Prof. Boerner's Explorations

by Gerald Boerner

  

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Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual Christian holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on December 25, but this date is not known to be Jesus’ actual birthday, and may have initially been chosen to correspond with either the day exactly nine months after some early Christians believed Jesus had been conceived, a historical Roman festival, or the date of the northern hemisphere’s winter solstice. Christmas is central to the Christmas and holiday season, and in Christianity marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days.

Although traditionally a Christian holiday, Christmas is also widely celebrated by many non-Christians, and some of its popular celebratory customs have pre-Christian or secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift-giving, music, an exchange of greeting cards, church celebrations, a special meal, and the display of various decorations; including Christmas trees, lights, garlands, mistletoe, nativity scenes, and holly. In addition, Father Christmas (known as Santa Claus in some areas, including North America, Australia and Ireland) is a popular mythological figure in many countries, associated with the bringing of gifts for children.

Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.

Commemoration of Jesus’ birth

 Adorazione del Bambino (Adoration of the Child) (1439-43),
a mural by Florentine painter Fra Angelico.

In Christianity, Christmas is the festival celebrating the Nativity of Jesus, the Christian belief that the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament’s Messianic prophecies was born to the Virgin Mary. The story of Christmas is based on the biblical accounts given in:

• The Gospel of Matthew, namely Matthew 1:18-Matthew 2:12, and
• The Gospel of Luke, specifically Luke 1:26-Luke 2:40.

According to these accounts, Jesus was born to Mary, assisted by her husband Joseph, in the city of Bethlehem. According to popular tradition, the birth took place in a stable, surrounded by farm animals, though neither the stable nor the animals are specifically mentioned in the Biblical accounts. However, a manger is mentioned in Luke 2:7, where it states, "She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Early iconographic representations of the nativity placed the animals and manger within a cave (located, according to tradition, under the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem). Shepherds from the fields surrounding Bethlehem were told of the birth by an angel, and were the first to see the child.

Many Christians believe that the birth of Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies from the Old Testament. The Gospel of Matthew also describes a visit by several Magi, or astrologers, who bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant. The visitors were said to be following a mysterious star, commonly known as the Star of Bethlehem, believing it to announce the birth of a king of the Jews. The commemoration of this visit, the Feast of Epiphany celebrated on January 6, is the formal end of the Christmas season in some churches.

Christians celebrate Christmas in many ways. In addition to this day being one of the most important and popular for the attendance of church services, there are numerous other devotions and popular traditions. Prior to Christmas Day, the Eastern Orthodox Church practises the Nativity Fast in anticipation of the birth of Jesus, while much of Western Christianity celebrates Advent. The final preparations for Christmas are made on Christmas Eve.

Over the Christmas period, people decorate their homes and exchange gifts. In some Christian denominations, children perform plays re-telling the events of the Nativity, or sing carols that reference the event. Some Christians also display a small re-creation of the Nativity, known as a Nativity scene or crib, in their homes, using figurines to portray the key characters of the event. Live Nativity scenes and tableaux vivants are also performed, using actors and animals to portray the event with more realism.

A long artistic tradition has grown of producing painted depictions of the nativity in art. Nativity scenes are traditionally set in a barn or stable and include Mary, Joseph, the child Jesus, angels, shepherds and the Three Wise Men: Balthazar, Melchior, and Caspar, who are said to have followed a star, known as the Star of Bethlehem, and arrived after his birth.

    

This is the essence of the real meaning of
Christmas. All other traditions are
culturally-determined, but the birth of
the Christ Child as the fulfillment of the
Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament
(given to the Jewish people).

     

Background and biographical information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Christmas can be found at…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

by Gerald Boerner

  

Ralph Steiner, formally trained in chemistry, was a photographer, and film maker during his life. He moved to photography when he saw the opportunities to capture photographs in the early 1920s when he studied at White’s School of Photography in New York City. Bored with traditional commercial photography, he moved to photojournalism and documentary films during the 1930s. In later life, he moved to New England where he photographed nature and clouds with the precision of an scientist.  GLB

    

“By showing a picture, you’re showing an x-ray of your heart.”
— Ralph Steiner

“If I were to teach, I wouldn’t teach a course in photography. I’d teach a course called ‘What Matters.”
— Ralph Steiner

