Best of The History Guy: Christmas History

foreign [Music] diet since pre-history there's evidence that the Almond was one of the first fruit trees to be cultivated in the Middle East and that they might have been cultivated as far back as four or five thousand years ago and forging for wild nuts even goes back farther than that there's evidence of nut shells and the stones used to crack those shells in an archaeological site in Israel that dates back some 780 000 years and it's those tools that we use to crack nuts that finally gave rise to the holiday Nutcracker a sort of combination holiday decoration toy and Tool all in one and this uh these now are widely available throughout the world made by the millions and well for example this one's made in China but it started out really as a piece of German folk art a tradition in the mountains of Germany and the history the surprising history of the humble Nutcracker deserves to be remembered the oldest known metal nutcrackers about 2400 years old is currently displayed at a museum in Toronto Italy it's made of bronze and shaped into two hands with curving bracelets besides the decoration many ancient nutcrackers look similar to our modern player-like hinged lever nutcrackers with teeth hold the nuts while the user cracks them with one hand their list documentation of Nutcrackers in England dates to the 14th century Canterbury Tales and a set were reportedly given to Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII these early nutcrackers were made of bronze cast iron boxwood and as in the lofty Halls of the Victorian England wealthy of silver more rarely they were made of porcelain across the world many of these early nutcrackers were decorated or designed to resemble animals cracking the nuts in their mouths the decorative wooden nutcrackers that have become emblematic of Christmas Trace their roots to Germany especially in thuringia and the ore mountains and which is now born in chechia since at least the 15th century Artisans all over Europe have been carving decorative wooden nutcrackers as figures in the shapes of animals and people but it was these rural Germans who'd create the now familiar decorative Soldier the exact invention of the now iconic German decorative Nutcracker however is unknown an enduring German folk tale tells the story of a farmer who had grown tired of working so much to crack his nuts that he offered a reward to anyone who could have been a better Nutcracker then a puppeteer arrived from the village of zephan carrying with him a colorful wooden puppet with jaws that were powerful enough to crack the nuts in an instant farmer was pleased and the entire Village received an award for his good work while the folk tale is not probably actual history it provides an excellent origin story to what was a very real cottage industry in the region centered in small villages like zephan in the ore mountains and nearby sonenberg in thuringia many of the people were miners earning their money digging up mainly silver in the 17th century mining interest in the area slowed and the people took up the next best thing carpentry using the wood from their heavily Forest Homeland they were especially known for their toy making as well as for making cribs one possible explanation for the eventual association with Christmas is that it was in the winter that Carpenters were left to work only in their workshops and that's when they would produce most of their toys they sent these Goods along Salt Street the trade route that brought salt from Leipzig to Prague in 1735 toymakers in zonenberg mentioned nut biters that cracked nuts using leverage nutcrackers from The Ore mountains were offered at Christmas Market in Dresden in 1745. the design of the Nutcracker in the form of soldiers Kings and policemen with their large wide set eyes and permanent Grimace may have been a subtle dig at the off-changing Imperial and otherwise rulers of these regions the wooden figures caricatures of people's most common problems when Napoleon occupied the region the locals even began fashioning their nutcrackers in his likeness but the painstakingly painted tools were not just cheap wooden blocks but carefully designed pieces of art the best handcrafted nutcrackers from The Ore mountains are made up of as many as 60 pieces with as many as 130 steps involved in their production by 1800 The Familiar nutcrackers were a common site in the region and other colorfully painted versions were being sold as souvenirs to Travelers the locals such as the zephan centered Steinbach family were selling them too as good luck charms bearing their teeth as Fierce figurines but to ward off evil spirits in their dictionary the brothers Grim defined nuts crackers as a misshapen little man and whose mouth the nut by means of a lever or screw is cracked open but there was a limit to how many nutcrackers Artisans could actually sell to their neighbors as many households had only one of them this and changing Economic Times pushed German traders to seek foreign markets some of the colorful toys abroad especially in Poland Russia and Norway this coincided with a change in the celebration of Christmas in 1816 the ruling appsbergs for the first time had a Christmas tree and with the tree in the growing middle class following the period after the Napoleonic Wars came a tradition of a quiet Pious celebration of Christmas came to Central Europe largely from northern Germany and brought with it a custom of gathering around the tree with gifts especially for the children this period also allowed a much larger population to enjoy art and acquire Artisan Wares like the carefully built Nutcracker dolls in 1872 Wilhelm Frederick fukner today remembered as the father of the Nutcracker started using Spruce Wood for the dolls became the first person to start using the river near zephan to power his lathe so that he could begin Mass producing the toys he based his design on the image of the Nutcracker found on the picture book by Heinrich Hoffman King Nutcracker and poor Reinhold the toys were popular at that point recently but were not yet a global phenomenon but this is the first step of turning the toys from pieces of folk art to the symbol of Christmas that it