The Psychology of Santa

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SANTA No part of this digital document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means. The publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this digital document, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained herein. This digital document is sold with the clear understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, medical or any other professional services.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SANTA

CAROLE S. SLOTTERBACK

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York

Copyright © 2009 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. For permission to use material from this book please contact us: Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175 Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com NOTICE TO THE READER The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers’ use of, or reliance upon, this material. Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Slotterback, Carole S. The psychology of santa / Carole S. Slotterback. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-61668-340-5 (E-Book) 1. Santa Claus--Psychological aspects. 2. Christmas--History. 3. Christmas--United States--History. I. Title. GT4985.S54 2009 394.2663--dc22 2008055492

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Ô New York

DEDICATION This book is lovingly dedicated to my grandmother, Anastasia Martish Kendter (a.k.a. Stella), who passed away on July 2, 2006 at age 88, and to my son, Jeremiah Douglas Oakes, who is seven (and growing!)

CONTENTS Foreword

ix

Preface

xiii

Acknowledgments

xv

Chapter 1

I’ll Be Home for Christmas…Christmas in War

Chapter 2

Christmas Tradition Origins

21

Chapter 3

“So, Santa, Tell Me About Your Childhood…”

43

Chapter 4

The Santa Letters

65

Chapter 5

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

91

Index

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113

FOREWORD

MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS PAST When I think of Christmas, dozens of images come to mind. One of my earliest memories is of sitting at the top of the stairs in the dark and the cold, my brother at my side, eagerly awaiting our parents’ permission to run down the stairs to see what Santa had brought. We never could figure out why the grownups weren’t as excited as we were: 3 a.m., 4 a.m., what did a clock matter? There were presents down below! Each memory stirs dozens more, like my brother’s complete inability to wait until Christmas to see what our parents had gotten him (and how he fell through the ceiling while snooping up in the attic). The Christmas Eve parties at my grandfather’s house (my father’s father) stand out in particular. All the relatives would come and crowd into the small house. Glittering decorations and streamers hung across the ceiling, a tree dripped with tinsel, and there was food—all kinds of food, platters of it everywhere! The candy was also impressive—candy canes, hard candies, the chocolates—and the grownups so preoccupied with each other that the kids reigned supreme over the candy dishes, poking holes in all the bottoms of the chocolates to see where our favorites were.

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Carole S. Slotterback

Christmas at my grandmother’s house (my mother’s mother) meant a big meal (everyone brought at least one dish) and many delectable smells perfuming the air. I remember sitting at my grandmother’s dining room table with its thick, dark wooden legs and a lace tablecloth over all. So much food was on the table there was barely enough room for the place settings, and we all crowded around the edges, passing the dishes to and fro. The Christmas tree stood in the parlor, in its tinseled glory, trains looping around the bottom, with the laughter and hum of talk buzzing and swirling around me. Many of my Christmas memories include my mother as well. We would tromp through snow to find the perfect Christmas tree, bake dozens of cookies to have on hand when visitors came, go shopping and make things: ah, the glee of finding or making a present that was just perfect for the intended recipient—what fun! What anticipation! What stress!

A-RESEARCHING WE GO… But what does research say about our time-honored customs and traditions? Many sources describe the stress and strain families are under today, and suggest that we need to develop more family traditions that will provide some sense of stability and belonging (Ban Breathnach, 1990). Some suggest that our society has become more informal and fragmented (e.g., Wallace, 1997). This may be echoed in the manner in which children write letters to Santa, and in the kind and number of customs that people keep with regard to the Christmas season. How many children continue to write traditional letters, use “please” or “thank-you,” or refer to time-honored customs such as concern for the North Pole family (e.g., Santa, Mrs. Claus, Rudolph, the elves) and mentioning being good? Have lists of toy requests replaced this way of life? Psychologists and other researchers have examined a number of aspects of Christmas, and they offer an interesting interpretation of our lives and customs. My own interest in research on Christmas was sparked by an exercise I developed for students in my Research Methods laboratory class. I had seen a poster presentation given at a conference about the types of toys requested in children’s letters to Santa Claus, and thought that analyzing children’s letters would be a fun and educational project for my own students. Once I secured the permission of the Scranton Postmaster, a few assistants and I headed down to the post office to copy letters. The glitter, the greed, and the generosity of those letters captivated me. What other research, I wondered, had been done with letters to Santa and, more generally, Christmas customs? My search took me through

Forward

xi

decades of psychological research, as well as studies in sociology, communication, history, and advertising. The chapters that follow represent my efforts to compile the history of several Christmas customs and Santa Claus, as well as what research can reveal to us about how psychologists and others view these customs and what they represent to our culture.

REFERENCES Ban Breathnach, S. (1990). Mrs. Sharp’s traditions: Nostalgic suggestions for recreating the family celebrations and seasonal pastimes of the Victorian home. New York: Simon and Schuster. Wallace, C. (1996). Elbows off the table, napkin in the lap, no video games during dinner: The modern guide to teaching children good manners. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

PREFACE The Psychology of Santa examines decades of psychological research, as well as studies in sociology, communication, history, and advertising, all of which deal with Christmas. The book examines what research can reveal to us about how psychologists and others view these customs and what they represent to our culture. A number of aspects of Christmas are explored, and this book offers an intriguing interpretation of our lives and customs. Topics covered include how Christmas is celebrated during wars, a history of selected customs and whether families today still engage in them, how different traditions of psychologists view Christmas, Christmas and stress, Christmas and depression and suicide, children’s letters to Santa Claus, and children’s beliefs in Santa and how they change with age.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like first of all to thank my husband, Michael Oakes, for his assistance and support. I couldn’t have done this without him! Another vital person was Mr. Timothy Primerano, the postmaster for the Scranton area—he entrusted me with something priceless: children’s letters to Santa. The librarians and inter-library loan staff at the University of Scranton’s library also deserve special thanks for helping me track down some obscure references. Dr. Ludy Benjamin also deserves a thank-you for kindly sending me Francis Duncombe’s 1896 research article and his support for this project. To the Research Methods Laboratory students who participated in the initial stages of the letter analyses, and particularly Ms. Jeanne Brolan and Nina Nonnenmacher, who went on to do poster presentations with some of the data—what a great bunch of students! Also, I would like to thank Jackie DiBrienza and Tiffany Bator for their help with the Christmas Traditions Survey, and Sarah George and Lou Guzzi for their help in coding letters. A special thank-you also to the folks at the Howard Gardner School for Discovery in Scranton, who let me camp out in the hallways and write, and to Mrs. Donna Rupp, who always had words of encouragement. Last, but not least, thanks to my parents, Barbara and Lear Slotterback, who started me on this journey with their love and so many good memories of Christmases past.

Chapter 1

I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS… CHRISTMAS IN WAR

What is most important about Christmas? One way to answer this question is to take a look at people who are not home to celebrate the holiday, and examine what they say they miss the most. First-hand accounts of soldiers and other armed services personnel who were serving during times of war and who were away from home for the holidays because of that service provide one avenue to research. Service men and women, in letters to loved ones (and in diaries), would write of having celebrations far from home, and the difficulties and happiness that

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they experienced trying to fashion a celebration out of odd bits and pieces of materials. These Christmas trappings have come to mean so much to us that their mere presence can take us miles away and bring us back to happier times, no matter what the current circumstances. Although the war situations differed drastically (both within a war itself and across historical eras), soldiers and other personnel still endeavored to find ways to keep Christmas, whether they were deep in the jungles of Vietnam or the Pacific rim, or the deserts of North Africa, or anywhere in between. This chapter brings together their stories of how and what they celebrated.

A letter from the 2001 Christmas season.


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THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (1861-1865) When the eleven Southern states that supported slavery seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, President Abraham Lincoln and the remaining states (the Union) opposed the movement (and the use of slavery), rejecting any notion of secession. Fighting began in 1861 when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and hostilities would last until 1865. Over 600,000 men died in the conflict, which bitterly divided the North and the South. Whether you supported the North or the South, patriotism was what called you to duty, with boys as young as twelve volunteering to serve as drummers with the fighting units. Bruce Catton, a noted historian of the Civil War era, reflected on several Civil War Veterans he had known, remarking that at the time of the Civil War, “…patriotism was automatic, something one simply takes for granted, something that comes into a person along with the air he breathes…it was an unspoken, compelling attitude of mind. You grew up in this country, and enjoyed the life that was possible here; some day when you were grown, your country needed you—and no matter what it asked of you, you stepped up and gave it, and considered yourself lucky to have the chance. That was all there was to it” (Catton, 1958, p. 69). Both sides believed the conflict would be over quickly, and in 1861, many letters home described “camaraderie and high jinks, brass bands and sports, good food and drink” (McIvor, 2005, p. 2). As the years dragged on the fighting became bloodier and shortages made celebrations difficult. The most fervent desire of all the troops was to be home for Christmas, as evidenced in the large number of applications for furloughs around the holidays (Rawlings, 1998). Some lucky men were granted such furloughs: In 1862, Emerson Opdycke (a Union general), in his diaries, wrote of how wonderful it was to be able to spend Christmas at home. When he returned to camp a few days later, he didn’t want to go, and remarked that “It is very sad but duty calls and all else must yield” (Richards, 1985-1986, p. 29). The next year (1863) saw him in the field, but still able to take some time to enjoy a special meal with General Cox and his men: “We had oyster soup, roast turkey, roast chicken, potatoes, bread, hard tack, a kind of field bread, pepper sauce, jelly, coffee with …sugar in it and a pudding…eaten from white dishes too!” (Richards, 1985-1986, p. 30). Christmas of 1864 found him in battle, in the cold and the mud, dead men waiting to be buried all around, and not much to eat. Richards (1985-1986) believes that at times such as these, the men of the army could only keep Christmas in their hearts, and that their doing so was a selfless act which should be remembered.