“The very silent, marvelous American painter, Edward Hopper, put it very simply. He said, ‘The work’s the man. You can’t get something out of nothing.”
— Ralph Steiner

“…the reason you show someone a photograph is because a photograph is part of a human being–you–and as people we’re more interested in human beings than we are in mountains.”
— Ralph Steiner

“Eventually I discovered for myself the utterly simple prescription for creativity; be intensly yourself. Don’t try to be outstanding; don’t try to be a success;don’t try to do pictures for others to look at- just please yourself.”
— Ralph Steiner

“Many of Steiner’s lyrical, sometimes gently satirical photographs can be seen as conveying, along with sophistication and concern, a sense of wonder about the 20th century which he entered at the age of one, and yet has been so much a part of.” 
— Ralph Steiner

“These days I think the composers of music influence me more than any photographers or visual creators. I see something exciting or lovely and think to myself: ‘If Papa Haydn or Wolfgang Amadeus or the red-headed Vivaldi were here with a camera, they’d snap a picture of what’s in front of me.’ So I take the picture for them.”
— Ralph Steiner

“I say to young photographers, ‘What in God’s name are you doing, taking a picture of a tree or a mountain? That’s crazy! What you should do is take a person by the hand and show him the tree or the mountain itself. Why show him a stupid picture? It’s flat and it’s tiny compared to the mountain. The mountain is magnificent and has power…’ ”
— Ralph Steiner

  

Note:
The quotes included in this posting were taken from the public quotation site, PhotoQuotes.com, which does not indicate that they are covered by any special copyright restrictions. Likewise, the images included in this posting were obtained under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License from the Wikipedia.com web site which did not state any restrictions on their use. This blog makes every attempt to comply with the legal rights of copyright holders.

This posting is intended for the educational use of photographers and photography students and complies with the “educational fair use” provisions of copyright law. For readers who might wish to reuse some of these images should check out their compliance with copyright limitations that might apply to that use.

GLB

  

Ralph Steiner (1899 – 1986)

Ralph Steiner was an American photographer, pioneer documentarian and a key figure among avant-garde filmmakers in the 1930s. Born in Cleveland, Steiner studied chemistry at Dartmouth, but in 1921 entered the Clarence H. White School of Modern Photography. White helped Steiner in finding a job at the Manhattan Photogravure Company, and Steiner worked on making photogravure plates of scenes from Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North. Not long after, Steiner’s work as a freelance photographer in New York began, working mostly in advertising and for publications like The Ladies’ Home Journal. Through the encouragement of fellow photographer Paul Strand, Steiner joined the left-of-center Film and Photo League around 1927.

In 1929, Steiner made his first film, H2O, a poetic evocation of water that captured the abstract patterns generated by waves. Although it was not the only film of its kind at the time — Joris Ivens made Regen (Rain) that same year, and Henwar Rodekiewicz worked on his water film Portrait of a Young Man (1931) through this whole period—it made a significant impression in its day and since has become recognized as a classic: H2O was added to the National Film Registry in December 2005. Among Steiner’s other early films, Surf and Seaweed (1931) expands on the concept of H2O as Steiner turns his camera to the shoreline; Mechanical Principles (1930) was an abstraction based on gears and machinery.

In the late l920′s he met Paul Strand in New York. Strands’ prints were a revelation that left Steiner deeply dissatisfied with the commercial work he was then doing. He began teaching himself better craftsmanship, working with an 8 x l0" camera format, photographing "objects with texture," producing such well-known images as his Nehi sign pictures, his Ford car series, and his photograph of a rocking chair.

In 1930, Steiner joined the faculty of the so-called Harry Alan Potamkin Film School, which folded shortly before Potamkin’s death in 1933; there he met Leo Hurwitz and, inspired by Hurwitz’ ideas of utilizing film as a means of social action, left the Film and Photo League and joined Nykino, a loose coalition of New York based cinematographers who pooled footage for use in left-wing newsreels shown at worker’s rallies, conventions and during strikes; precious few of these films have survived. They directed much of that landmark documentary as well. With Willard Van Dyke, and Paul Strand, Steiner shot and directed the documentary The City, which ran for a year at the New York World’s Fair of 1939. In the late 1930′s he worked as a picture editor on PM, and in advertising and public relations work. During this time Steiner also worked on some topical, fictional "pool" film satires, including Pie in the Sky (1935), the earliest film to involve the talents of Elia Kazan.