is today The Nutcracker began its Journey as a cultural icon with ETA Hoffman a German author of fantasy and Gothic horror who wrote The Nutcracker and the mouse King in the book young Maurice stallbaum's favorite Christmas toy Nutcracker doll comes to life he defeats the mouse King and then takes Marie to a world populated by dolls the story was retold in 1844 by Alexander Dumas the famous writer of the Three Musketeers in The Count of Monte Cristo plot was nearly identical to Hoffman's original work but was edited specifically to make it more friendly to children and was titled Only The Nutcracker in 1890 the Sleeping Beauty ballet was performed at the marinsky theater in St Petersburg written by Ivan zivolovski and Marius petipa patipa choreographed the ballet and Peter Tchaikovsky composed the music the success of the ballet inspired geovslowsky to make another ballet based on a children's story he chose the Nutcracker and the mouse King his Hoffman's work was widely popular in Russia at the time he wrote an adaptation based more on dumas's later version emitting much of the original Hoffman story but teepa would again choreograph though ill health meant that his assistant Valley Master Lev Ivanov completed the work Tchaikovsky had to be pressured into doing the scores he did not like the adaptation still he agreed making the Nutcracker his third and final ballet before he died in 1893. bativa gave very specific instructions to Tchaikovsky about certain parts of the music he wanted a crescendo of 48 bars while the Christmas tree on stage Rose for the music for The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy to sound like water splashing in a fountain the ballet is also known for its use of the Celeste especially as the solo instrument in the Sugar Plum Fairies dance Tchaikovsky played a selection of eight pieces on March 19 1892 for the Saint Petersburg branch of the musical Society it was an instant hit the ballet was premiered at the marinsky theater on December 18 1892 double build with Tchaikovsky's one act Opera yolanta the ballet was performed 11 times before closing a month later the critical reception of the ballet was mixed with some serious criticisms one of the complaints was the choice to have the belly's children played by actual children when critics said the ballet was made by children four children another said the children were in large amounts unbearable some enjoyed the play including Czar Alexander III who called Tchaikovsky to the Royal box on opening night to congratulate Tchaikovsky on his core they called the score astonishing rich in detailed inspiration although some found other parts ponderous particularly critical reviews said it could not claim to be a ballet at all and that it was tedious an insult and unsuitable for dancing it was a shame once had that so much good music is expended on such nonsense by any measure the premiere had not been a success but following the revolution of 1917 Russian dancers lost their jobs and spread across Europe with knowledge of the choreography it was played in Parts across Europe but not in its complete form until 1934. Disney used pieces of The Nutcracker Suite in its 1940 production Fantasia the valley was first played in the United States in 1944 in San Francisco by William Christensen the grandfather of American Ballet it did not start becoming Popular until George balanchine's production in 1954 in New York a person whose choreography has been used often since Valentine born in 1904 had been part of the rinsky group in St Petersburg before the Revolution as the ballet grew popular in the United States American GI stationed in West Germany after World War II began to send or bring home nutcrackers found at Christmas markets The Ore mountains were in East Germany but found a willing Market in soldiers in West Germany West German manufacturers focused on making new versions of The Nutcrackers to the growing population of collectors in the United States family companies like the famous Steinbach company began producing limited edition series the first of which was King Ludwig II with only 3 000 made Valentine himself played drosselmeyer in the first televised version for the play by CBS in 1957. the ballet only became more popular with dance companies all over the country putting together their own choreography or using others around Christmas time meanwhile the demand for nutcrackers outpaced German Artisans ability to meet it now many thousands of them are made much cheaper in places like China or Thailand decorating American trees and mantles perhaps ironically today the wide availability of unshelled nuts means that very few modern nutcrackers are capable of performing their ancient job today nutcrackers are made with colorful capes and hats and representing all manner of popular culture and celebrities all part of the eight billion dollars a year that Americans spend on Christmas decorations whether those are antique or Artisan or just picked up at Target in America Leavenworth Washington a town that decorates itself as a Bavarian Village each winter houses the Levenworth Nutcracker Museum which has more than 4 000 examples including Ivory ones and Brass ones but of course thousands of the colorful painted ones many ballet companies stage The Nutcracker Suite each year and it's become a part of many families holiday tradition represents some 40 percent of ticket sales from any ballet companies in the United States what started as a folk art tradition of the orb mountains of Germany to make colorful toys that could crack nuts has now become an enduring symbol of holiday spirit [Music] uh the history guy has fans all over the world and we know that our viewers celebrated a number of different holiday traditions but we can assume that many of you will be putting up a Christmas tree this season depending upon the survey somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of American households will put up a Christmas tree during the Christmas season and that is a tradition that is practiced in many varieties all over the world but the history of the Christmas tree is really quite interesting being both surprisingly ancient and in other ways shockingly new and including many