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Second Lieutenant William Burgwyn in Fredericksburg had found some clothing that helped to keep him warm on a cloudy Christmas day in 1862: “’there was no gaiety in the camp at all,’ he wrote his mother. ‘I was in hope I would get a letter to enliven the day, for a duller Christmas I never wish to be my lot to pass’” (Werner, 1998, p. 37). One plantation south of the battlefield was entertaining some men who had come to join the Southern army. The children had put up a tree and decorated it with holly and candle stubs, and had made pincushions for the soldiers as Christmas presents, although there were no pins to be found. The soldiers contributed a box of candy to the celebration (Werner, 1998). Despite the hardships and the battle lines drawn, there were some acts of kindness between the opposing forces. In Winchester, Virginia, which was occupied by Union troops, the wife of a Confederate general lived and taught dance classes for the local boys and girls. The children wanted to buy some sugar, coffee, and tea for a present for her that Christmas. Unfortunately, the Union troops had ordered the merchants who traveled with the army not to sell any such items to the general public as they feared it would be sent on to help Confederate troops. Five little girls of the dancing class decided to go straight to the Union colonel to ask him for permission to buy their teacher a present: “Ushered into the commander’s presence, they explained their errand and were immediately set at ease when the colonel gently agreed to take care of the matter for them. That afternoon up came the colonel’s orderly with twenty pounds of sugar and a large packet of coffee and tea (I suppose five times as much as our money would have bought) and a nice letter with three one-dollar greenbacks, saying that he was glad to contribute to the brave little girls who wished to give a Christmas present to the wife of a Confederate general who had given her time for our amusement” (McIvor, 2005, pp. 26-27). Christmas on the front lines could still be a spectacle, even if Santa was nowhere to be found. George Peck, a newspaper publisher who was with the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry, offered this description of Christmas Eve in their camp which was south of Baton Rouge, Louisiana during Christmas of 1864: “The boys went off in the woods and got holly and mistletoe, and every pup tent in the whole regiment was decorated, and they hung nose bags, grain sacks, army socks and pants on the trees…the woods rang with music from the boys who could sing, and everybody was as happy as I ever saw a crowd of people…in the morning they all got up, stripped the empty stockings off the evergreen trees, put them on, and went on down the road” (no author, 1964, p. 2).


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Another letter from the 2001 Christmas season.

Thomas Nast (a great American illustrator who had a decided influence on how Santa Claus was depicted) and other illustrators of the time often drew pictures that reflected the practice of sending the troops “Christmas Boxes” which contained clothes and food—and gave a mental boost as well (Rawlings, 1998). Henry Douglas was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg and captured, whereupon he was sent to Johnson’s Island Prison in Ohio. The prisoners were allowed to receive Christmas Boxes (after they had been inspected). One of the items in his box was a bottle of old brandy, which he had looked forward to opening: “On Christmas morning I quietly called several comrades up to my bunk to taste the precious fluid of …DISAPPOINTMENT! The bottle had been opened outside, the brandy taken and replaced with water, adroitly recorded, and sent in. I hope the Yankee who played that practical joke lived to repent it and was shot before the war ended” (Rawlings, p. 49). Christmas in the prisoner camp Andersonville, where Northern POWs were housed, was grim. The prisoners talked about their families, presents, and the foods they missed the most (turkeys, mince pies and fruitcake). Their Christmas dinner in the camp consisted of three ounces of cold beef and a chunk of coarse unsalted cornmeal. William Smith, one of the POWs, wrote this description of the ordeal in 1864:

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Carole S. Slotterback The sun…was rapidly sinking in the west, the December air becoming quite chilly. We all needed something with which to warm us up, so in the absence of any warm rations to eat or drink we improved our Christmas repast somewhat by removing the thick upper and lower crusts from our corn bread, which we toasted brown by our little fires, broke up into small bits, and in our can or bucket each made himself a quart of smoking hot “Andersonville” coffee. This we drank and ate, grounds and all, and I venture that no tea, or chocolate, or coffee drank in any Northern home that Christmas evening was relished by us shivering prisoners, huddled around our little fires sipping our warm beverage out of our black buckets, cups, wooden plates, or cowhorns, as did our improvised Andersonville coffee. All the while [we were] slowly nibbling our cold beef and corn bread so as to make them last as long as possible, and the meanwhile talking over the probable features of Christmas dinners at our homes and wondering if we should ever live to join our dear ones again on these festive occasions (Werner, 1998, pp. 102-103).

WORLD WAR I (1914-1918) When Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb student in 1914, a complex series of alliances drew many major European powers into war with each other. Initially, France, Russia, and Great Britain (the Allied Powers) fought against the Central Powers: Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire (a Turkish state which controlled large areas in the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa). Later, Italy and the United States joined the Allied Powers. All involved seemed to feel that the war would be over quickly (“Home by Christmas” was the word in the street): none dreamed that it would last so long, nor be so terrible (Wakefield, 2006). The nature of warfare had changed from the times of the Civil War: now the fighting took place in trenches, and increased mechanization in the form of planes and other vehicles brought death farther and faster afield than ever before. Yet the individuals who did the fighting, the everyday, regular men called to duty on both sides, had much in common, as was evidenced by a remarkable happening at Christmas in 1914. An informal truce between German and English forces was called, with men from both sides leaving their trenches to meet each other, exchange commodities, and bury their dead. This happening, documented in many sources, apparently greatly alarmed the senior officers and leaders: they were afraid that the men would want to stop fighting once they started fraternizing with “the enemy.”


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Sir Edward Hamilton Westrow Hulse, of the Scots Guards, wrote home to his mother of the events of Christmas 1914. His company had just relieved the previous watch in the trenches on Christmas day when they saw four unarmed Germans approaching their line. He ordered two of his men to meet them: during the following hours, the men exchanged stories and opinions of everything from the type of bullets used to the stories that were appearing in the press. Souvenirs were exchanged, carols were sung (with each side trying to outperform the other), some much-needed repair work was done on the trenches, and the men on both sides had a chance to bury their dead. The truce lasted until evening of the 26th: “I had instructions not to fire till the enemy did; I told them; and so the same comic form of temporary truce continued on the 26th, and again at 4:30 p.m. I informed them that the truce was at an end. We had sent them over some plum-puddings, and they thanked us heartily for them and retired again…” (Lewis, 2003, p. 71). The soldiers who participated in the truce debated whether it was right or wrong among themselves, and one wrote to a brother that “Some people have different opinions as to the rightness or wrongness of this informal Xmas truce—personally I do not see that it can do anything but good, and that the more widely it is known the better it will be. It enabled our people and those opposite them likewise to discover that they are both human beings, and though now again we are each doing all we can against each other, I hope many will do it without the same feeling of personal enmity that probably was in many cases present before” (Wakefield, 2006).

A WWI postcard, with Santa dressed in white and American soldiers in his pack, chasing a German soldier. Copyright 2002, Robert C. Hoffman, Postcards from Santa Claus: Sights and sentiments from the last century.

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Some soldiers were fortunate enough to be housed with local families and got to share in their Christmas celebrations, which eased the homesickness that many felt especially at this time of the year. Others were not so fortunate, and spent the holiday in prisoner of war camps: Pte Thomas Rainbird was wounded and captured in September 1914, and was in the Doberitz Prisoner-of-War camp. “I must give an account of how we spent Xmas in camp. A good many of us received parcels from home containing cakes and puddings etc these were heroically put to one side, until Xmas day, then each man who had anything took a chum who had not received anything and shared with him, so that every man had a little taste of the homeland, on Xmas Eve there was a heavy fall of snow, and Xmas morning we awoke to find a fine morning and three or four inches of snow on the ground. Then the fun started. The English and French formed sides against the Russians and then commenced a right battle royal. First the English rushed the Russian lines, with a terrible shout, the same shout doing more to dishearten the enemy than the actual snowballs. Charging and counter charging was the order all morning” (Wakefield, 2006, pp. 20-21). Another truce experience was initiated in 1915: Llewellyn Wyn Griffith wrote of how “…toward midnight we heard voices from the German trenches and some snatches of song: they were making merry. The night was still, and its quiet was unbroken by rifle or machine-gun fire…the battalion on our right was shouting to the enemy, and he was responding. Gradually the shouts became more deliberate, and we could hear “Merry Christmas, Tommy”, and “Merry Christmas, Fritz”. As soon as it became light, we saw hands and bottles being waved at us, with encouraging shouts that we could neither understand nor misunderstand. A drunken German stumbled over his parapet and advanced through the barbed wire, followed by several others, and in a few moments there was a rush of men from both sides, carrying tins of meat, biscuits, and other odd commodities for barter…the officers called our men back to the line, and in a few minutes No Man’s Land was once again empty and desolate…an irate Brigadier came spluttering up to the line, thundering hard, throwing a “court martial” into every other sentence, ordering an extra dose of militant action that night, and breathing fury everywhere” (Lewis, 2003, p. 156). Any attempts at truces were quickly snuffed by paranoid higher commands on both sides. Indeed, the German commanders declared that any of their soldiers leaving the trenches could be shot for desertion, while events of 1915 (e.g., bombing of British towns by zeppelins, the sinking of the Lusitania) left fewer British soldiers inclined to initiate such a truce (Wakefield, 2006).


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Another WWI postcard, with a little girl teaching an American doughboy to speak French. Copyright 2002, Robert C. Hoffman, Postcards from Santa Claus: Sights and sentiments from the last century.

