Celebrate Christmas by learning about the fascinating and often unknown roots of many of our most beloved traditions.
The Surprising Origins of Christmas Traditions
During Christmas, we hang socks, decorate dead trees, and leave snacks for home intruders. Get a good look at the history and context for all this weirdness of the season.
Overview
About
Patrick N. Allitt is Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University, where he has taught since 1988. He received his PhD in American History from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Divinity School and Princeton University. He is a widely published author whose books include A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism; The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities throughout American History; and Religion in America since 1945: A History.
01: Christmas in Victorian Britain
Many of the elements of Christmas that we take for granted today were not associated with the holiday until the Victorian era. For example: gift giving, trees, singing carols, Christmas dinner, and sending Christmas cards all came from Victorian Britain. This period also brought some unusual practices that we no longer partake in, such as a (surprisingly often violent) game school children would play, in which they would lock their teachers outside. Dive into the traditions we kept and those that fell to the wayside over the years.
25 min
02: Christmas in Victorian America
If some of the Christmas traditions during the Victorian period seem unusual, then shift your attention to early America. From noisy, rancorous, and dangerous parades held in Philadelphia and New York to a tradition that involved cracking whips at children while they tried to collect candy and nuts, Christmas practices in America have undergone several evolutions. Uncover some of the most unusual traditions and learn how retail holiday windows, Christmas bonuses, and a jolly, friendly version of Santa Claus all grew from the American melting pot.
28 min