Innovations one involving a toilet brush the history of the Christmas tree deserves to be remembered Traditions involving Evergreen plants in mid-winter as ancient as civilization the winter solstice the point where one of the year's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun occurs in December in the northern hemisphere very close to Christmas usually December 20th or 21st the solstice represents the longest night and the shortest day of the year and days thereafter will grow longer until the summer solstice many ancient religions have the significance to them winter came because the Sun God had grown ill or weak and the solstice was a cause for celebration is it represented the day when the sun god began to recover Evergreen plants were used because they represented the Triumph of Life over death in ancient Egypt on the solstice people decorated their homes with green Palm prongs in a celebration of Wrath the god of the sun ancient Romans celebrated saturnalia raucus Festival in honor of Saturn the god of wealth and agriculture in mid-December and the Festival of gift-giving and libation included decorating the home with Evergreen boughs Celtic Druids in ancient Britain decorated evergreen trees at the onset of winter to ensure a fruitful coming year Germanic peoples venerated sacred trees and Oaks and Associated the evergreen tree were the God balder who was associated with the Sun in ancient Germanic and Scandinavian Traditions trees were seen as a protection from the wild Hunt a chaotic time when the mythical figure led a hunt of souls that could spell Doom in Scandinavian folklore the hunt was led by the God woden and occurred during the midwinter festival called Yule whose Traditions affected many later Christmas traditions but it's not clear how if at all these pre-christian Traditions affected the modern tradition of Christmas trees a more likely predecessor is Mystery plays plays that depicted biblical stories that were the origin of passion plays mystery Place started to be introduced into sacred services in Europe around the 5th Century the place would be associated with dates and in many countries the liturgical calendar celebrated Saints Adam and Eve on December 24th the mystery plays on Christmas Eve therefore often featured the so-called tree of knowledge of Good and Evil also called The Tree of Life from which eve took the Apple given to Adam the tree was decorated with red apples and white Wafers the decoration of a Christmas bow by the Catholic religious order of cistercians noted in a 15th century reference to an evergreen bow decorated with red oranges and candles is seen by some as the earliest reference to a Christmas tree but the tradition of Christmas trees might actually not be related to pre-christian Pagan Traditions or even to Christian mystery plays according to a December 18 2020 edition of National Geographic the cities of Riga Latvia and Talon Estonia have an ongoing argument over which city was the first to host a real Christmas tree and that debate has to do with a mysterious medieval order called the Brotherhood of the blackheads established what was then called Livonia in the mid 13th century the Brotherhood was an association of local unmarried Merchants ship owners and foreigners originally created helped fight an indigenous Uprising against Christianity called the Saint George's night Uprising in 1543 while the order had a military history in chivalric Tradition it was largely an association of merchants And Trades people in the middle 15th century they apparently took up the practice of raising and decorating a real or ursatz tree with fruits and nuts in their Guild Hall they would then haul the tree to the middle of town dance around it and set fire to it Latvia claims the first such event occurred in Riga in 1510 and Estonia claims the first was in Talon in 1444 but the evidence is sketchy to support either claim while the debate is seen to affect tourism travel for Christmas celebration the odd thing is that these supposed first Christmas trees might not have had anything to do with Christmas as a historian for the National Library of Latvia quoted in the New York Times in 2016 notice that these events were likely rooted in rituals and traditions unique to the blackheads when by annual celebration served as a means of inducting new members thus the Christmas Tree tradition might actually have been secular the first firmly dated representation of a Christmas tree is in 1576 in alsas which is today part of France but it's on the border with Germany and holds many German Traditions the Christmas Market in The Alsatian city of Strasbourg is among the oldest in Europe dating as far back as 1570 and at least in modern times is famous for its Christmas tree the practice of decorating a tree in the home as we know today is generally seen as having evolved in Germany in the 16th century the tradition may have been associated with protestantism as the trees and the homes might have been a Protestant response to the Catholic tradition of Christmas cribs or nativity scenes most directly the story of decorating a Christmas tree has been associated with the 16th century religious reformer Martin Luther according to the story Luther was walking home one winter evening and was struck by the beauty of brilliant Stars against the evergreen trees of the German forest he brought a tree to his home and decorated with candles as a way to represent the scene writer Dorothy Haskins explained he wanted to stand there Evergreen as a reminder to his children that when the world was at its bleakest moment sad and helpless and covered the weight of sin God sent his son everlasting life itself to bring hope in the midst of the dark and chill although it isn't clear if the story of Luther is real or apocryphal the tradition quickly became associated with Protestant reformers and a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strasbourg at the direction of reformer Martin booser in 1539 the tradition became common in the upper Rhineland by the 18th century but less so along the lower riring where there was a Roman Catholic majority however trees also have a particular meaning in Catholic Doctrine in the Catholic Church often