Steiner and Paul Strand were hired by Pare Lorentz as the cameramen on The Plow That Broke the Plains; His opting of the film rights to the biography of H.S. Maxim, an eccentric 19th century inventor, led him to Hollywood where he spent four years as a writer/executive. Steiner worked, alongside Strand, Hurwitz and Paul Ivano as a cinematographer on Pare Lorentz’ The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and likewise joined Lorentz on The River (1938) but did not receive credit. Although Steiner remained with Nykino throughout their transition into Frontier Films, he left in 1938, taking the footage of The City (1939) with him. The City, which Steiner co-directed with Willard Van Dyke and featuring original music by Aaron Copland, opened at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and ran for two years. On his glad return to New York, with an out-of-date portfolio, Walker Evans gave him photographic assignments for Fortune.

The Getty Museum observes:

In addition to recording dances for posterity, photographs extended the celebrity of individual dancers. The famous burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee was especially aware of photography’s value as a public relations tool. A friend of Ralph Steiner’s, Lee commissioned him to make this photograph as part of a series of publicity shots.

On a rural road in the Bronx, Lee posed wearing a shimmering, sequined gown and fur, flanked by a Rolls Royce and Louis Vuitton luggage and surrounded by her spectacularly costumed "girls." Lee’s elegant presentation gives no hint that her costume weighed over seventy pounds or that the day was hot and her makeup took two hours to apply.

Steiner’s still photographs are notable for their odd angles, abstraction and sometimes bizarre subject matter; the 1944 image Gypsy & Her Girls is sometimes mistaken for Weegee.

Despite his own stated disdain of Hollywood and the shared sentiments of his colleagues, in the 1940s Steiner went to Hollywood to work as a writer-producer, but returned to New York after only four years spent there. Then he plunged back into the world of freelance and fashion photography, working for Vogue, Look Magazine and others before retiring in 1962. Steiner then settled in Vermont, where he spent summers on a Maine Island.

His experimental films, however, are considered central to the literature of early American avant-garde cinema, and the influence of Ralph Steiner’s visual style continues to assert itself; for example, contemporary avant-garde filmmaker Timoleon Wilkins cites Steiner as an inspiration.

In the 1960′s Steiner finally began to be able to devote most of his time to his personal photography and cinematography. He moved to rural Vermont in 1963, spending summers on a Maine island, and his work since then includes many lyrical images from those landscapes, including trees, coastline hills, and wash on rural clotheslines.

Many of Steiner’s lyrical, sometimes gently satirical photographs can be seen as conveying, along with sophistication and concern, a sense of wonder about the 20th century which he entered at the age of one, and yet has been so much a part of.

For a slideshow of other
images of Ralph Steiner,
click HERE or on the
image to the right.

Steiner’s autobiography, A Point of View, was published in 1978. Among exhibitions of his work were a one-man show in 1949 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and exhibitions in 1981 at the Milwaukee Art Center (with Walker Evans) and at the Northlight Gallery in Tempe, Arizona (with Wright Morris).

    

Background and biographical information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Ralph Steiner can be found at…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Steiner

Also see…

Scheinbaum & Russek, Ltd. Gallery: Ralph Steiner Slideshow & Bio…
http://www.photographydealers.com/artists/steiner_ralph.html

PhotoQuotes.com on Ralph Steiner…
http://www.photoquotes.com/showquotes.aspx?id=119&name=Steiner,Ralph

by Gerald Boerner

  

As you enter into the Christmas Eve celebration with your family and friends, I hope that this review of Christmas traditions will help focus your attention on those things that are so dear to each of us: our families, our cultural heritage, our relationship with God, and the values that have made us what we are today. Please enjoy your celebration and may your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day be sunny and bright, even though the snow may be on the ground outside and the temperatures are below freezing.  GLB

    

“There are no strangers on Christmas Eve.”
— Adele Comandini and Edward Sutherland

“At Christmas, all roads lead home.”
— Marjorie Holmes

“Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it ‘white’.”
— Bing Crosby

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
— Charles Dickens

“They err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart.”
— Mrs. Paul M. Ell

“Remember, if Christmas isn’t found in your heart, you won’t find it under a tree.”
— Charlotte Carpenter

“Christmas, in its final essence, is for grown people who have forgotten what children know. Christmas is for whoever is old enough to have denied the unquenchable spirit of man.”
— Margaret Cousins

“To the American People: Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.”
— Calvin Coolidge

  

Christmas Eve Celebration: Regional Traditions

Christmas Eve, December 24, is the day before Christmas Day, a widely celebrated holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a culturally significant celebration for most of the Western world and is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas.