Armies from Australia and New Zealand joined in the fighting in 1916. Driver Alan Gillespie, 2nd Ammunition Sub-park Transport, AIF, wrote of his first Christmas away: “I shall tell you how I spent Christmas; I guess very differently to anybody out in dear Australia. (Oh, lovely land of sunshine.) Well, we went to bed as soon as we could last night, as we were very tired, having been going from 7 o’clock in the morning till 8 at night, first with a load of coal and then with a very big load of rations, which we took to a spot over twenty miles away…It was pouring rain, dark, and as cold as charity. I thought, ‘A merry Xmas, and no mistake.’ We were up to our ankles in mud, and the engine was in a terrible starting humour” (Wakefield, 2006, pp. 87-89). Members of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) were also having a unique Christmas experience: “We should have got in for Xmas Eve, but a great salt lake intervened: these areas are very dangerous, we often got our horses in up to the girths in the neighborhood of the lakes and in places there are awful quicksands where horses entirely disappeared in a few minutes…We had reached an island in the middle of the frozen lake when Xmas dawn broke: all the stars had faded except one wonderful star in the East…A great awe had come over man and beast. I halted and looked down the line, it was quite uncanny for there was neither sound nor motion…and then weirder that all in this place of infinite solitude, music came from some near but invisible source: ‘Adeste Fidelis’ and ‘Hark! The Herald Angels’…” (Wakefield, 2006, p. 101). Conditions at the front lines contributed to many small truces on Christmas Day 1917, despite orders against it. Pte Arthur Burke, 20th Manchesters, wrote of

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how things went: “…Fritz and us up here are on absolutely speaking terms—he comes over and exchanges cigs etc—it got so frequent it had to be stopped and even after our order to quit, two of our boys got 28 days for going out and meeting him half way for a chat…” (Wakefield, 2006, p. 78). Rifleman B. F. Eccles, 7th (S) Battalion, was in Passchendaele Ridge at Christmas in 1917, trying to guide a battalion of men to the front line to provide relief for the soldiers there. Between the thick snow and a bright moon, the way was extremely difficult (“A big slice of Hell,” as he put it): the German soldiers, thinking an attack was occurring, called in their artillery. The battalion was forced to scurry from shell hole to shell hole, trying to make their way forward. After what seemed an eternity, the British artillery responded, which promptly shut down the German shelling, and what was left of the battalion escaped the danger zone (Lewis, 2003). Christmas dinner in the trenches at Ypres Salient was not much to boast about. Pte Alfred Lewis, 6th Northamptons, described the conditions: “Our Christmas dinner in the line or shell holes was composed of tins of bully beef and a few hard biscuits thrown into a canteen, with a big handful of snow to make water. We could make some Bully stew for dinner that day and we enjoyed it fine, as there was nothing else to have at that time. Snow was the only thing we could use to make water as we couldn’t use the water in our bottles we carried for it. It was a crime then which would have won us 14 days pay stopped, and we didn’t want that now…” (Wakefield, 2006, p. 122). The Royal Engineers had quite a celebration, according to one captain (Eustace Vachell): “The turkey was excellent so was Walford’s plum pudding. After dinner the sergeants came over and serenaded us so we had them all into the Mess and had quite a rowdy evening. It was lucky I think that Xmas comes only once a year. It snowed during the afternoon and evening—real proper Xmas weather. The war didn’t quite stop, our guns were firing slowly all afternoon and we had some observation balloons up but things were comparatively quiet” (Wakefield, 2006, p. 134). Some of the men had discovered a nest with several goslings in it, and decided to raise them for their Christmas dinner. They made a pen for the geese in an abandoned building in their camp, and all contributed to their care, even standing guard over them for several weeks. However, when Christmas came, they found their “guard” drunk (bribed by another company) and the geese gone!


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By Christmas 1918, the war was over, but the men were still deployed in a variety of places to keep the peace and help with rebuilding. As before, their celebrations focused on being able to have a special meal (scrounged from whatever sources they could) and some entertainment as well. One of their more important missions at this time was reaching out to populations that had been schooled to think of the Allied forces as devils. Pte Watts, of the 2/4th Hampshires, who was staying with a German family, wrote of one such instance: “…after a while we went in with them. They had a Christmas tree and were trying to make merry. There was the old man of the house and his wife, four daughters and one son. I had a mouth organ and started playing ‘The Merry Widow Waltz’. They knew that and were delighted. They got hold of us and danced round the Christmas tree and soon we were all friends (not enemies). This was to be our home until the first week of March…” (Wakefield, 2006, p. 183). The letters, cards, and gifts that the soldiers sent and received were instrumental in helping them cope with being away from home and having to fight in deplorable conditions. The Christmas boxes in particular were reminders to the soldiers that they were not forgotten and that what they were doing was important. In 1887, Charlotte Hamblen and her family moved to Spokane Falls, Washington from Minnesota. She describes a Christmas celebration in her diary, and wrote of

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how her little boy, upon his first taste of candy, insisted on having more. This same little boy served in World War I as a doctor, and Christmas of 1918 found him in France with a company of doctors, many from the Spokane area (Hospital Unit C), struggling with loneliness. A letter home details his delight in receiving a Christmas Box: “My Very Dearest, Your nice X-mas box arrived today and I have just finished unpacking it. You don’t know how much I appreciate it--and most of all the little picture of you. You couldn’t have sent me anything that would bring more X-mas cheer than that, and I have it propped up in front of me now where I can see it out of the corner of my eye all the time that I write, so, if this letter appears of a rambling nature, you know it is because I am thinking of you” (Mason, 1989, p. 48). British troops in 1914 received the “Princess Mary Gift Box,” which was given to over two million men. There were two types distributed: one for smokers (which had pipe tobacco, cigarettes, and a pipe, among other things) and one for non-smokers (which had a writing case, paper, pencils, and envelopes). Many of the men sent them home for safekeeping. The Christmas boxes sent to the troops from 1915 on became more of a commercial venture—some stores (e.g., Harrods, Fortnum and Mason) sold pre-packaged boxes of food and “comforts” from their “war comforts departments” (Wakefield, 2006). But whatever the source, the men were very glad to receive them and know that they were in the thoughts of their loved ones. The Christmas boxes received by the troops came not only from family and friends, but also from larger groups of citizens in towns and cities, all of whom wanted to help boost morale of their troops.

WORLD WAR II (1939-1945) The Second World War was a global affair, involving armed forces from nations on several continents. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in the Nazi Party to lead Germany, he began a campaign to “liberate” surrounding countries and return them to their “Aryan” heritage. Initially working with the Soviet Union, Hitler invaded Poland. Later, Italy joined forces with them. The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and France then declared war on Germany. Subsequently, Germany invaded Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, and North Africa. Then Hitler turned against the Soviet Union, invading that country in a surprise attack.


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A WWII postcard from the Seamen’s House (a service from the YMCA for our country’s sailors and Merchant Marines). Copyright 2002, Robert C. Hoffman, Postcards from Santa Claus: Sights and sentiments from the last century.

The Empire of Japan joined forces with Germany and Italy, invading China, then attacking French colonies. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States attempted to block Japan’s access to oil, whereupon Japan launched surprise attacks on the United States, Thailand, and British colonies on December 7th and 8th. A few days later, Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States. Soldiers from dozens of countries, speaking a variety of languages, came to be involved in the conflict. Despite their surface differences, the soldiers, both Allied and Axis, shared a number of similarities. One constant theme found in writings about war and soldiers is a longing for home, and the vision the soldiers had of their homes was idealistic: it was a place frozen in time and perfect in nature, which made it all the more worth fighting for (Brown, 1985). Private John Liefert, in a letter to a friend, captures this element: “Christmas eve morning, time 6 a.m. The moon is shining brightly and the morning is calm and peaceful. Between the mess halls stands a pine tree decorated with colored lights. It stands out sharply in the early morning darkness. A symbol of what we are fighting for! The comfort of home and the security of loved ones are predominant above all. It is the love of dear ones that give us the will to win—and we will win! What we go through is a negligible price to pay for the security and peace to be gained” (Maule, 1943, pp. 29-30). Ironically, though, conducting and fighting a war

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changes irrevocably the very thing that was being fought for: so, for example, if one part of the idealized vision that the soldiers had was of their mothers or wives staying home and cooking and caring for those at home, the reality was that the drain of manpower during the war brought women out of the home and into the work force in large numbers (Catton, 1958). One member of the Medical Corps, Lieutenant Sidney Samis, wrote of his longing for his home and parents at Christmas (Maule, 1943), while Christmas 1942 found Seaman James J. Fahey in Panama, onboard the U.S.S. Montpelier, going through the canal. They worked hard taking on supplies, but had a good Christmas dinner and church services. They did not receive their Christmas mail until March 17, 1943! (Fahey, 1963). The next two years were very busy: Christmas 1943 found them refueling, removing shell cases, and loading ammunition. After a turkey dinner they sang songs and watched “an old movie.” In 1944, they were carrying stores and supplies for the ship, working hard all day. Another turkey dinner was consumed, and Seaman Fahey had a surprise waiting for him: a box of cookies from home, which he shared with some of his shipmates. Some soldiers stationed in Great Britain in 1942 had a memorable Christmas: they got to meet Queen Mary! Captain Charles Badley was one of two soldiers representing America. He brought a present for the Queen which he had put together from things sent from his relatives in the United States. The Queen gave the soldiers presents: Captain Badley received a “beautiful cigarette case of silver, engraved with her initials and the royal coat of arms…” (Maule, 1943, p. 92). He then went on to describe the dinner: During dinner most of my conversation was with Queen Mary. We discussed America and Canada and England. You will recall the favors we used to distribute at parties when we were kids. The cardboard tubes with paper tassels at the ends that we would pull causing a loud explosion. Inside was a motto, or fortune, some sort of a gift, and always a paper hat. These the English call “crackers” and a very fancy type of these were distributed during the last course of the dinner…Great laughter and much fun around the table as the favors were opened and we found our mottoes, our tiny gifts, and our paper hats. These were promptly put on and I wondered what the War Department would have done to this Captain to see him sitting along-side the Queen Mother with a pink hat that bloomed out above my khaki in tassels and frills! The fact that the Queen wore a similar headpiece might have helped (Maule, 1943, pp. 92-93).