cites an 8th Century A.D story where Saint Boniface cut down an oak tree called donors Oak in central Germany that was being used as a pagan symbol instead offered a fur tree as a holy tree that being an evergreen represented endless life is the origin of the Christmas tree if so the Vatican was somewhat slow and coming to the party only starting a Christmas Tree tradition in Saint Peter's Square in 1982 in any case by the 19th century the tradition had taken hold all across Germany and was seen to be an expression of German culture in fact that is how the tradition of Christmas trees luckily first came to the United States with Hessian troops fighting in the American Revolution as well as with German immigrants as early as 1777. still the tradition was not widely accepted in the U.S or it was largely perceived as a quaint foreign or even Pagan tradition if Protestants created The Christmas Tree tradition in Germany they vehemently opposed it in England the appearance saw Christmas as a frivolous addition to the religious calendar and were particularly offended by wasteful excess like seeing carols and decorating trees a 1643 ordinance during the protectorate encouraging subjects to treat the midwinter period with more solemn humiliation because it may call to remembrance our sins and the sins of our forefathers who have turned this Feast pretending the memory of Christ into an extreme forgetfulness of him by giving Liberty to carnal and sensual Delights as Lord protector Oliver Cromwell head troops Patrol the streets to arrest anyone who looked like they were headed to a special Christmas Eve service and confiscate any food discovered being prepared for Christmas celebrations the same attitude prevailed among Puritans in the Americas according to history.com in 1659 the general court of Massachusetts enacted a law Banning any celebration of December 25th and finding people for hanging decorations the change in both Great Britain and the United States was imported from Germany via the Royal Family the tradition of decorating a whole tree was brought to the British royal family by Queen Charlotte wife of George III in 1800. while the nutrition did not by and large at the time spread beyond the royal family it was well recognized by a young Victoria alexandrina who would later be crowned Queen Victoria when she married her cousin Prince Albert of sax Coburg and gotha in 1841 the queen in her consort made a point of advertising their Christmas traditions reinforced by Albert's German Heritage with their eventual nine children the tradition slowly became more popular boosted significantly when The Illustrated London news portrayed the royal family with their tree in 1848 status conscious britons quickly began emulating the royal couple the tradition briefly fell into favor due to the anti-german sentiment during the Great War but by the 1920s was common among all classes a special tradition was started following the second world war where the government of Norway since 1947 donates a Norway spruce tree each year to the people of Britain as a token of gratitude for British support during the second world war when the British government hosted the Norwegian government in Exile the tree is a focus of a traditional carol singing program and according to the webpage of the city of London for many londoners the Christmas tree and the carol singing in Trafalgar Square signals the countdown to Christmas the city builds the tree is the world's most famous Christmas tree as with the United Kingdom the Christmas Tree tradition was spread throughout Europe by the largely intermarried European nobility nobility was not quite as popular in the United States but upper class that's conscience Americans tend to emulate their European peers in an odd twist the 1848 illustration of the queen in her concert was also popular in the United States printed in the women's magazine goatee's lady book in 1850 but was modified to remove the Queen's crown and the prince concert's sash resembling a more typical family the well-known illustration is credited with popular Rising Christmas trees in the United States where there were more than 3 million Germans who'd immigrated between 1840 and 1880 in the Puritan fervor of the 17th century had faded still various complaints about the German tradition being Un-American persisted through the Great War period there is some anecdotal evidence that tree was placed in the White House in the 1840s under the Tyler Administration and others editory was placed during the Pierce Administration in the 1850s but the most credible reports do not place a Christmas tree in the white house until 1889 during the Benjamin Harrison Administration when it was placed on the second floor in decorated with candles for the Harrison grandchildren but a White House Christmas tree did not become an immediate tradition and was left to the whims of the occupant and often depended upon whether there were children in the White House first lady Lou Henry Hoover started a tradition of an official White House tree with decorations decided by the first lady in 1929. with only two exceptions the White House Christmas tree has been placed on the first floor Blue Room since 1961 and is commonly called the Blue Room Christmas tree the tradition of placing a tree in Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan between West 48th and 51st streets in 5th and sixth Avenues then begin until 1931. first tree was placed by construction workers building Rockefeller Center workers pooled their money for the tree which was decorated with homemade decorations made by their families in 1933 Rockefeller Center decided to make an annual tree a tradition and the now iconic ice rink was opened in 1936. the lighting of the tree was first televised in 1950 and today the ceremonies broadcasted hundreds of millions and as many as 125 million people visit the tree in a normal year while early Traditions included ursats trees often wooden platforms covered with Evergreen bows something approximating a modern artificial trade was developed earlier than you might think by the 1880s Germans became concerned about the use of Christmas trees because of deforestation as a solution a type of artificial