Page 4 - HSLChristmasAnthology

HSL Christmas Anthology Page 4

this celebration, on the plea, that we have not conclusive proof
respecting the day on which our Savior was born, our answer is, the
objection on the point before us has no force. Christ the Savior was
born into our world; whether we celebrate his appearance on the
precise day of his birth, or on some other, to a religious purpose is a
circumstance of no importance. The Christian community in general
entertain the same opinion respecting the time; if the event be
publicly noticed, it is convenient, and therefore desirable….

Rev. Bancroft stands out as one of the most eloquent of the church
based Christmas keepers, but he was not the earliest. That honor
lay with the Universalist community of Boston, which hosted the
first public religious observance of Christmas in the new world
(outside of an Episcopal or Catholic mass). Indeed, the
Universalists would prove the most energetic of all the Christmas
evangelizers (below find the newspaper review of 1789 Christmas
services in the Boston area).

Part Two: Christmas Moves Indoors

So how did Christmas finally earn the
approval of god-fearing church goers?
Having realized that the attempts to simply
ban Christmas had been ineffectual, they
tried instead to reinvent Christmas as a
religious celebration, imposing moderation
by relocating it from the streets to the
meetinghouse. Interest in the religious

observances of Christmas on December 25
itself was short lived. Even to this day, most
American Protestant churches are
predictably closed tight on Christmas
(sometimes even when Christmas falls on
Sunday). But the groundworks for change
were already laid, and the next wave of the
campaign to domesticate Christmas proved successful. By the turn
of the 19 century, Christmas was about family and children, all
th