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Lieutenant Robert Lewin was on the coast of West Africa with his troops during Christmas. “Dear Mother, Dad, Doris, and All: Your package came, and some cigarettes from Alice. The candy was marvelous. Thanks so much. If you could send a bottle of Scotch, or ten, I could easily become Lieutenant-Colonel overnight…There is actually so Godawful much to write, and it is so difficult to write it. All about Christmas and the 55 chickens we killed, and the men tight on a slight wine ration, and their laughter in the darkness, and Captain Peterson getting his child’s photo for Christmas, and saying that it was all he wanted, and the Colonel trying to create camaraderie, and a letter from Peggy, and wanting to be home, and our Christmas tree (a cork tree with tangerines and Life Savers and toilet paper and the skull of a camel)…” (Maule, 1943, pp. 111-112).

A WWII postcard that a soldier would have sent home to loved ones. This one is from the Army’s First Infantry Division. Copyright 2002, Robert C. Hoffman, Postcards from Santa Claus: Sights and sentiments from the last century.

Sergeant Sanford Cohen, in North Africa, took time to describe his Christmas as well. “…I want you to understand that there are five Jewish boys and two Catholic fellows, in the tent…So, in keeping with the principles of Americanism, we helped them celebrate their holiday…Then all the boys stood up, and I said a few Hebrew words from the Sabbath benediction, translating into English. This was followed by the singing of the Lord’s Prayer by the Wisconsin boy and

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myself, and then everybody joined in for a few carols. Then we scrambled up our eggs and, special for the occasion, we mixed in some canned corned beef that I had been saving. And with the delicious eating thereof, so ended Christmas Eve!” (Maule, 1943, pp. 141-143). Chief Petty Officer David Britt, Jr., was stationed at Henderson Field in Guadalcanal. He wrote to his sister in February: “Did you ever eat a fruitcake in a foxhole? No? Well, honey, I have, and believe me from the bottom of my heart it’s great. What I mean is, having the fruitcake to eat, not being in a darn foxhole…I was out on a hop until about 6 p.m. We had no sooner got in than a raid started. I scrammed for my foxhole with a bottle of wine in my hand. Got there and there was your package for me. One of the fellows had put it down there. He figured I’d find it there since much of our time is spent in there after dark. Please, Sis, write me as often as you can. You’d be surprised what it does to a fellow when he receives a letter from back home. When mail comes in, the Japs really catch hell then, and that’s straight dope too! Call it what you may, but it helps plenty” (Maule, 1943, pp. 187-188). Algona, Iowa, had a slightly different war-time Christmas experience: they had a large Prisoner-of-War (POW) camp just outside town, and it was to become the talk of the town for many years to come. During WWII, approximately 10,000 German POWs were processed here, with many being sent on to camps in Missouri, Minnesota, and elsewhere. The camp in Algona could hold as many as three thousand. In 1944, two decorated Christmas trees stood in front of the chapel, and in the hospital, the breakfast trays of the POWs were decorated with small evergreen wreaths tied with red ribbons, courtesy of the Algona Garden Club. Christmas was in the air, and so were thoughts of escape: a large escape attempt was foiled through the diligence of camp officers and guards. But perhaps the most lasting impression of the camp was generated in 1945 when one of the POWs, Eduard Kaib, requested permission to make an elaborate nativity scene. “Kaib had designed this magnificent diorama for a room forty feet wide, thirtythree feet deep, and twelve feet high. The seventy-five figures were to be one-half life size and include thirty-three people, four angels, and thirty-eight animals” (Lobdell, 1992, p. 177). The camp commander approved of the undertaking, with one caveat: no government funds could be used. Instead, the money for the endeavor had to come from the POWs own savings and from the prisoners’ canteen store (each man earned about 80 cents per day). All told, Mr. Kaib spent about $8000.00 to build his nativity scene, and he and five helpers spent six months constructing it. The public was invited in to view the scene, and approximately 3600 or more people came in from surrounding areas to witness it. After the camp was closed, the prisoners voted to have the scene stay in Algona,


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although they had received several offers from department stores and college campuses who wanted to buy it. The town happily accepted the nativity scene and promised to display it every Christmas, which they have (Lobdell, 1992). In sharp contrast to the Germans’ POW experience in the United States was Paul Saunders’ (612th Tank Destroyer Unit) Christmas encounter. He had been captured by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge, and he offered this account: Since Christmas was nearing I received a very welcome Christmas package from home. In the package was homemade cookies and a package of caramels from my sister…Being unable to resist the temptation, I ate most of the cookies and then stored the rest in my duffle bag. The caramels were put in a bag in my overcoat to be reserved for Christmas. Little did I realize how important those caramels would be to me later…[after the battle] We were now prisoners of the Germans and possessed nothing but the wet clothes we were wearing. I realized …it would be quite some time before we would receive any food and the fact that I still had the caramels in my coat pocket was a consolation to me…Now we began a long walk toward Germany that would last four days…we had no food during this time and the only water was obtained from ditches or a handful of snow. But I had my precious caramels and I was secretly rationing them to myself during these days. When no one was looking, I would sneak a couple. They were stuck together from being water soaked, slept on, etc., but I ate them, paper and all, as there was no way to peel the wrapping off by now…we were walked to a railroad line to board boxcars…Christmas “dinner” was given to us by the Germans. It consisted of one-eighth of a loaf of black bread with a spoonful of marmalade. That was our total food for the day. And on that day I finished my precious Christmas caramels from home (Saunders, pp. 362-363).

Little could his sister have realized how important her package, and the food contained therein, was to become. Food was important to soldiers who were not POWs as well. In Ortona, Italy, the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada were engaged in battle, yet found time to prepare a Christmas meal. The companies were fed in turn, with linen, china, and candles having been scrounged for the tables and a meal of soup, roast pork, vegetables, and Christmas pudding (and a bottle of beer!) being served to the men (Thomson, 1993).

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PATTERNS IN THE MELEE—LESSONS FROM THE PAST “We are a people to whom the past is forever speaking. We listen to it because we cannot help ourselves, for the past speaks to us with many voices. Far out of that dark nowhere which is the time before we were born, men who were flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone went through fire and storm to break a path to the future. We are part of the future they died for; they are part of the past that bought the future. What they did—the lives they lived, the sacrifices they made, the stories they told and the songs they sang and, finally, the deaths they died—make up a part of our own experience. We cannot cut ourselves off from it. It is as real to us as something that happened last week” (Catton, 1958, p. 68). What lessons can these soldiers’ accounts tell us? No matter which war you want to consider, several patterns seem evident from the writings that have been compiled here. First and foremost, there is a longing for home and loved ones. Second, having a good meal, something apart from ordinary rations, is widely hoped for and enjoyed. Indeed, members of the military deliberately planned special holiday meals to keep up troops’ morale. Third, receiving a present or package from home was highly regarded and eagerly anticipated. The present need not be an expensive one—something as simple as a photograph and homemade cookies or candy would remind the soldiers that they were not forgotten. Maintaining this connection to home provided the service men and women with motivation to do the tasks they had before them. Finally, the soldiers also chose to re-create some of the traditions of Christmas as best they could: most often, decorating a tree with whatever was available and singing carols. And although their creations were adequate to remind them of past celebrations at home, they were always judged to be insufficient because they were lacking the most important element: loved ones to celebrate with. During war, Christmas was a time when common experiences could create bonds strong enough to bridge, for a short time, any ideological differences that lay between enemies: hence the Civil War colonel who helped several little girls secure a present for their dancing teacher, despite the fact that she was the wife of a Confederate general; and the informal truces between the British and German forces in the early years of World War I. These individual acts of kindness did much to help humanize each side to the other, and, once the wars were over, to the opposing forces’ civilians as well. Surely no-one who celebrated and shared Christmas could be as bad as war propaganda made them out to be…and the fact that so many cultures’ customs are shared in Christmas makes it easy for that celebration to bridge the chasms that culture creates.


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A WWII postcard showing a very important function of Santa at this time: encouraging people to buy war bonds to finance the conflict. Copyright 2002, Robert C. Hoffman, Postcards from Santa Claus: Sights and sentiments from the last century.

The next chapter examines the history of our Christmas customs. Additionally, information from a survey on current Christmas practices is included. For example, where did the custom of having Christmas trees come from, when did it start, and how many people today have Christmas trees?

REFERENCES Brown, W. R. (1985). The American girl and the Christmas tree: World War II soldier poets look at what the G.I.s were fighting for. Journal of American Culture, 8, 25-30. Catton, B. (1958). America goes to war. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. Fahey, J. J. (1963). Pacific War Diary 1942-1945. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Hoffman, R. C. (2002). Postcards from Santa Claus: Sights and sentiments from the last century. New York: SquareOne Publishers.