tree made of green dyed Goose Feathers wrapped around a wireframe was developed feather trees were popular throughout the 19th century and had a brief surge of popularity in the United States in the early 20th century when they were sold at department stores and tatted for not dropping needles in 1930 a maker of housewares the Addis Brush company produced an artificial tree made from brush bristles they used the same process and equipment used for making toilet brushes but used green bristles and were sold into the 1950s aluminum trees manufactured from about 1955 into the 1970s were briefly popular in the United States more than a million were produced by the aluminum Specialty Company of Manitowoc Wisconsin between 1959 and 1969. but in 1965 a Charlie Brown children's cartoon portrayed illumine trees as symbols of the commercialization of Christmas and the market faded today there's a market for vintage and antique trees such as feather trees Addis brush trees and aluminum trees but most modern artificial trees are made of PVC and most commonly manufactured in China there are ongoing debates about the economic and environmental impacts of real versus artificial Christmas trees a 2017 survey by the American Christmas tree Association found that around 81 percent of America's approximately 95 million Christmas trees were artificial although other surveys suggest that the number may be closer to around two-thirds still as many as 30 million natural Christmas trees are produced in the United States every year and as many as 60 million in Europe while the tradition seems harmless a 2020 survey by the website value penguin found that nearly 1 in 20 Americans having been injured while putting up a Christmas tree and three quarters it meant to have forgotten to turn the lights out at night which can be a fire hazard according to the National Fire Protection Association there's an average of about 160 Home Fires in the United States attributed to Christmas trees each year causing around 10 million dollars in property loss and an average of two deaths per fire to limit the risk of fire the website AccuWeather suggests buying fresher looking trees keeping them well watered shaking the tree to see if the needles are detaching checking the lights and turning them off at night and keeping the tree away from heat sources such as radiators fireplaces and candles and even with their long history the future of Christmas trees still looks very bright a 2019 report on CNN noted that in the previous year 2018 more Christmas trees were sold in America than ever before in history the reason is that the generation called the Millennials are now settling down and having children Jessica Lutz of the American Realtors association asserts that Millennials might actually be more attracted to Christmas trees than previous generations because of their obsession with posting photographs on social media or a picture of the family in front of the Christmas tree is quickly becoming an Instagram staple [Music] the Christmas season is full of traditions and many of those Traditions really depend upon in what part of the world that you live but some are quite common and one whose history you might never thought of as the history of Christmas cards one of the earliest Christmas traditions according to the Hallmark company Americans will send some 1.3 billion Christmas cards each year sending pictures and holiday greetings and well wishes and life updates to far away family and friends but how Christmas cards became a part of the holiday season really dependent upon developments in technology and culture in art in the postal system and on the Queen of England it is holiday history that deserves to be remembered in 1611 King James the first of England received a letter from Michael Meyer a German physician and counselor to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II Meyer had sent the card to King James and his son Prince Henry discovered in 1979 the letters of the first we know that resemble modern Christmas cards it contains the message a greeting on the birthday of the Sacred King to the most worshipful and energetic Lord and most imminent James King of Great Britain in Ireland and defender of the true Faith with a gesture of Joyful celebration on the birthday of the Lord in most joy and Fortune we enter to the new auspicious year 1612. take another two centuries for cards to appear in a mass Market or 1400 wood cuts and other kinds of printmaking were well known around the world but in Europe a lack of paper kept prints from being common beginning of the 15th century saw printing presses combined with newly funded European paper mills to make art prints widely available this was remarkable before then art in Europe was one of a kind owned by Churches in the elite lower classes immediately demanded devotional images and printing playing cards but the proliferation of printed images didn't immediately lead to the creation of Christmas cards one of the primary reasons was the issue of mail before the 19th century postal systems were not really meant for the lower classes they were not cheap and they simply didn't exist as enterprising people band introducing the service more broadly early nation states also began nationalizing the service and offering rates inexpensive enough to allow the poor echelons of society to actually use the service increasing literacy was also important there was no point of sending a written message of basically any kind if the recipient couldn't read it the final piece of the puzzle was the popularization or perhaps repopularization of Christmas is a holiday throughout the Middle Ages in the Renaissance various Christmas traditions were celebrated but Christmas itself was generally a fairly Rowdy public Festival involving feasting and drinking in England Christmas was viewed especially poorly by the Puritans who banned the holiday in 1647 after their victory in the English Civil War it returned officially in 1660 with the return of the monarchy but continued to have an iffy reputation publicly until the 19th century when the Oxford movement of Anglican theologians argued among other things for a Revival and increasing centrality of the keeping of Christmas