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by Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
nd then there were the gifts.
What would Christmas be
without the excited
expectations of children,
"the tissue and tinsel that
hide the treasures away from prying
eyes until the holiday, or all the glitter
and glitz that surround the Christ
Child and all that we have encom-
passed under the holy banner like the
Christmas tree, the filled stockings
and the burgeoning pantry? Our
children have come to strongly
associate the Christmas season with
great largesse, and much bitterness if
not all their dreams are fulfilled.
The giving of gifts at Christmas
has become an integral part of the
Christian holiday. The whole concept
of giving gifts is not a modern ritual
but the great debt that is incurred on
behalf of the season was created in our
century. Like so many other aspects
of our modern Christmas celebration,
the idea of gift giving was part of the
Romans' winter solstice activities
before the time of Jesus. As part of
Roman Saturnalia feasts in December,
wealthy men were obliged to share
their wealth with the poor, and give
gifts of laurel and bay leaf garlands as
well as alms to their poorer neigh-
bours. The circle of greens or wreaths
were powerful symbols that would
link the maker and the wearer to
everlasting life.
The custom of exchanging gifts is
popularly linked with the visit of the
three wise men bearing gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh to the Baby
Jesus. The North American version of
gift giving stems more from the gener-
osity of Santa, St. Nicholas, or the
European idea that gifts are brought
by the Baby Jesus to celebrate his
birthday. Gift giving used to be of a
symbolic nature with honey, fruits and
lamps among the popular choices.
The extravagance of gift giving has
been created in recent memory.
What do we want to convey when
we give a gift? Gift giving as an inti-
mate ritual where it is better to give
32 THE RURAL VOICE
than receive is a popular axiom. Dur-
ing the time when gifts were more
simple in nature and handmade, the
act of giving was the key to the ritual
not the gift itself. With increased
commercialism and the decrease in
time, consumers had to create their
own gifts, manufacturers came up
with a great idea to keep the personal
touch in the Christmas season. To
disguise the symbolic loss of intimacy,
shoppers were encouraged to wrap
their gifts in tissue, tinsel, and ribbons
to keep that personal moment intact,
and not make it seem like the commer-
cial exchange it was becoming.
Dear Santa
Santa Claus was certainly used to
promote and escalate the commercial
side of Christmas. Our favourite
image of the wise old elf was created
by political cartoonist Thomas Nast in
the late 1800s. Nast was born in 1840
in the military barracks in Landau in
the Palatinate, Germany. His family
emigrated to America in 1846. Nast's
formal education did not go beyond
six years, but his talent for drawing
landed him a job with Leslie's Illus-
trated, one of the most popular journ-
als of the time in New York. Nast
later worked for Harper's Weekly and
traveled through Europe free-lancing
as a political cartoonist. In 1890 he
compiled his best Christmas drawings
and added some new ones, which
Harper's published.
Prior to this, St. Nicholas was por-
trayed as a bishop -like figure model-
led after the bishop of Myra, St.
Nicholas, a principal saint of the East-
ern Church. This bishop sported a
long white beard, and was well loved
for his generosity. He supposedly left
good children presents on his feast day
December 6. One popular tale has St.
Nick providing dowries for the three
daughters of a poor nobleman. Bags
of money were dropped down the
chimney, and one happened to fall into
a stocking hung by the fire to dry,
hence our custom of hanging
stockings.
Changes in religion saw St. Nich-
DECEMBER 1991 33