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Lewis, J. E. (2003). The mammoth book of eyewitness World War I. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers. Lobdell, G. H. (1992). A tale of two Christmases at the Algona Prisoner-of-War camp. The Palimpsest, 73, 170-183. Mason, G. (1989). Remembrances of Christmases past. The Pacific Northwesterner, 33, 41-48. Maule, H. E. (Ed.). (1943). A book of war letters. New York: Random House. McIvor, J. (2005). God rest ye merry soldiers: A true Civil War Christmas story. New York, NY: Viking. No author. (1964). Christmas in camp. Wisconsin Then and Now, 11, 1-2. Rawlings, K. (1998). Christmas in the Civil War. Civil War Times Illustrated, 37, 46-53. Richards, J. K. (1985-1986). A soldier’s Christmas. Timeline: A Publication of the Ohio Historical Society, 2, 28-31. Saunders, P. H. (1991). My most valued Christmas gift: A World War II reminiscence. Utah Historical Quarterly, 59, 361-364. Thomson, S. W. (1993). Christmas in Ortona, Italy 1943. Canadian Military History, 2, 24-27. Wakefield, A. (2006). Christmas in the trenches. England: Sutton Publishing Limited. Werner, E. E. (1998). Reluctant witnesses: Children’s voices from the Civil War. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Chapter 2

CHRISTMAS TRADITION ORIGINS

In this chapter the origins and history of the Christmas Day itself, Christmas cards, the Christmas meal, Christmas trees, hanging stockings, giving presents, and caroling will briefly be discussed. Additionally, data from a Christmas Traditions Survey conducted here at the University of Scranton will be incorporated to give the reader a sense of how often (if at all) a particular tradition is still engaged in. The University of Scranton is a Catholic and Jesuit university, and consists of approximately 4800 students (counting undergraduate, graduate, and part-time students). The majority of our students come from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Three hundred and twenty-six undergraduate students participated in the survey: 132 were male and 194 were female. They ranged in age from 17 to 49

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(mean age = 18.96, sd = 2.36), and approximately 28% reported that one of their parents had completed a bachelor’s degree while 24% reported that at least one of their parents had a master’s degree. The number of children in their families ranged from one to eleven (average number of children = 3.02, sd = 1.34). Although race was not asked about, the majority of the students at the University of Scranton are white. All of the participants were enrolled in introductory psychology classes and completing the survey fulfilled a requirement for the class.

THE DAY ITSELF According to Murray (1986), “the word ‘Christmas’ is from the Middle English for ‘Christ’s Mass’…Christmas was long peculiar in having three Masses (it still does but so now does Easter): at midnight, dawn or cockcrow, and in the day. The Mass most characteristic of Christmas is the one at midnight. It was believed that Christ was born, not merely on the darkest date of winter, but at the darkest moment” (p. 35). December 25th was set as the most probable day of Christ’s birth in AD 350 by Julius I (Krythe, 1954). Spencer (1873) suggested that in Rome, at least, the holiday had been celebrated on January 6, but when Constantine proclaimed Christianity as “THE” religion of the Roman Empire, the date of December 25 became the day celebrated as Christ’s birthday to incorporate the old Roman festival of Saturnalia, which would bring in more heathen converts. In England, Christmas was first celebrated as a holiday in AD 521 with King Arthur. After the Normans conquered England in 1066, Christmas reportedly became merrier than ever: a “Lord of Misrule” reigned with absolute power—he planned all the entertainment and games for the day. During the Middle Ages, Christmas was a favorite and popular holiday, with everyone from the King to the beggars in the street taking part. But not all were merry about Christmas. The Calvinists disapproved of Christmas, calling it a “human invention” that smacked of paganism. Most of their disapproval, however, was for the excesses that were displayed at this time. The Puritans also were scandalized about Christmas, because they felt that Christ would not have approved of the way this holiday was celebrated: they felt it was becoming an excuse for wrong-doing. The Puritans even went so far as to try to ban Christmas in England, which occurred in Parliament in 1647. Miles (1912) suggests that as early as the 1600s Protestant pastors were complaining that parents told children that gifts came from Saint Nicholas. “This…is a bad custom because it points children to a saint, while yet we know that not Saint Nicholas


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but the Holy Christ Child gives us all good things for body and soul, and he alone it is whom we ought to call upon” (p. 230). When the Puritans landed in New England, there was no merriment on Christmas day—it was work as usual. “On December 25, 1685, Judge Sewall wrote in his Diary ‘Carts come to town and shops open as usual. Some somehow observe the day, but are vexed. I believe that the Body of the People Profane it, and blessed be God no authority yet to compel them to keep it’” (Wertenbaker, 1927, p. 277). In 1659 a law had been passed expressly forbidding the celebration of Christmas, and anyone who was caught was fined five shillings. This law was repealed in 1681, but the Christmas holiday was not “lawful” in Massachusetts until 1856. The Puritans objected to Christmas on two grounds: First, they believed that since the date of Christ’s birth was not mentioned in the Bible, there should be no special religious fest; and second, all the “reveling” interfered with religious observances (Barnett, 1954). This is not to say that everyone in the New World was so dour—settlers in Virginia had always celebrated Christmas, as had the Dutch settlers in New York (Krythe, 1954). Between 1836 and 1890, all of the 49 states/territories had established Christmas as a legal holiday.

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Carole S. Slotterback Dates of first legal recognition of Christmas Day by States and Territories (1836-1890) Year State/Territory Year State/Territory 1836 Alabama 1863 Idaho 1838 Louisiana North Dakota Arkansas 1864 Kentucky 1845 Connecticut 1865 Michigan 1848 Pennsylvania Montana 1849 New York 1868 Kansas Virginia 1870 West Virginia 1850 Vermont District of Columbia Georgia 1873 Nebraska 1851 California 1875 South Carolina 1852 Rhode Island Indiana 1854 New Jersey 1876 New Mexico 1855 Delaware 1877 South Dakota Massachusetts Missouri 1856 Minnesota 1879 Texas 1857 Ohio 1880 Mississippi Tennessee 1881 North Carolina 1858 Maine Florida 1861 New Hampshire Arizona Illinois 1882 Utah Nevada 1886 Wyoming Wisconsin 1888 Washington Colorado 1890 Oklahoma 1862 Oregon 1959 Alaska Maryland Hawaii Iowa

(Adapted from Barnett, 1954, p. 20).

In the Victorian period Charles Dickens revived former Christmas customs in his writings, focusing on the family. This influence permeated England and the United States, especially after A Christmas Carol was printed. “Dickens preached that at Christmas men should forget self and think of others, especially the poor and the unfortunate” (Barnett, 1954). Christmas began to be viewed very differently, as a time for family celebration and not the “wild excesses” (e.g., mixed dances) that had been the custom. McIvor (2005) says that, in addition to the book portrayals of Christmas, magazines also began to portray Christmas as a


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celebration of home and family, and that by the time of the American Civil War, Christmas was a legal holiday in nearly all of the states (including Massachusetts!).

Illustration from The Ladies Home Journal, February, 1891. From the author’s private collection.

When America joined in World War I, an unthinkable rumor began to circulate: was Christmas going to be cancelled? In September 1918, the Toy Manufacturers of America (TMA) was called to meet with the Council of National Defense. They had proposed a ban on all toy sales for Christmas 1918 (they thought that parents could put Liberty Bonds in their children’s stockings instead), and the members of TMA were hoping to persuade them otherwise. A.C. Gilbert (the inventor of the Erector Set) persuaded the members of the council that Christmas had to happen, that toys were necessary, even in times of war: “Toys were not mere playthings…they were the blueprints of future men and women who would fight wars and preserve the peace. Deprive youngsters of toys, especially educational toys, and the country will lose a generation of doctors, engineers, and scientists” (Watson, 2002, pp. 99-100). The toy makers then presented the council with their toys: toy submarines, steam engines, wire puzzles,

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and many others. And a remarkable thing happened: these sage old gentlemen got down on the floor and played with them, and recalled how much their own toys had influenced the men they had become. Ultimately, it was decided that toys were essential to a war time economy and would not be banned, and Mr. Gilbert became known as “the man who saved Christmas” (Watson, 2002).

THE CARDS Christmas cards first appeared in the 1840s. Miles (1912) suggests that Christmas cards were descended from “school pieces” or “Christmas pieces” that were popular in England in the early 1800s. These “pieces” were sheets of paper with poems on them and designs around the verses, either drawn in pen and ink or copper-plate headings that were colored. Although there seems to be some debate as to who created the first Christmas card, there is no doubt that the first ones were English. According to Chase (1926), artists were commissioned to create these first cards. This continued for some time although eventually the ranks of card designers were opened to all via a number of contests and competitions where cash prizes were awarded. Interestingly, “the most popular cards of the time had no particular Christmas significance. Very little holly was used and, although we do find pictures of the scene in the manger and others of a religious nature, they are far outshone by landscapes, children, flowers, kittens, fairies, heads, birds, animals, even fish and reptiles, in every conceivable design” (Chase, 1926, p. 12). One of the first cards created depicted three panels, with a family enjoying a meal and wine in the center panel. Hottes (1938) suggests that the outcry from zealous temperance followers over this Christmas card designed for Sir Henry Cole caused people to become aware of the idea of Christmas cards and to want to send some of their own (p. 129). Two of the men who were instrumental in initiating the first Christmas card “…were apparently involved in the introduction of penny postage (one of the most world-shaking of modern inventions)” (Harrison, 1951, p. 183). So, not only could you commission an artist to create a card for you, get a printer to print it off and color it, now you could also have it delivered for you by someone not directly in your employ. The initial cards were printed with black ink on card stock and were colored by hand, but as public demand increased, lithography (printing with colors) began to be used. Typically these English cards expressed no other wish than “A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.” Some cards used passages from the New Testament.


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English Christmas card sales began to drop around 1890 as cheaper cards from Germany and Austria flooded the market. Also, an element of snobbishness came into play: once the cards became affordable enough so that the masses could afford them, the “better trade fell off” (Chase, 1926, p. 14). The first American Christmas cards were produced in 1874 by Louis Prang, but again cheaper German imports drew business away until by 1890 he gave up the card business entirely. Later cards, made in the “Prang method,” were quite intricate, being printed in no fewer than eight colors (and as many as twenty). These cards tended to contain more traditional Christmas scenes. In 1894, the authority on Christmas cards was held to be a Mr. Jonathan King. Mr. King’s collection is said to have weighed between six and seven tons and contained over 163,000 varieties of cards (and, according to Elliott, 2002, p. 88, was “far from complete”). Today, Hallmark can supply you with cards for at least 31 holidays, including April fool’s Day, Diwali, Eid al-Fitr, Grandparents Day, Leap Year, St. Joseph’s Day, Three King’s Day, and, of course, Christmas. According to their web page, last year Hallmark had over 2,200 Christmas card designs to choose from. Elliott (2002) states that over 2.5 billion Christmas cards are printed each year in the United States alone (p. 88). Of the 326 students who participated in the Christmas Traditions Survey here at the University of Scranton, 90% said that their parents had sent cards at Christmastime.