itself as a Christian festival and changing the way in which it is celebrated emphasizing family gift giving and Reconciliation instead of the revelry it was associated with in some places this began to catch on in England in the 1840s especially when Charles Dickens a vocal supporter of the Oxford movement published A Christmas Carol in 1843 the story played a significant role in the meaning and celebration of modern Christmas 1841 brought Queen Victoria's marriage to German Prince Albert and with it the introduction of Christmas trees and German Christmas tradition to England which would eventually lead to its adoption in the United States the London Penny post of Private Business offering mail delivery in London for only a penny began in 1680 but was seized by the crown in 1683. local Penny post appeared in the 18th century but it wasn't until 1840 that sir Roland Hill inventor of the self-adhesive postal stamp was able to get into Parliament to implement a post office reform which established the uniform Penny post throughout the United Kingdom finally there was the introduction of the card itself around 1840 Thomas shorrock of Leith Scotland produced a number of cards with a jolly face and the message a good New Year to ye more often Sir Henry Cole is credited as the inventor of the first commercial card Cole was a civil servant and another supporter of postal reform he was assistant to Roland Hill in the introduction of the penny post by 1843 Cole's range of friends and acquaintances was large enough that instead of handwriting countless personal messages he commissioned the design of a card from Peter John colcott Horsley the card has a central scene of family drinking wine and two side panels containing images of Charity with the message a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you Cole had a thousand copies printed so he could maintain decorum by answering his many contacts and sold the leftovers it raised some controversy from Temperance societies for its depiction of drinking only a handful of copies have survived and one sold for twenty two thousand five hundred pounds at auction in 2001. from the 1840s the Christmas card grew in popularity with improvements in printing technology bringing down cost by the 1850s Queen Victoria was regularly sending out Christmas cards the 1860s saw the first commercial cards Mrs Goodall and Sons produce embossed designs in 1862 and soon increased the number of designs available by 1870 hundreds of European card manufacturers were printing Christmas cards Marcus Ward and company made incredibly high quality cards beginning in 1867 not just Christmas cards cards in general grew in popularity along with them with images of all kinds of things being produced they celebrated any holiday with incongruous images of sports and Landscapes many had flowers and scenes of spring and summer partially because they were simply repurposed Valentine's cards which became popular Before Christmas cards did many people actually collected the odd cards or collected particular artists and sending unique ones was highly prized in a world that lacks screens enjoying the art and saving it in an album was a popular Pastime though we often criticize the consumerization of Christmas today a growing discretionary income brought consumerism to the Forefront even in the 1840s with ornaments gifts and indeed Christmas cards being some of the benefactors of the Christmas industry in 1880 alone 11.5 million cards were printed two years later one firm paid at least seven thousand Pounds to artists for original images a truly princely sum in an era where a few companies made that much in annual profit in the U.S the cards became truly popular when Lewis prang a Prussian immigrant began printing Christmas cards with his lithography business first for sale in England in 1873 and then for the U.S market in 1874. he has been called the father of the American Christmas card for his popularization of the Christmas greeting card in the U.S by 1881 he was printing 5 million Christmas cards a year the cars in the U.S seem to have become popular at the time when the family farm was dying and families began spreading out more and more making the cards an excellent way to keep in touch some common images such as pant alert young ones in snow storms and Angels floating in midair bearing a babe were declared to contain no agreeable Sensations as early as 1885. it was Big Business by the 1920s some 5 000 Americans were working at Christmas card factories which were carefully curated from artists all over in fact those greeting cards provided a much needed income from any struggling artists in 1928 an editorial in the North American review literary magazine complained about commercialization writing that the car companies aimed to make you think yourself a feverish yellow curve if you do not invest each December and seven dollars worth of assorted glue and ink and paper it bemoan consumers behaving like sheep and falling for it Calvin Coolidge issued the first presidential Christmas message via newspaper his successor Herbert Hoover's wife sent out 3 100 engraved note cards in 1929. the content of these greeting cards is often foreign to a modern audience partially this is because the established imagery of Christmas was not yet as firm as it is today and partially it was due to differing tastes in the Victorian era the cards were seen as an art in and of themselves and those collections grew so did the demand that cards be unique Samantha bradbeer archivist and historian for Hallmark Inc explains that by 1885 unique and even bizarre cards with silk Fringe glitter detachments and mechanical movements were popular although Christmas cards usually had motifs related to Flora and Fauna seasonal vignettes and landscapes some seemed incredibly odd to the modern eye such as a card with red and black ants fighting while carrying a banner that reads the compliments of the season in the pomorphized Christmas pudding children lobsters bugs fairies and frogs were also commonly depicted the cards of the 19th century were meant to be conversation pieces and Oddities not just festive seasonal greetings sentiments and designs that may seem unusual today were often