saying “Merry Christmas.” The same year
A Christmas Carol came out, Sir Henry Cole began producing the first commercial Christmas card.
4 years later, the candy cane, which later sold well around Christmas, was invented.
For the rest of the 1800s, Christmas became more and more elaborate and harder to avoid.
It became more secular, meaning not just Christians celebrated it. And it became a big
industry, as more and more consumers were swayed to spend their hard earned
money on gifts, decorations, and events during the Christmas season.
Christmas fuels nostalgia and makes a lot of money
You might be surprised to learn that it wasn’t until at least the 1900s that many of the
Christmas traditions and icons we celebrate today entered the zeitgeist. That’s when most of the
Christmas songs we listen to became a thing. That’s when Christmas movies became a thing.
Santa being in a red suit? Not invented, but popularized by a Coca-Cola ad campaign in 1931.
Also in 1931? The first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Eight years later, Robert Lewis
May published a poem to help get more customers in the Montgomery Ward department store. That poem?
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Ten years later, Johnny Marks turned it into a song.
15 years after that, NBC turned it into a stop motion animated television special.
In the following decades, many more Christmas stop motion animated TV specials followed. Oh,
and Marks wrote a bunch of other Christmas songs that are still popular today.
By the end of the 1900s, the Christmas season was the
peak selling season for retailers in most countries around the world.
Around the world? Oh yeah, also by this time,
it had gone global. Christmas was inescapable almost everywhere you went.
Also by the end of the 1900s? Christmas Day became the least active day of the year for business and
commerce. The one day where if you want to go to ANY place of business and it’s probably closed.
In recent years, two main things have really driven the influence of Christmas. Commercialism
and nostalgia. Regarding commercialism, Christmas being profitable continues to make it a bigger
deal each year. Regarding nostalgia, often what people love about Christmas are the
fond family memories they have from when they grew up and they’re like “let’s do that again.”
Christmas is a time when our old relationships are often renewed, and shared memories in these
old relationships, including memories of Christmas pop culture, help fuel that.
And because of that, today Christmas is the second most popular holiday in the world.
Only New Year’s Day is more popular. (Fred Claus clip the whole Christmas thing catching on)
And each year, Christmas becomes even more popular, even in places like China, where the
Chinese government isn’t too thrilled about it. In other words, Santa Claus is coming to town, and we
apparently have no way of stopping him. And Krampus, too. You’d better lock your doors.
This video is sponsored in part by History Hit, a wonderful streaming service I recently found out
about. Remember when the History Channel used to show…um…HISTORY content? Well, History Hit is like
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network also includes The Ancients, Warfare, Gone Medieval, and Not Just the Tudors. I’ve been
especially digging their video content, though. In particular, their documentary called The Christmas
Truce, about the incredible true story of the spontaneous ceasefires along the Western Front
during World War One and the Christmas of 1914 in which German and British soldiers
hung out in no man’s land and just talked and even exchanged gifts. Go to the link in the description
of this video to save 50% off of your next three months when you use the code MRBEAT at checkout.
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happy holidays to you whatever holiday you celebrate hopefully you celebrate at least one
holiday because holidays are fun i know i'm biased because i'm one of those holiday celebrators