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THE CHRISTMAS MEAL Everywhere you find Christmas celebrated, you will find special holiday meals and dishes. In some parts of England, a dish that was frequently served on Christmas day (in the morning) was “frumenty” or “furmety” (apparently derived from the Latin “frumentum,” meaning corn). It was a wheat dish—hulled wheat was boiled in milk and seasoned with cinnamon and sugar. Some sources indicate that this dish was the origin of plum pudding (e.g., Hottes, 1938): the wheat was boiled until it burst, then it was strained and mixed with eggs and milk. As the years passed, other elements were added to it (e.g., sugar, raisins, spices). It originally was served with the meats during the first course of the big Christmas feast, but it eventually developed into a sweet pudding and became a dessert. Another legend of how plum pudding came into being is told by Krythe (1954): apparently an English king (which one is not specified) when hunting one Christmas Eve, could not return home and had to camp out. His cook put everything he had into the pot (some chopped meat, flour, apples, dried plums, eggs, ale and sugar), stirred, put it into a bag, and boiled it—the first English plum pudding. “Ale Posset” was the last thing drunk on Christmas Eve—a mixture of beer and milk, each person in the family took a sip (or “sup”) of the posset before retiring. A big piece of apple pie was also taken at that time (Miles, 1912, p. 285). A special drink frequently mentioned in a number of carols and stories of the Christmas season is the Wassail bowl. Miles (1912) states that it is a combination of hot, spiced ale and toasted apples. The name “wassail” is said to derive from Anglo-Saxon and means “be whole”—when you wish a person “wassail” you are hoping they have very good health. Carol singers used to carry cups or small bowls with them, hoping their wealthier neighbors would invite them in to drink some wassail bowl. Many areas of England had different types of breads and/or cakes that were made specifically at Christmas time. This custom also is held in many other countries (e.g., France, Italy, and Germany). A very special pie that was made at this time was mincemeat pie (also known as “shred” or “Christmas” pie, and sometimes called “mutton pie” in the Middle Ages, according to Krythe, 1954). They were also known as “wayfarers’ pies” because they were given to all holiday visitors: they were supposed to be symbols of good luck (Krythe, 1954). Apparently these mince pies had to be guarded on Christmas Eve so they would not be stolen. According to Hottes (1938), mince pie was supposed to represent the best products of the East, and thus symbolized the gifts that the three Wise Men brought to the baby Jesus. They were first baked, not in the circular shape we


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now know, but in the form of a manger, and the old cook books often referred to the top crust as the “coffin.” Sometimes the top crust was woven of strips of dough to represent the hayrack of the stable where Christ was born. As the pie became associated with the church and Rome, many religious writers began calling the pies “idolatrie in crust” and one writer stated “such pye is an hodgepodge of superstition, Popery, the devil, and all its works” (Hottes, 1938, p. 185). The mince pies of today use beef in the filling, but early recipes called for partridge, pheasant, and hare. Apples and assorted spices also were used. One recipe called for six pounds of meat for a single pie, but one of the largest pies recorded was made in 1770 for Sir Henry Grey. Apparently, “…it was about nine feet in diameter, weighed 165 pounds, and was served from a four-wheeled cart. In it was the minced meat of several partridges, pigeons, blackbirds, geese, rabbits, turkeys, and ducks—not to mention twenty pounds of butter, and a couple of bushels of flour” (Krythe, 1954, p. 103). Pork was also a main meal item at Christmas—a ceremonial boar’s head decorated with sprigs of holly graced many a table at the meal (there is even a “Boar’s Head Carol”). Another popular food item for many cultures was fish. For example, it was said that herring salad, eaten on Christmas Eve, will ensure that you will have money all year (Miles, 1912). Because the fish was an important symbol for early Christians, stewed eels were often eaten at Christmas supper, especially in Italy (Krythe, 1954). There are also reports of peacocks being served, as well as desserts called “subtleties,” which were a type of jelly that were molded into many fancy shapes (Krythe, 1954). Hottes (1938) gives an extensive list of Christmas treats associated with a number of countries, and even provides some recipes. And it was not only having a special meal that was important—having ANY meal sometimes trumped this custom! After World War II, many families in Europe were thrilled to receive C.A.R.E. packages (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe). According to Werner (2000), some one million packages were sent to Europe in 1946 (cost to send one package: $10.00). Many a Christmas was brightened by the food, clothing, and blankets that were sent. In many cases, starvation was prevented because of the packages. For one refugee family in Bavaria, a C.A.R.E. package meant a happy Christmas: A mailman brought a message that such a package was waiting for one refugee family in a town four miles away. Trudy, who was eleven years old at the time remembers it this way: The next morning my sister and I set out with our sled—a board with a rope tied to it. It was cold and the snow was deep. The journey

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Carole S. Slotterback took us most of the day. I remember how cold and hungry and tired we were, but how excitement sustained us until we returned home in the early winter darkness, bearing the heavy, stamped, betagged, taped, and scuffed gift from an unknown stranger in America. Finally the wrappings and the carton had been opened, and our room became bright and warm with the incredible treasures spilled all over our table: sugar, peanut butter, flour, canned meats and fruit cocktail, coffee and real chocolate—REAL COFFEE AND REAL CHOCOLATE!!! No one who hasn’t been hungry…can possibly appreciate what that meant. My mother, who hadn’t cried all those times when she couldn’t feed us, cried now at the sight of all these wonderful things. And oh how we feasted that Christmas! (Werner, 2000, pp. 195-196).

In the Christmas Traditions Survey, the students suggested that special Christmas meals were by far the norm: 95% said that their family had a special Christmas meal. Approximately 43% said their family hosted it, while 40% went to another relative’s house, and approximately 15% said that their family took turns hosting the meal with other relatives. The meals themselves were very elaborate, much more so than for a “typical” meal: on average, the special Christmas meal consisted of 9 dishes (with numbers ranging from 1 to 18 dishes), while a “typical” meal consisted of 3 dishes (with numbers ranging from 1 to 12). The difference is statistically significant (i.e., it is not a chance or random finding): paired-samples t (314) = 33.92, p < .001.


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CHRISTMAS TREES Having a decorated Christmas tree is a custom that comes to us by way of Germany, then England. Bringing greenery into the house at Christmas was an established custom in Germany, and all classes of people were likely to have a tree. Krythe (1954) asserts that although German people have been given credit for establishing the use of decorated trees at Christmas, the idea actually began much earlier. Ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Druids all used decorated trees as part of their rituals. As pagan tribes adopted Christianity, they continued to use decorated greens in the winter, but now the greenery represented Christ’s “bringing new life to the world after the long dark days of winter” (p. 62).

Photograph from the author’s private collection.

The earliest mention of a Christmas tree was in 1605, but it was not common until the 1800s, and was more of a Protestant than Catholic tradition (Miles, 1912). Indeed, both Krythe (1954) and Hottes (1938) suggest that Martin Luther helped establish the custom of having Christmas trees. According to these sources, Martin Luther loved holiday celebrations, and one Christmas Eve as he was walking home to his family, he had an epiphany—the beauty of the stars and the evergreens impressed him with all of God’s glory and he thought of what it

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must have been like the night Christ was born. Upon his arrival at home, he tried to describe the scene and his wonder, but could not find the words, so he cut down a small evergreen tree, brought it inside, and put lighted candles on it to show his family. He explained that the lit candles represented the stars in the sky above the stable the night Christ was born. The idea of lighted Christmas trees is said to have spread slowly despite Luther’s support, and was more popular among Protestant families than Catholic ones. Indeed, “some of the clergy, as late as the 18th century, objected to the use of holiday trees, one minister declaring that many persons spent more time on their Yule trees than they did on their Bible reading. He also suggested that it would be better if the children were dedicated to the ‘spiritual cedar tree, Jesus Christ’” (Krythe, 1954, p. 63). The custom of a tree at Christmastime was not common in England until after 1840-1841. Prior to this time, people would bring branches of trees that flower inside in the fall (while they are still bare) and put them in water—this would force them to bloom early (i.e., at Christmas time). Some say that the Christmas tree tradition stems from the old belief that every Christmas Eve fruit trees will blossom and bear fruit. This belief comes from legends about the “marvelous transformation of nature on the night of Christ’s birth, when the rivers ran wine instead of water and trees stood in full blossom in spite of ice and snow” (Miles, 1912, p. 268). In 1840 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (who was from Germany) had a Christmas tree: an etching of their tree with their family gathered around it was published in popular magazines and newspapers of the time. The fashionable soon had Christmas trees of their own, and when the custom became popular in England, apparently only well-to-do people could afford a tree and trimmings. The tree was prepared behind closed doors and revealed on Christmas Eve in its splendor. There is some debate as to who set up the first Christmas tree in the United States. Some sources suggest that it was homesick Hessian soldiers, fighting for the British during the American Revolution. Others assert that it was Charles Follen, a professor at Harvard, who in 1832 set up a tree for his family. A guest in their home detailed the beautiful tree in her book, which helped to spread the custom. Still others propose that the credit should go to August Imgard in Wooster, Ohio. In 1847 he apparently decorated a tree for his family, and his friends and neighbors were enchanted with the sight and spread the custom around. In 1851, a pastor in Cleveland set up a Christmas tree in his church, and was unprepared for the tempest that followed: some of his parishioners felt the practice smacked of paganism and some of the members of the congregation were