Regional traditions… Let’s look at how Christmas is observed around the world. Many traditions have emerged. Most of these reflect on the coming together of the Christian and native cultural traditions. Today, many are “secularized” to the extent that the traditions leave out the Christian traditions in the name of “political correctness” or in response to social pressures. By examining these traditions, perhaps we can rediscover the joy of the original meaning of Christmas, the birth of the Christ Child.

Latin America

In Latin America, Christmas Eve, known in Spanish as La Noche Buena (English translation – the good night) and in Portuguese as Véspera de Natal (English: Christmas Eve), is celebrated by staying up until midnight. At midnight, gifts and presents are opened. Fireworks are also shot off. Fireworks are the main focus of the celebration. It is not a silent night, with families coming together exchanging presents and going to church. After Christmas the children often play with their new presents or go to church with their families.

Spain

As in Latin America, Christmas Eve is also known as Nochebuena in Spain. There are two important traditions: attending Christmas Mass, and enjoying a meal with friends and family.

There is a wide variety of typical foods one might find on plates across Spain on this particular night, and each region has its own distinct specialties. It is particularly common, however, to start the meal with a seafood dish such as prawns or salmon, followed by a bowl of hot, homemade soup. The main meal will commonly consist of roast lamb, or seafood, such as cod or shellfish. For dessert, there is quite a spread of delicacies, among them are turrón, a dessert made of honey, egg and almonds that is Arabic in origin. Seafood is very common.

Iceland and Norway

In Iceland and Norway, Yule (jul/jól) starts on the night of December 24, at 6:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. respectively. Church bells ring at that time and people either sit down for holiday dinner at home or with their family. After that they open gifts and spend the evening together. In Iceland people most often eat hamborgarahryggur and svínabógur.

Poland

 Polish Oplatki (Christmas
Wafer) in a basket.

In Poland, the traditional Christmas meal is known as Wigilia ("Vigil"), and being invited to attend a Wigilia dinner with a family is considered a high honour. Before eating everyone exchanges Christmas greetings with each other by giving a piece of Christmas wafer (Opłatki), usually stamped with a religious image, such as the Nativity scene. There is a tradition of having either 7 or 12 (or its multiple) Lenten (meatless) dishes. One has to try every single dish to avoid bad luck next year. Dishes are usually fish based, with carp being very important in Poland. After dinner, children open presents from under the Christmas Tree. Later people attend Midnight Mass to solemnly celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Serbia, Republika Srpska and Montenegro

The Serbian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, which is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian, so Christmas Eve (December 24) as celebrated by the Serbs coincides with January 6 on the latter calendar. In Serbian Christmas traditions, the head of household goes in the morning into a forest to select a young, straight oak tree and fell it. A log cut from this tree, up to 2.5 meters (8.2 ft) long, is called badnjak and has an important role in the celebration. It is in the evening ceremoniously taken into the house and laid on the fire that burns on the house’s fireplace called ognjište, whose hearth is without a vertical surround. The burning of the badnjak is accompanied by prayers to God so that the coming year may bring much happiness, love, luck, riches, and food. Since most houses today have no ognjište on which to burn a badnjak, it is symbolically represented by several leaved oak twigs. For the convenience of people who live in towns and cities, they can be bought at marketplaces or received in churches.

The Serbs also take a bundle of straw into the house and spread it over the floor, and then walnuts on it. Before the table is served for the Christmas Eve dinner, it is strewn with a thin layer of straw and covered with a white cloth. The head of household makes the Sign of the Cross, lights a candle, and censes the whole house. The family members sit down at the table, but before tucking in they all rise and a man or boy among them says a prayer, or they together sing the Troparion of the Nativity. After the dinner young people visit their friends, a group of whom may gather at the house of one of them. Christmas and other songs are sung, while the elderly narrate stories from the olden times.

