A New Old-Fashioned Christmas

A New Old-Fashioned Christmas

By Mark Leitheiser

If you’ve listened to the radio lately, you’ve probably heard Brenda Lee belt out her classic, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” which offers a lively melody with cheerful lyrics which include the poignant words, “... in a new old-fashioned waaaaaay!” These words are worth consideration as they point out that even Christmas is not immune to change. All things change with time and even the celebration of Christmas, with long-held traditions we’ve loved for generations, has evolved in a new, old-fashioned way.

Probably the first tradition we learn as children is giving, or more accurately, getting gifts. Like so many of today’s traditions, this one can be traced back thousands of years. In fact, the Romans gave gifts to celebrate Saturnalia, a festival to honor Saturn, the god of agriculture for a time period roughly the same as our Christmas celebrations.

Yet the image of Roman warriors exchanging poorly wrapped spears doesn’t exactly fit our idea of Christmas giving. For that, we can thank three fellows named Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, the three wise men, who followed a star with camels loaded with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for baby Jesus.

Today, it’s difficult to recognize the simple beauty of their sacrifice. The commercialization of their example started long ago, of course. Like many of you, as a child I spent countless hours paging through the shiny Sears “Wish Book” that was filled with smiling children and expensive toys. I knew we couldn’t afford them but dreaming was free so dream we did. Those dreams were recorded with a pencil and paper in a letter to Santa.

Today, children dream while glued to an electronic screen or phone and place their Christmas presents orders with companies whose addresses always end in .com and whose orders will be delivered by UPS or drones. I don’t think the Romans nor the three wise men would recognize or appreciate our new version of the Christmas tradition of giving.

Another old-fashioned tradition that we have reworked is the greeting, “Merry Christmas!” even though the Christian celebration of Christ’s birth is the whole point of the season. Greetings without “Christmas” are kind but let’s face it: singing, “We wish you a happy holiday, we wish you season’s greetings” just doesn’t cut it, which brings us to one of our most beautiful traditions: music.

While the idea of singing this time of year also can be traced back to our friends, the Romans, the tradition of caroling, as we know it, started with Saint Francis of Assissi back in 1223 in Italy. Until that time, only church officials- the big shots- were afforded the privilege of singing songs of praise but thankfully, St. Francis changed that by leading common folks through the streets singing praises to Jesus.

Today, we have turned the idea of Christmas caroling into a commercial bonanza. Is there a single musical artist who has not capitalized on Christmas with a recording of their own? Everyone from Elvis to Alvin and the Chipmunks has sung to express their love of the season and to sell more songs. Sadly, traditional songs like “The First Noel” and “Joy to the World” have become less common than “Frosty the Snowman” and the heroics of Snoopy and The Red Baron.

I suppose Christmas music of any variety is good music and to be honest, music probably stays closer to its traditional roots than most other traditions. Few sounds on earth are more chillingly beautiful than a church packed with believers singing, “Silent Night, Holy Night” with the belief that such a night still exists. Music alone, it seems, has the power to unite our fractured country and world. Yes, all Christmas music should be valued and welcomed. Still, it’s hard to imagine St. Francis strolling through the streets of Italy singing, “Grandpa got run over by a reindeer…”

Speaking of reindeer, you’ll see a lot of them on Christmas cards. (How’s that for a paragraph transition?) Christmas cards can be traced to jolly old England. While personal cards had been sent much earlier, the first commercial card was sent by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843.

The front of Cole’s card featured a family raising a toast to the recipient which is not all that different from what we might see today. On the back of the card, however, Cole’s card focused on charity with food and clothing for the poor which, frankly, is a little different focus than the cards Sweetums and I receive these days. Of course, there are always messages of hope and good will but it rarely stops there.

Today’s Christmas cards have become postal testimonies to the extraordinarily successful lives of the joyful senders. Simple embossed cards with hand-written messages have been replaced by glowing family pictures with pages-long detailed testaments to the success of the sender. Mom and Dad got new jobs and are making huge money. All the kids are above average at everything and the grandkids are in the 110^th percentile in every measurable category. Even the pets are smiling in the picture. It’s enough to make me cringe.

Which is why Sweetums and I don’t send Christmas cards. Compared to the rest of the card-sending world, our lives are a metaphorical gutter ball. Just once, I want to open a card that begins, “Well, we really had a crappy year . . .”

We don’t send cards but if we did, they would read something like this: “Sweetums and I are still married and gainfully employed in education. Our children, Bubba and Petey, have jobs, their own lives, and, as far as we know, they have avoided jail time. All things considered, it’s been a pretty good year. Merry Christmas from the Leitheisers.” Sending our Christmas card to you through the mighty Standard-Gazette & Messenger? Now that’s celebrating Christmas, “. . . in a new old-fashioned waaaaaaaaay!” Merry Christmas!