considered signs of Good Fortune While others poke fun at Superstition bradbeer says one of the more famous in odd is the depiction of dead birds was an incredibly common Motif in Victorian Christmas cards and the reasons for it are not entirely clear one suggestion is that the dead birds often in the snow are meant to elicit Victorian sympathy and may reference common stories of poor children freezing to death at Christmas explains writer John Grossman another suggestion connects to Ren day a historical Irish Celebration held on December 26 which involves the haunting of Iran these days the celebration involves a fake Rin but it didn't always and the celebration might reflect broader and similar celebrations across the ancient lands of the United Kingdom both the Robin and the Wren were considered sacred in various forms in Anglo and Irish folklore and might have had some cultural connections that have simply been lost Robins also appear carrying letters because UK Postman of the time were read and were known as Robins other seemingly inexplicable injuries include countless frogs clowns and terrifying human animal or vegetable hybrids more easily explained are images of the anti-santa Krampus kidnapping or punishing children for bad behaviors will Santa himself shoving naughty children into bags of course religious imagery about it as well some of the things we traditionally associate with the season also appeared Holly for instance first appears on a Christmas card in 1848. Washington Irving's the old English Christmas republished in 1876 with illustrations by Randolph Caldecott helped entrench many of the motifs we now think of as traditional Holly mistletoe Father Christmas and the like in England by the 1890s proliferation had led to a steady decrease in quality in most firms and some happened in America slightly later Louis praying got out of the business in the 1890s as cheaper alternatives who drove out his careful quality control postcards which didn't require an envelope at all were popular throughout the period beginning in the 1890s two things made postcards boom in the U.S rural free delivery Universal In 1902 and the 1898 rate change that set postage rates for postcards at two cents a golden age of postcards in the US ran from about 1905 to 1915 when a billion cars were printed in the country each year World War one saw demand for cards sent to soldiers at the front and cards were often allowed to be printed even while paper was being conserved after 1915 the telephone began to cut into the postcard business with postcards dubbed the poor man's telephone 1915 also saw the establishment of Hallmark first of the hall Brothers company which introduced the 4x6 folded cards that we know today the card in its modern form with many of the familiar designs of Santa Christmas and general Christmas Joy the 40s and 50s saw renewed popularity cards like ones designed by Norman Rockwell today the Christmas card industry remains alive and well even despite the Advent of e-cards in Facebook in the United States about six and a half billion greeting cards are set each year with about 1.3 billion of those being Christmas cards meanwhile in Europe the Dutch Postal Service found that in 2012 90 of Dutch households had an average of 40 cards among 17 other European countries between 68 and 76 percent of respondents planned on sending cards today the ability to print almost anything cheaply has led to personalized cards which pictures of families or pets or your home being quite common and even if your cars don't necessarily get out on time there's still a very good chance that you'll be either sending or at least receiving Christmas cards this year if even only to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year foreign [Music] Franciscus Moore was born in the prince Archbishop Brook of Salisbury December 11th of 1792 the son of an embroiderer and a mercenary soldier who abandoned the family before Yosef was born into poverty a vicarat Salzburg Cathedral sought to his education and encouraged him in music where he became a singer and a violinist in 1811 Yosef joined the Seminary and in 1815 he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1816 he was serving as assistant priest in the small town of Maria far south of Salzburg where he penned a short six stanza poem there is no record of him ever explaining what inspired that poem exactly but it might have been the beautiful still Countryside around mountainous mariavar and the fourth stanza might have been referring to the difficult period of the Napoleonic Wars in 1818 two years later that poem was set to music and played at midnight mass on Christmas in the church of Saint Nicholas in the small town of oberndorf north of Salzburg today that song is one of the world's most popular songs it has been translated into hundreds of languages it is sung by millions of people just one recording of that song is sold more than 30 million copies and is the third highest selling musical single in history the musical streaming service Spotify has more than 26 000 versions of that song the story of this poem written by a humble priest that began in German still a knocked heleg knocked silent night holy night is one shrouded in Legend and largely unknown to the millions of people who enjoy the world's most popular Christmas Carol there are records of Christmas hymns sung in Latin in 4th Century Rome and the practice itself May predate Christianity being adapted from Pagan traditions but these early songs weren't popular with the public and in the early church Christmas was a minor holiday the regular singing of Christmas hymns at Christmas midnight mass is often credited to Saint Francis of Assisi in the 13th century in francis's insistence that the songs Be Sung in Native languages rather than Latin helped to popularize the tradition the period of the life of father Moore had been one of almost constant conflict in Europe Salzburg had been occupied by the French during the war of the second Coalition the last of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1805 the former Prince Bishop brick was split between the Austrian Empire and Bavaria in the Treaty of pressburg during the Napoleonic Wars then in 1809 