Since the early 1990s, the Serbian Orthodox Church has, together with local communities, organized public celebrations on Christmas Eve. The course of these celebrations can be typically divided into three parts: the preparation, the ritual, and the festivity. The preparation consists of going and cutting down the tree to be used as the badnjak, taking it to the church yard, and preparing drink and food for the assembled parishioners. The ritual includes Vespers, placing the badnjak on the open fire built in the church yard, blessing or consecrating the badnjak, and an appropriate program with songs and recitals. In some parishes they build the fire on which to burn the badnjak not in the church yard but at some other suitable location in their town or village. The festivity consists of getting together around the fire and socializing. Each particular celebration, however, has its own specificities which reflect traditions of the local community, and other local factors.

North America

Most households circulate wrapped gifts in the two weeks before Christmas Day. In North America, gifts are most commonly opened on the morning of Christmas Day; however, families may also choose to open all or some of their presents on Christmas Eve, depending on evolving family traditions, logistics, and the age of the children involved. E.g., adults might open their presents on Christmas Eve and minor children open their presents on Christmas morning, or everyone might open their gifts on Christmas morning.

In Quebec and among many French-speaking families living in other provinces, the Réveillon is held on Christmas Eve with traditional food such as tourtière, attendance at church, and the opening of gifts. It is also common tradition throughout the United States and Canada, for children to leave a glass of milk and plate of cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve by the fireplace and a carrot for the reindeer. Similar traditions occur in Mexico, Central America including El Salvador; however, the name given is, as in Spain, Nochebuena.

Philippines

In the Philippines, the predominantly Roman Catholic Christian country in Asia, Christmas Eve is usually celebrated by attending the "Rooster’s Mass" or Misa del Gallo which is celebrated hours before the clock ticks 12 A.M. signifying the arrival of Christmas Day. After attending church, Filipino families usually hold a feast named Noche Buena to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. A great variety of food is eaten during this feast, an event that usually is done with great preparation. Foods being prepared include the famous lechón, quezo de bola, hamón (Christmas ham), roast chicken (turkey did not gain much popularity in the Philippines), barbecued meats, pancit, among many others. Despite the fact that some families are poor, they still find a way to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ through eating, family time and merry-making.

Finland

 It is traditional in Finland to bring
candles to the graves of loved ones
on Christmas Eve and All Saints Day.

Most of the traditions, such as Christmas dinner and gift giving, are observed on this day. Santa Claus visits homes in person, played by an older family member or a rent-a-Santa.

The Declaration of Christmas Peace has been a tradition in Finland from the Middle Ages every year, except in 1939 due to the Winter War. The declaration takes place on the Old Great Square of Turku, Finland’s official Christmas City and former capital, at noon on Christmas Eve. It is broadcast on Finnish radio (since 1935) and television, and nowadays also in some foreign countries.

The declaration ceremony begins with the hymn Jumala ompi linnamme (Martin Luther’s A Mighty Fortress Is Our God) and continues with the Declaration of Christmas Peace read from a parchment roll:

"Tomorrow, God willing, is the most gracious feast of the birth of our Lord and Saviour, and therefore a general Christmas peace is hereby declared, and all persons are directed to observe this holiday with due reverence and otherwise quietly and peacefully to conduct themselves, for whosoever breaks this peace and disturbs the Christmas holiday by any unlawful or improper conduct shall be liable, under aggravating circumstances, to whatever penalty is prescribed by law and decree for each particular offence or misdemeanour. Finally, all citizens are wished a joyous Christmas holiday."

The Ceremony ends with trumpets playing the Finnish national anthem Maamme and Porilaisten marssi, with the crowd usually singing when the band plays Maamme.

Recently, there is also a declaration of Christmas peace for forest animals in many cities and municipalities, so there is no hunting during Christmas.

