Christmas traditions in America
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from December 1988.
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Christmas trees, originally a German custom, adopted by the English in the mid-19th century, dot the Yuletide landscape even in warmer climes where their wintry association seems somewhat out of place.
Creches, orginating in Italy, are found under innumerable trees during the holiday season, their cribs remaining empty till midnight on Christmas Eve, the start of Christmas Day.
In the days before Christmas, children, particularly, love opening the doors on Advent calendars - a custom originating in Scandinavia.
Christmas cards were a British invention and Santa Claus himself, under his original name Saint Nicholas, hails from the Netherlands as do the stockings (originally wooden shoes) he fills.
Even Christmas seals, associated with the American Lung Association for decades, originated elsewhere when a Danish postmaster came up with the concept of selling decorative seals to aid charity in the early 20th century. The poinsettia comes from a Mexico in the story of a miracle when the first poinsettia suddenly grew at the feet of a child, praying in his village church, who had no money to buy a gift for Jesus.
Carols have been adopted from many lands as have Yuletide cookies. There are, however, many traditions which are uniquely American. Sidewalk Santas filling their kettles with donations for the needy, are an expressions of the American desire to share at holiday time, not only with family and friends, but with strangers. Their efforts date back to turn-of-the-century San Francisco where the Salvation Army set up its first kettles (used for soup during the rest of the year) to aid the survivors of a shipwreck.
On a lighter note, the location of Santa's home in the far reaches of the North Pole is an American invention which first saw light in the drawings of Thomas Nast whose 19th century illustrations are still familiar today. In the U.S. Southwest, pinatas (a custom imported from Mexico) are broken open by children swinging at them, blindfolded, with a stick until they break open and a shower of little gifts come down.
Also popular in the Southwest are luminarias, votive candles bedded in sand and placed in paper bags, which light up the area outside a home, providing a warm and festive welcome for visitors.
New York's Christmas season is an array of urban delights - from the towering tree in Rockefeller Center, decorated differently each year, to the animated windows on Fifth Avenue department stores whose glittering dioramas draw continuous crowds; to the annual performance of the "Nutcracker Suite" whose "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" is a favourite of children of all ages.
And, of course, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade starts it all off, as a large Santa balloon promises weeks of merriment (and Christmas sales) to come.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, like its namesake in the Holy Land, is a centre of Christmas activity. Each year, the city, which was founded on Christmas Eve in 1741 by a group of Moravians, erects a giant lighted star on a mountain overlooking the city and sets up an enormous Dutch version of the creche, renowned for its elaborate recreation of the winter landscape.
The emotional high point of the celebrations in Bethlehem is certainly the Christmas Eve Vigil, a service which takes musical form.
Elaborately orchestrated and painstakingly arranged, the Vigil is held in a church lit by thousands of bees-wax candles. At the end of the service, the sacristans pass out lit candles to every person in the church as the choir sings.
In Tarpon Springs, Florida, a different sort of ceremony takes place at Christmastime. On January 6th, Epiphany, the city's Greek-American population - many of whom are members of the sponge-fishing fleet - participates in the Blessing of the Waters, an event which celebrates Christ's baptism in the River Jordan.
In a short ceremony, accompanied by a religious chant, an archbishop launches a golden wooden cross into the bayou, at the same time as a white dove is set free.
The cross, subsequently, is recovered by a group of young men for whom it is a significant honour to be chosen as divers. The diver who successfully locates the cross is blessed when he emerges from the water and it is believed that he and his family will enjoy good fortune in the coming year. The ceremony is drawn from the traditional act of plunging a silver cross into the the waters of the Aegean but it is an excellent example of how traditions from other lands become imbedded in the United States, changing as they do so. In Washington, D.C., there is a Christmas tree representing the entire country, surrounded by 50 other smaller trees, representing all the States and decorated appropriately.