Salzburg was ceded to Bavaria after Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Archduke Charles of Austria in the Battle of Agra ending the war of the fifth coalition the territory was again divided between Austria and Bavaria in the Treaty of Paris which ended the Napoleonic Wars it is in this context that the fifth stanza of his poem finds its meaning long we hoped that he might as our Lord free us of Wrath since times of our fathers he hath promised to spare all mankind in 1817 father Moore became an assistant priest in the town of oberndorf 11 miles north of Salzburg on Christmas Eve 1818 father Moore visited his friend Franz xaver Gruber who was the church choir master and organist in addition to being the choir Master for the church in oberendorf Franz Gruber was a teacher and the church caretaker and organist for the town of arnsdorf about three miles away Gruber was a composer and more hope that he could write music to accompany the poem he had written two years earlier so that he could sing it at Christmas Mass just a few hours away Gruber composed the melody in just a few hours grouper and more first sang the song Still A knocked in the appropriately named Saint Nicholas church in oberendorf for Midnight Mass Christmas of 1818. for accompaniment Moore played the guitar and the choir repeated the last two stanzas of each verse there has long been a legend that the church organ was broken some say because of rust and others say because of a Damage Done by a Hungry Mouse but the fact is there is no actual record that the organ was broken and neither more nor Gruber ever explained why the melody was accompanied by guitar and not the organ it might be that father Moore simply enjoyed the guitar by the 1830s it had become a popular folk song throughout Austria and was popularly sung by two families of folk singers the Strasser family and the Raynor family who became the first to sing the song in the United States in New York in 1839 it was published in the compendium of tyrolean folk songs in the 1830s and by the 1840s the song had been popularized by the Royal Cathedral Choir in Berlin and was a favorite song of King Frederick William IV of Prussia in 1859 an Episcopal priest in New York City translated the song into English while the lyrics were not an exact translation they preserved the spirit of the song it was then carried by Christian missionaries worldwide in one of the more extraordinary moments in history German soldiers began singing Steely knocked From The Trenches on Christmas Eve of 1914. the sun was very popular in Germany but still not well known in Britain and it was the first time that many British soldiers listing from their nearby trenches had heard the tune the British soldiers responded with a Carol of their own and that started the extraordinary event called the Christmas Truce while the circumstances of the Christmas Truce during the first world war in 1914 have sometimes been overstated as many as a hundred thousand soldiers were thought to have taken part in the brief moment of fellowship and Rebellion against Authority laying down their arms shaking hands with their enemy and exchanging gifts some soldiers use the opportunity to retrieve the bodies of the Fallen that had been abandoned in no man's land Bing Crosby released the song as a single in 1935. since then that single has sold more than 30 million copies making it the third highest selling single of all time behind Elton John's Candle in the Wind and Crosby's own white Christmas a devout Catholic Crosby thought that it would be wrong to profit from a religious song all the royalties from the third best-selling song in history have gone to charity other versions have been produced by vocalist's diverse as Elvis Presley Gene Autry and Justin Bieber in 2010 music licensing company PPL determined that silent night was Britain's most recorded Christmas song of all time a similar analysis by Time magazine in 2014 of all Christmas albums recorded in the United States since 1978 determined that silent night was America's most popular Christmas recording with 733 copyrighted recordings since 1978. if you listened to a different one of the more than 26 000 versions of the song on Spotify every night you go more than 79 years before having to repeat a version the song was published for decades without providing any credit for many years people thought that it was a composition of either Beethoven or Bach even when Franz Gruber was finally recognized for providing the melody the contribution of Yosef Moore of the lyrics was forgotten the question was finally settled in 1994 when an original copy in Yosef Moore's hand and including the original score for guitar and dated 1820 was finally authenticated father Moore served in many parishes and all his life donated most of his salary to charity the man who wrote one of the world's most popular songs died a popper leaving nothing behind but a ragged cassock in a lifetime of good works Franz guber wrote several different variations on the melody and donated all of the proceeds to charity he was recognized as a composer for composing more than 90 songs but still a knocked was by far his most popular the church of Saint Nicholas had to be demolished as the entire town of oberendorf was moved Upstream due to repeated flooding but there is a small Chapel on the site of the original church that is dedicated to the song Silent Night and next to it is a museum that commemorates the lives of Father Moore on Franz Gruber and local history Franz gruber's home in the Austrian town of halian has been preserved as a museum and included in its displays is Yosef Moore's guitar he used to play the song for the first time in 1818. and it is still the song's humble Origins that are perhaps the most compelling part of the story of the world's most popular Christmas Carol I'm the history guy wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas silence [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] God sleep ing Heavenly peace [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 55,153

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: gSU0G62KQz8

Length: 47min 1sec (2821 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2022