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Because the festive aspects of the German-American Christmas, including
the tree, were considered pagan, the Puritans in New England shunned
them until about 1875. They were not entirely wrong!
It is generally acknowledged that the Christmas tree is of German origin.
In the pre-Christian era the oak was the sacred tree for the Germanic
peoples. Legend has it that the missionary to the Germans, St. Boniface,
in order to stop sacrifices at their sacred Donar Oak near Geismar, chopped
the tree down [725 A.D.]. He is said to have replaced the oak by a fir tree,
adorned in tribute to the new-born Christ. Ironically, the evergreen tree
has been ascribed magical power by the Germanic peoples as a representation
of fertility. Today, the fir and its next of kin enjoy the highest degree
of popularity. The Christmas tree custom has spread across large parts of
the world.
The church also placed Christ's birth at the time of the winter solstice
and fostered as the bringer of gifts St. Nikolaus, the bishop of Myra
in Asia Minor, who died on December 6, 343. Christian symbols and earlier
historical layers of Germanic mythological figures began to meld, or to
live side by side. Consequently, the old German God Wotan, riding the
wild skies with his retinue, emerged out of the pre-Christian past.
To this day Nikolaus traditions vary as widely from region to region as
his guise and name. He appears as St. Nikolaus (mainly in Catholic areas),
Klaus, Nickel, Sünnerklas, Seneklos, Pelznickel, Knecht Ruprecht,
Weihnachtsmann and Christkindl (in mostly Protestant areas). He is
afoot or astride a white horse, a reindeer, a mule, or even a goat.
More diverse than those of the saintly Nikolaus are the many legends
and traditions surrounding his often wild companions: the Zwarte Pitt,
Hans Muff, Schimmelreiter, Krampus, Leutfresser, Rumpelklas, Schmutzli.
A religious myth whose source was in a Semitic nation, was subsequently
developed by a Mediterranean people, and finally superimposed on the
quite alien mythologies of the Northern Europeans. The result is a wide
array of coexisting customs, Christian and Germanic.
Part of the modern American picture of Christmas is that of a magnificent
sleigh pulled by eight reindeer carrying a bushy-bearded Santa Claus. The
eight reindeer have only been in Santa's service since 1822. That is when
Clement Clarke Moore, of Troy, N.Y., wrote his decidedly secular "'Twas
the night before Christmas..." Moore's knowledge of popular views of
Christmas was based chiefly on the St. Nikolaus customs brought to the
area by Dutch, German and Scandinavian immigrants. In the German-speaking
countries, and Holland and Belgium as well, December 6 is the most
distinctive children's festival of the year. The shops are full of
many-shaped biscuits, gilt gingerbreads--sometimes representing the
saint--sugar images, toys and other little gifts. On December 5, small
children place their shoes on a window sill or in front of the door. If
they have a fireplace they will hang their stockings there. In the
morning they will find small gifts, an orange and an apple and a small toy.
Forty years after Moore first published his poem, the illustrator and
political cartoonist Thomas Nast created the American image of Santa
Claus, a combination of Moore's "jolly old elf" and the Pelznickel of
Nast's native Bavarian Palatinate. Nast, the son of a Bavarian army
bandsman, was born in Landau, in 1840, and came to New York with his
parents at age 6. In 1862 he joined Harper's Weekly, primarily as Civil
War correspondent and began to produce politically acclaimed cartoons
and war sketches. He was asked by a publisher to illustrate a book of
holiday poems that included Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas."
Combining imagery from Moore's verse, and his childhood memories of
Christmas, Nast created a rotund, bearded, pipe-smoking figure in a
woolly suit and cap, carrying a large sack of toys.
In many regions, and also in the U.S., the festivities originally
attributed to the gift-giving St. Nikolaus have been transferred from
December 6 to Christmas. The giver of gifts is the "Weihnachtsmann"
[Santa Claus] or the "Christkindl" [Christchild, an angel]. The latter,
misunderstood by Anglophones, became "naturalized" as "Kris Kringle."
Christmas customs are perhaps the nicest example for cultural transfer
and adaptation resulting in an American tradition with a German touch.
500 AD------------------1500 AD
-----------------------/---------------------------/----------------------
| Pagan/Germanic | Christian | Catholic Protestant |
Culture = beliefs, customs and traditions held by a group
Ruth Reichmann
Max Kade German-American Center, IUPUI
OTHER RESOURCES by Robert Shea
Return to German-American Christmas page for more information about the above topics.