Free The Everything Family Christmas Book by Yvonne Jeffrey Page B

is—among the most generous on record.
The holiday bonus has a cousin, the Christmas tip, extended to letter carriers, newspaper deliverers, apartment-complex employees, and other workers. Both are outgrowths of the English tradition of giving to the needy on Boxing Day.
The custom of giving employees the day off for Christmas was apparently not observed in the United States until about 1875. Up until that time, nearly all workers were expected to report as usual—unless the holiday fell on a Sunday, of course. (No matter the time of year, merchants were forbidden to sell their wares on the Sabbath, although some were arrested for trying to do so during the holiday season.) Store clerks of the era were paid by the day, and worked thousands of unpaid overtime hours during the holiday rush each year. Woolworth’s later generosity toward his workers was the culmination of a long series of concessions by the owners of retail establishments to harried store workers.

5

Gift Giving

T he giving and receiving of gifts has become one of the central themes of the modern American Christmas. Indeed, a strong holiday selling season often means the difference between a good and a bad year for retailers. There was, however—not so long ago—a time when Christmas involved no gift exchange whatever, and in some countries that remains the case. The union of Christmas and gift giving was a gradual one, and, in fact, the full story of the bright packages beneath the tree begins in the days before the birth of Christ.
Gifts and Celebrations, Old and New
In ancient Rome, gifts were exchanged during the Saturnalia and New Year’s celebrations. At first these gifts were very simple—a few twigs from a sacred grove, statues of gods, food, and the like. Many gifts were in the form of vegetation in honor of the fertility goddess Strenia. During the Northern European Yule, fertility was celebrated with gifts made from wheat products, such as bread and alcohol. As time went on, gifts became more elaborate and less edible.

Like many old customs, gift exchange was difficult to get rid of, even as Christianity spread and gained official status. Early church leaders tried to outlaw it, but the people cherished it too much to let it go. So instead, as with other customs, church leaders sought a Christian justification for the practice. They found it in the Magi’s act of bearing gifts to the infant Jesus, and in the concept that Christ was a gift from God to the world, bringing in turn the gift of redemption and everlasting life.

While most giving was done on a voluntary basis, some leaders did their best to ensure a plentiful season for themselves. One year, Emperor Caligula of Rome declared that he would be receiving presents on New Year’s Day; he then ridiculed gifts he deemed inadequate or inappropriate. And Henry III closed down the merchants of England one December because he was not impressed with the amount of their monetary gifts.
After Christianity had established itself throughout Europe, Christmas celebrations were quite common; gift giving as a component of Christmas Day, however, was not. The concept of a gift exchange on the holiday itself remained more the exception than the rule, and much of the gift giving at that time was confined to New Year’s, as in the days of the ancient Romans. Some countries, particularly those under Spanish cultural influence, saved gift giving for Epiphany (January 6), the day marking the visit of the Magi to Jesus.
England Leads the Way
Even though the roots of the Christmas present extend to ancient times, the gift-giving tradition of today owes perhaps the most to Victorian England. The Victorians, who brought a renewed warmth and spirit to Christmas after it had experienced a long period of decline, made the idea of family (and particularly children) an integral part of the celebration. Also important to them was the act of helping the less fortunate in society. Friendliness and charity filled