Three Men Who Invented Christmas

Not the Christmas of nativity and midnight mass but the one celebrated with Santa Claus, gift-giving, open-hearts and merriment.

Clement, Charles and Thomas never met but each, in his way, gave us the images, without which we’d be bearing the solstice with indifference or seasonal melancholia.

It was Clement Moore (or was it?) who penned, what is arguably, the most popular poem in American history, A Visit From St. Nicholas, later to be known as The Night Before Christmas. Moore was a professor of Hebrew and Biblical Studies at a Theological seminary and later at Columbia. Who knew?

The authorship has been disputed for the past two hundred years. Though it was published in 1823, Moore didn’t claim to be the poet until 1837. The family of a colleague named Henry Livingston also claims it as theirs.

Whether they engaged in a food fight with peppermint sticks is not known. Who cares, one might ask. More importantly, the poem introduced us to St. Nicholas, complete with his fleet of driverless Uber-reindeer and the rest is history. Now, every kid in America goes through stages of belief and disbelief. Hopefully we learn the difference between the literal and metaphorical.

In 1843, Charles Dickens was nearly broke. His two previous novels, Barnaby Rudge and Martin Chuzzlewit, were flops. In six weeks, he wrote the novella, A Christmas Carol, to great acclaim. In the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge, he captured the spirit of generosity and set the scene over which the Western World has been idealizing ever since. It has also spawned Hallmark cards and holiday movies. Our threshold for such is raised during the month of December. You'll hear no Bah Humbug from me.

162 years ago, Thomas Nast was hailed by Abraham Lincoln as the greatest recruiter for the Union army. He was regarded as the father of American cartoons. His image of Santa Claus found wide distribution through Harper's Weekly. As an ardent abolitionist he put the beard and outfit on a chubby Santa along with Union soldiers. It associated the Northern cause with the hearth and charity. In the same way Irving Berlin's White Christmas was a boost to the morale of the Allied army during WWII.

Nast’s depiction of cherubic Santa came to him partly from the folklore of his native Germany and partly from Clement Moore’s poem, The Night Before Christmas. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Nast is that he never learned to read or write. His wife is said to have read the poem to him as he made his engravings. It was also his inspiration to locate Santa in the North Pole along with elves and a workshop, making him a universal figure for all children.

Nast also created the Republican elephant, the Democratic donkey and he added the whiskers on Uncle Sam. During the Gilded Age he was as famous as his friend, Mark Twain. A household name in the mid 19th century he is now a name only history buffs recognize.

For the rest of us who do not live out loud and may not even exist according to Google, there are enough daily acts of kindness, beyond all measure, to assure our claim for remembrance among those we have touched. 

Goodwill is a word we hear a lot these days. If the meaning escapes us, just think of how Donald Trump would act and do the opposite.