In Finland people usually take a Christmas sauna. The tradition is very old. Unlike on normal days, when going to sauna is in the evening, on Christmas Eve it is before sunset. This tradition is based on a pre-20th century belief that the spirits of the dead return and have a sauna at the usual sauna hours.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, Christmas Eve is gradually losing its original meaning. In older days, the Catholic part of the country, roughly half, mainly the south, used to attend mass; usually between 11:00 pm and 12:30. This custom is still upheld but by fewer people every year. Christmas Eve is these days a rather normal evening without any special gatherings or meals. The day of Christmas is another matter. That day is a special day for most families. Usually people have elaborate dinners with friends and relatives. The Dutch call December 25 Eerste Kerstdag, "first Christmas day". This day is a national holiday as is December 26, called Tweede Kerstdag, "second Christmas day". In families, it is custom to spend these days with either side of the relatives.

Sweden

In Sweden, most Christmas celebrations take place on Christmas Eve, including Santa Claus’s distribution of Christmas presents. Until the 20th century, presents were instead distributed by the Yule Goat, still today used as Christmas decoration and remembered by the famous Gävle goat. Christmas dishes and meals are always served on Julbord (Christmas table), and often contain Christmas ham and the world-famous Janssons frestelse. Many families also watch Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul (From All of Us to All of You), Karl Bertil Jonssons julafton, or a re-run of the Svensson, Svensson episode God Jul! (Merry Christmas) on the TV channel SVT1.

Denmark

In Denmark, during Christmas Eve an elaborate dinner is eaten with the family, consisting of roast pork, roast duck, or roast goose with potatoes, red cabbage and gravy. For dessert is rice pudding with a cherry sauce, traditionally with an almond hidden inside. The lucky finder of this almond is entitled to a small gift. After the meal is complete, the family gather around the Christmas tree to sing Christmas carols and dance hand in hand around the tree. Then the children often hand out the presents which are opened immediately. This is followed by candy, chips, various nuts, clementines, and sometimes a mulled and spiced wine with almonds and raisins called Gløgg is served hot in small cups.

United Kingdom

In the UK, Santa Claus is often called Father Christmas. In households with younger children the preparations for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve depend on individual family traditions. Sometimes the children will be involved in leaving some sustenance for Father Christmas and his reindeer. Traditionally this would have consisted of a glass of sherry or brandy and a mince pie for Father Christmas and some carrots for Rudolph. The hanging of Christmas stockings to receive presents is a much-loved tradition that is still practiced by many.Few families open their presents on Christmas Eve (the Royal family being a notable exception).

On the day itself, preparations are quickly underway for the Christmas lunch where the whole family will gather for ‘turkey and all the trimmings’ and the obligatory Christmas Crackers. Attendance at a Christmas Day church service continues to be popular. Watching the Queen’s Speech on TV is a tradition that still remains hugely important in many households’ Christmas Day typically averaging 10 million viewers on TV and 2m listeners via radio.

   

Background and biographical information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Christmas Eve can be found at…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Eve

by Gerald Boerner

  

Clement Clarke Moore (1779 – 1863) wrote the poem “‘Twas the Night before Christmas” also called “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1822. It is now the tradition in many American families to read the poem every Christmas Eve. The poem Twas the night before Christmas has redefined our image of Christmas and Santa Claus. Prior to the creation of the story of Twas the night before Christmas St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, had never been associated with a sleigh or reindeers! The author of the poem Twas the night before Christmas was a reticent man and it is believed that a family friend, Miss H. Butler, sent a copy of the poem to the New York Sentinel who published the poem. The condition of publication was that the author of Twas the night before Christmas was to remain anonymous.

    

T’was the Night before Christmas Poem

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

“Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

Harry Truman: Christmas Greeting

In 1949, President Harry Truman sent Christmas greetings to the nation by radio from his home in Independence, Missouri:

Once more I have come out to Independence to celebrate Christmas with my family. We are back among old friends and neighbors around our own fireside… Since returning home, I have been reading again in our family Bible some of the passages which foretold this night. It was that grand old seer Isaiah who prophesized in the Old Testament the sublime event which found fulfillment almost 2,000 years ago. Just as Isaiah foresaw the coming of Christ, so another battler for the Lord, St. Paul, summed u the law and the prophets in a glorification of love which he exalts even above both faith and hope.