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threatened with bodily harm if they ever partook in such a practice again. The minister, alarmed at the threats, researched the custom to reassure his parishioners that it was a Christian custom. The following year he again put a Christmas tree in his church, and the year after that. Opposition soon diminished, and many homes began to use them as well (Krythe, 1954). There is a story (apparently loosely based on a true occurrence) about President Theodore Roosevelt and Christmas trees. The story goes that, as a noted conservationist, President Roosevelt was informed that the practice of cutting Christmas trees would deplete our country’s forests. He promptly banned the use of Christmas trees at the White House, hoping to set an example for the nation. He was very surprised then to find that two of his sons had smuggled a tree into the White House. The children asked a family friend to speak to their father, and this friend convinced the president that, if properly grown and harvested, the use of such trees could be beneficial to the nation’s forests. The White House has had Christmas trees ever since (Hines, 1998). Beginning in early 1900s, a number of communities began setting up large Christmas trees in their public squares for everyone to enjoy, and soon there were Christmas programs and caroling associated with the lighting of the trees. The decorations used on trees were simple at first: wisps of cotton or wool, paper ornaments and chains, strung popcorn, dolls and painted (or gilded) nut shells, possibly even candy canes or other candies, were used. The lights were small candles in tin holders which were clamped to the branches (so as you might guess fires could be a potential hazard). People in different countries developed decorations representing elements of their lives: Krythe (1954) described how straw ornaments depicting windmills or birdcages were made by Lithuanian farmers, while Norwegian fisherfolk used fish nets as decorations, and Poles used feathers and ribbons on their trees. Tinsel is said to have achieved prominence as a decoration because of the following legend: “One woman had trimmed her tree carefully; and that night spiders spread their webs all over it. When the Christ Child saw this, He knew she would be unhappy next day; therefore he turned all the webs into silver. The woman was overjoyed the following morning at the unusual and unexpected beauty of her Christmas tree” (Krythe, 1954; pgs 65-66). So important were trees to the celebration of Christmas that families went to great lengths after World War II to have a tree, or a reasonable facsimile thereof! Werner (2000) recounts how in Berlin in 1945 Christmas trees were rare. So one family decided to make their own: they used a broomstick to which they had attached fir branches. Although they did not feel safe putting candles on it (it was very wobbly) they did decorate it with tinfoil they found after bombings (this was dropped to keep radar from working properly). The children had stolen the

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branches from trees in a park, and unfortunately, the branches had been sprayed with a protective fluid that stank to high heaven. The children sprinkled the tree with perfume, schnapps, and incense to try to cover the smell—nothing worked. Finally they had to open the windows: the windows stayed open until they had sung their carols and exchanged their gifts, then their “tree” went back outside! Ninety-nine percent of the students in the Christmas Traditions Survey said that their family typically had a Christmas tree: approximately 70% opted for a natural tree while 27% had artificial trees, and approximately 2% said their families switched from one to the other. About 47% of the families got their tree in the beginning of December, while 54% got their trees in the middle of December. Only 0.9% got their tree on Christmas Eve. And once they were purchased, they tended to be decorated right away: approximately 95% said they decorated the tree right away, with only 3.7% saying they waited until Christmas Eve to do so. Most people took their tree down sometime in January (75.5%), while others took it down on New Year’s Day (21.2%), and some took it down right after Christmas (2.5%).


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CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS Stockings were hung by the chimney with care…but why? According to McGinty (1979), the tradition came from St. Nicholas. Legend has it that there were three daughters in a very poor family. The young women had no hope of ever being married unless their parents could come up with a dowry. Thinking they were doomed to spinsterhood, they sadly went to bed one night after hanging their stockings to dry by the window. When they woke in the morning, they found sacks of gold in their stockings (tossed there the night before secretly by St. Nicholas). In another version, the stockings were hung by the chimney to dry. Approximately 93% of the students in the Christmas Traditions Survey said they had hung stockings for Santa to fill when they were younger. Anecdotal evidence, from open-ended questions asking about other holiday traditions the family practiced and what the students’ favorite Christmas memories were suggests that the stockings were treated in a variety of ways: in some cases, the presents contained therein were opened first, on Christmas eve; in other cases, the stockings were opened last, on Christmas day.

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS Hottes (1938) suggests that gift giving at Christmas-time of the year stems from the Romans who gave presents at the time of Calends (around the beginning of January). This practice, and the festivals of this time, were simply absorbed into Christmastime celebrations of the Christians. The three wise men arrived bearing gifts for the Christ Child, so the idea of gift-giving on his birthday has been around for some time. St. Nicholas was known for his generosity, and he often would disguise himself and distribute presents to those who needed them, especially the children. However, toys as gifts generally were not given early on: before the eighteenth century Brewer (1980) suggests that there were next to no toy manufacturers in Europe and the United States. In England, Christmas gifts were expected by the royalty (since the time of Henry VII) and the amount expected from each person depended on that person’s rank (it is reported that the “royal dustman” sent Queen Elizabeth two bolts of cloth, while the Archbishop of Canterbury gave as much as $200.00; Hottes, 1938, p. 65-66). Elliott (2001) describes how gift-giving has changed through the years. At first, in the United States, gift giving was not as formalized as it is now. In colonial America, gifts could consist of “…a side of bacon, or some molasses

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for pie-making. A store-bought gift was a rarity. Christmas shopping was unheard of” (pgs. 61-62). He goes on to suggest that it was the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” that led children to the expectation of presents at Christmas. In Manufacturer and Builder (no author, December, 1871), this description of giftgiving activities can be found: “From the highest to the lowest, from the oldest to the youngest, we are all looking forward with expectations of great pleasure to the holidays, and planning what presents we shall give, and perhaps indulging in anticipation of those we hope to receive. Parents may now be seen paying sly visits to the shops after the children are in bed, and many a package done up in whitey-brown paper is surreptitiously being smuggled into the house, to rest stowed away in some hidden spot until the eventful morning shall arrive” (p.266). Thompson (1987) describes how, in the 1850s and 1860s, merchants in Omaha, Nebraska began to arrange displays of their goods in their windows about two weeks before Christmas. As time went on, the displays began to appear earlier, although most merchants generally waited to display their Christmas wares until after Thanksgiving. Indeed, the unveiling of the window displays became quite an attraction for holiday shoppers and some stores changed their displays several times, trying to entice shoppers in to sample their fares and buy their goods. Today, you may find artificial Christmas trees and decorations beginning to be sold as early as August.


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Not all presents are given on Christmas day: Hottes (1938) observed that some Catholic countries reserve that day for religious ceremonies, and give presents on another. “In Holland and Belgium, December 6, being St. Nicholas Day, is the time when the children receive their gifts from this saint” (Hottes, 1938, p. 66). In other countries, however, gifts are not associated with Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, or Christ. Instead, they are said to come from the three wise men. St. Lucy, the stars, angels, and Tante Aria are all personages who deliver presents to children around Christmas. One magazine called Reminisce has readers write in with memories of times past. The Christmas memories that were contributed most frequently centered on presents and food. One reader wrote of how, in 1960, her family had decided to get a real tree, but couldn’t because her brother had an asthma attack at the tree lot (they ended up using an artificial tree). Their father went back to the tree lot, though, and returned with a piece of paper. When he went to work the next day he made certain to take the paper with him. As it turned out, he had overheard an elderly man with two grandchildren talking about how they had to get a very small tree because there wasn’t much money. So, the tree money for the real tree that her family couldn’t buy was spent to buy a tree for this other family. Additionally, their father, who was a motorcycle police officer, had approached his fellow officers to help this family out. New shoes, clothes, toys, and food were gathered and delivered to the family (Pictor, 2003). Another reader, Donald Buck, wrote of a Christmas in 1925. Times were tough, but the family could always count on a wealthy uncle to send very impressive Christmas gifts. Donald’s little sister wanted a doll and bed badly, but the family couldn’t afford them. His mother peeked in the package from the rich uncle and saw that it did indeed contain a doll, but no bed. So she decided to “enlighten” Donald about the real spirit of Christmas: giving to others. Donald’s present was a set of tools, which he was allowed to open early so that he could build a bed for the doll for his sister. It took him eight days, and as he sawed and hammered his mother worked on her treadle sewing machine to make the sheets, mattress, and pillows to fit the bed. Donald was so proud of being able to help make her wish come true. His sister was so overwhelmed by the gift that she wouldn’t even touch it at first: she sat there staring at it in wonder! In asking the students in the Christmas Traditions Survey about their favorite Christmas memory, 38% said that it involved a specific present they had received, either something that they had wanted very much or something that was a complete surprise. Most often, the present mentioned was a bicycle (or something else that denoted (to them) a sense of becoming more grown up, like a CD player or television of their own) or a puppy.

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Illustration from The Ladies’ Home Journal, January, 1891. From the author’s private collection.

CHRISTMAS CAROLS The word ‘carol’ originally referred to a type of dance accompanied by words (Murray, 1986). According to Murray, there was a leader of the dance who sang the verse and a group or ring of dancers who performed the chorus. The earliest carols were pre-Christian (for example, the contest between the holly and the ivy over who should decorate the hall in one song hearkens back to early fertility beliefs) and apparently could be quite lewd in character. Once Christianity spread, the carols abandoned their pagan content and began to refer to elements of Christianity. People used to walk the streets around Christmastime, singing carols and hoping to be invited in for a cup of wassail or, better still, be given some other token of appreciation (i.e., money) for their troubles. Although caroling was something mentioned in older literature (e.g., Dickens) and portrayed in movies (e.g., “A Christmas Carol”), it has apparently been on the decline for some time. McIvor (2005) suggests that caroling was very popular in


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the years following the American Civil War as new Christmas songs were penned (e.g., “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Away in a Manger”). However, Spencer (1873) complained that “Christmas in England is scarcely the shadow of its former, merry, brilliant self…the wassail bowl, that once played so conspicuous a part at the Christmas banquet, has become obsolete…the singing of Christmas carols, which was once so popular even at court, has greatly fallen into disuse, and is now principally confined to the lower classes” (p. 256). Caroling is not something done with much frequency among the students sampled in the Christmas Traditions Survey: only 16.6% said that they had ever gone caroling with their families when they were younger.