We miss the spirit of Christmas if we consider the Incarnation as an indistinct and doubtful, far-off event unrelated to our present problems. We miss the purport of Christ’s birth if we do not accept it as a living link which joins us together in spirit as children of the ever-living and true God. In love alone — the love of God and the love of man — will be found the solution of all the ills which afflict the world today. Slowly, sometimes painfully, but always with increasing purpose, emerges the great message of Christianity: only with wisdom comes joy, and with greatness comes love.

In the spirit of the Christ Child — as little children with joy in our hearts and peace in our souls — let us, as a nation, dedicate ourselves anew to the love of our fellowmen. In such a dedication we shall find the message of the Child of Bethlehem, the real meaning of Christmas.

National Christmas Tree

The tradition of having a National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C. began in 1923 when a 48-foot Balsam Fir from Vermont was placed in the Ellipse outside the White House. On Christmas Eve, President Calvin Coolidge lit the 2,500 red, white and green electric bulbs on the tree.

From his home in Missouri,
President Truman signaled the
lighting of the National Christmas
Tree via remote control every
Christmas from 1948 to 1951.

In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had the tree moved from the Ellipse to the White House grounds, where it remained until 1954 when it was returned to the Ellipse. In 1946, the lighting ceremony became a televised event, though not with widespread telecast. From 1948 to 1951, President Harry S. Truman signaled the lighting of the tree by remote control from his Independence, Missouri home, but in 1952, he stayed at the White House for the lighting ceremony. In 1953, the ceremony was widely telecast and President Dwight David Eisenhower’s address was radio broadcast through the Voice of America in thirty-four languages.

In 1954, businessmen in the Washington, D.C. area became involved and greatly expanded the program with the Christmas Pageant of Peace. The Pageant centered around the lighting of the Christmas tree, and included various elements such as a life-sized reproduction of the nativity scene. Every year from 1954 to 1972, a tree was cut and brought to the White House from a different US state and installed at the Ellipse. The ceremony of the tree lighting was then followed by Christmas presentations through the holiday season.

Christmas cards

The first White House Christmas card was sent during the administration of Dwight David Eisenhower in 1953. President Eisenhower was an amateur artist and personally consulted with the head of Hallmark cards on the project. Over the course of two terms, the Eisenhower White House issued 38 different cards and prints with many of them bearing the President’s own artwork. The tradition was continued during the Kennedy years with Jacqueline Kennedy’s artwork featured on a 1963 card issued to raise funds for a national performing arts center.

 Greeting cards published in
the post-War years displayed
reassuring sentiments
and art.

Early in the post-War years, cards exhibited traditional sentiments and art that reassured war weary Americans. As the 1960s neared, however, sophisticated, adult-oriented cards called “Slim Jims” began appearing on the market. The cards displayed Santas driving fin-tailed convertibles and beatniks delivering greetings in hepcat lingo. The highly stylized cards remained popular well into the 1960s, poking fun at fads and world events. Family photo cards and newsletters (meticulously handwritten or typed by busy moms) became commonplace during the 1960s as well.

Hallmark brought African American culture to greeting cards in the 1960s as well as contemporary cultural images such as elves sporting Beatle haircuts and psychedelic Christmas trees in Warholesque colors. “Happy Christmas” replaced “Merry Christmas” here and there after clergymen decided the traditional greeting was associated with inebriation. In 1961, 50 billion Christmas cards were mailed by Americans, and, in 1962, America’s first Christmas postage stamp was issued—causing a mild firestorm by those who felt the stamp violated separation of church and state.

Other Events on this Day

• In 1651…
  By order of Puritan lawmakers in Massachusetts, any colonist caught observing Christmas with feasts or other festivities is fined five shillings.
• In 1776…
  George Washington’s army crosses the Delaware River on Christmas night for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey, the next morning.
• In 1830…
  In South Carolina the Best Friend of Charleston becomes the first U.S. locomotive to begin regularly scheduled passenger service.
• In 1868…
  President Andrew Johnson grants an unconditional pardon to all Confederates involved in the Civil War.
• In 1896…
  John Philip Sousa completes his most famous march, “Stars and Stripes Forever”.

Dates and events based on:

William J. Bennett and John Cribb, (2008) The American Patriot’s Almanac Daily Readings on America. (Kindle Edition)

Background information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Harry S. Truman can be found at…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman

Post-War Christmas can be found at…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_the_post-War_United_States