SUPERSTITIONS Hottes (1938) lists a number of superstitions related to Christmas time. For example, he relates that an old Scottish belief suggests that if a baby is born on Christmas day, he/she will be able to see and command spirits, while the French peasants believe that babies born on Christmas Day will have a gift for prophecy. In Northumberland (Britain), holly is used for divination: take nine leaves and tie them up in a handkerchief with nine knots. Then place the bundle under your pillow to “have prophetic dreams” (Miles, p. 275). Hottes (1938) adds the following: girls who placed holly under their pillows would say “Good St. Thomas serve me right/And send me my true love tonight/that I may gaze upon his face/Then him in my fond arms embrace” (p. 173). If you leave a loaf of bread on the table after the Christmas Eve supper, there will be no lack of bread in the home during the year. Eating apples at midnight on Christmas Eve will ensure good health in the coming year. If you eat a raw egg (before anything else) on Christmas Day you will be able to carry heavy weights, but don’t pick apples or nuts from the ground or you’ll end up with sores! There is an old saying that you would have as many happy months in a year as mince pies you tasted at Christmastime (Hottes, 1938); however, don’t refuse to eat one or you’ll lose a good friend during the coming year (Krythe, 1954). An English superstition (according to Hottes) is that bread that is baked on Christmas Day will never become moldy. In Denmark, some of the bread baked at Christmas time is kept until the fields are sowed, and then it is crumbled and planted with the seed to ensure a copious harvest.

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Finally, in some Scandinavian countries on Christmas Eve, families put their shoes together by the door. This will cause peace and harmony to be among them throughout the year. Thus it can be seen that many countries have played a role in influencing our Christmas customs of today, providing a sense of kinship with those countries. The next chapter will examine some of the psychological research that has been done on various aspects of our Christmas traditions—how do psychologists view Christmas, and what deeper meanings do our celebrations hold?

REFERENCES Barnett, J. H. (1954). The American Christmas: A study in national culture. New York: The Macmillan Company. Brewer, J. (1980). Childhood revisited: The genesis of the modern toy. History Today, 30, 32-39.


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Chase, E. D. (1926). The Romance of Greeting Cards: an historical account of the origin, evolution, and development of the Christmas card, valentine, and other forms of engraved or printed greetings from the earliest days to the present time. Boston, Mass, Printed at Cambridge, Mass: the University Press. Elliott, J. (2002). Inventing Christmas: how our holiday came to be. New York: H. N. Abrams. Harrison, M. (1951). The story of Christmas; its growth and development from the earliest times. London: Odhams Press, Limited. Hines, G. (1998). A Christmas Tree in the White House. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company. Hottes, A. C. (1938). 1001 Christmas facts and fancies. New York: A. T. De La Mare Company, Inc. Krythe, M. R. (1954). All about Christmas. New York: Harper. No Author. (December, 1871). Christmas 1871. Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 3, p. 266. McGinty, B. (December, 1979). Santa Claus. Early American Life, pp. 50-53, 102-104. McIvor, J. (2005). God rest ye merry soldiers: A true Civil War Christmas story. New York, NY: Viking. Miles, C. A. (1912). Christmas customs and traditions: Their history and significance. Reprinted in 1976 by Dover Publications, Inc. (New York). Murray, A. (December, 1986). Medieval Christmas. History Today, pp. 31-31-39. Pictor, L. (2003, Nov/Dec). Reminisce, p. 18. Spencer, O. M. (1873). Christmas throughout Christendom. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 46, 241-257. Thompson, T. R. (1987). Sales, Santa, and good fellows: Celebrating Christmas in Omaha. Nebraska History, 68, 127-41. Watson, B. (2002). The man who changed how boys and toys were made. New York, NY: Viking. Werner, E. E. (2000). Through the eyes of innocents: Children witness World War II. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Wertenbaker, T. J. (1927). The First Americans, 1607-1690. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Chapter 3

“SO, SANTA, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR CHILDHOOD…”

What do psychologists make of Christmas? The answer is as varied as the backgrounds and theoretical positions of the psychologists themselves. Some psychologists examine children’s drawings of Santa and how they change before and after Christmas—one way to study the effect of Santa Claus as a reinforcer. Others look at the behavioral consequences of children’s beliefs in Santa. Psychoanalytic psychologists (i.e., those who follow the teachings of Dr. Freud), using intensive case studies of people in therapy, trace the development of problem behaviors to incidents that occurred at Christmas time in childhood. Some psychologists investigate the relationship between stress and health, and

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how Christmas, with all its attendant traditions and activities, can be perceived as a stressful event that could potentially contribute to health problems. Still other psychologists have examined the incidence of depression and suicide and the holidays. No matter the method, it is clear that our Christmas beliefs, traditions, and experiences influence us through the years and provide interesting insights into individual people and our culture as a whole.

ANTICIPATION AND DRAWINGS Craddick (1961) examined the size of children’s drawings of Santa Claus before and after Christmas. He hypothesized that because Santa was a “potential reinforcer” who gives rewards for good behavior just once each year, the expectation of reward grows as the time for the reinforcement draws closer. Thus, one would expect children’s drawings of the reinforcer to grow consecutively larger as the date for the time of reinforcement nears. After Christmas, Craddick expected the drawings to decrease in size. One hundred and ninety-nine participants (85 freshmen in college, 51 6th graders, and 63 1st graders) were instructed to draw pictures of Santa, first on December 6, then again on December 14, and once again on January 6. The drawings of the 1st and 6th graders were equivalent in size, but the drawings of the


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freshmen were larger than the children’s. Overall, the drawings increased in size from December 6 to December 14, but the drawings from December 14 and January 14 did not differ in size. Craddick speculated that perhaps some “residual” of the reinforcement remained, resulting in no immediate change in perception: in other words, “the Christmas spirit seemed present before and after December 25” (p. 124). From the data reported in the article, it looks as though the size of Santa drawings did indeed increase for the children’s pictures as December 25 approached, but not for the college students’ pictures: although their pictures were larger than the children’s pictures, the size of the drawings of the freshmen did not appear to change significantly over time. Sechrest and Wallace (1964) wondered whether the excitement of the Christmas season would cause children to draw any picture (not just Santa) larger at this time—what they called the “expansive euphoria hypothesis.” They had children in kindergarten through sixth grade draw pictures of Santa Claus, a man, and a house. The pictures were drawn on December 7, December 21, and January 12. Results indicated that the Santa Claus drawings were the largest, especially just before Christmas. Sechrest and Wallace concluded that it was not general excitement that caused the drawings of Santa to be so large (if it were, the other drawings would be large too). The researchers speculated about the nature of the excitement: is the excitement of Christmas specific to other Christmas stimuli, such that perhaps children would draw other elements, like presents, trees, or ornaments larger at Christmas time as well as Santa? Future research will have to investigate this. Coyle and Eisenman (1970) investigated whether or not race would have an impact on how the children would draw and color Santa’s face. They gave 31 children (18 black and 13 white) a large outline of a face of Santa Claus and crayons. The children were told to fill it in as they wished (with regard to facial features) and colors. Two assistants rated the pictures in terms of how the facial features were drawn and colored. The majority of the children (both black and white) drew Caucasian facial features, although the children used different sorts of colors in coloring the face: white children used red and white while the black children “showed a preference for colors associated with racial identification (white, brown, or black)” (p. 203). One explanation that was generated was that the black children have demonstrated some level of association/identification with the white race through their use of Caucasian features in their drawings of Santa. Alternatively, given the prevalence of portrayals of Santa as a white man, perhaps the black children were just representing a dominant stereotyped image. Finally, the differences seen may be due to different styles learned in their respective cultures.

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Roodin, Vaught, and Simpson (1971) also investigated the size of drawings before and after Christmas. They had 41 eight- and nine-year-old children draw pictures of either a Christmas tree or a coffee cup ten days before and 10 days after Christmas. The investigators wanted to determine if drawing something only a single time, as opposed to multiple times, before Christmas was influential in the size of the drawings. In addition, they measured not only height of the drawings (as previous investigators had), but also width, area, and amount of embellishment (e.g., ornaments on the Christmas tree or handle, steam, etc. on the coffee cup). Boys and girls did not differ in their drawings, and only the width of the tree increased from before Christmas to after. For the coffee cup drawings, only the level of embellishment increased. Roodin, Vaught and Simpson speculated that if children are truly motivated by expectancies of Christmas, then their drawings should be bigger both right before Christmas and smaller afterwards. They suggest that one possible explanation for previous research findings is that when


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you repeatedly draw anything, at any time, the drawings will initially increase and then decrease. They also suggest that additional measures, like level of embellishment, can be helpful in interpretation, rather than looking at the height of the drawings alone.

GIVE AND YE SHALL RECEIVE… Dixon and Hom (1984) took a slightly different approach in examining children’s beliefs—they examined the behavioral consequences of children’s beliefs in Santa and the Easter Bunny. They chose to use donation behavior as their measure because it corresponded with the gift-giving characteristics of both Santa and the Easter Bunny. A total of 52 kindergarten and first-grade children participated. Each child was taken individually to a quiet room where there were two posters of children with disabilities (one had leg braces and crutches, the other was in a wheelchair) on the bulletin board. The children were asked to write one of three stories: either one about Santa Claus, one about the Easter Bunny, or one about a favorite pet. The children were told that if their story was good, they could get nine sticks of gum. After each child told his/her story, the assistant told him/her it was very good and gave the child all nine sticks of gum. The assistant then pointed to the posters and told each child that he/she could donate as much gum as the child wanted to children with handicaps. The assistant then left the room for about 20 seconds, then returned and thanked the child. The researchers found that the amount of donations were greater for the first graders than the kindergartners, and that telling a story about Santa led to substantially greater donations than telling a story about the Easter Bunny or a pet (for the first graders at least). Dixon and Hom speculated that Santa’s gift-giving may be seen as more contingent upon their behavior than the Easter Bunny, or perhaps that Santa is viewed as being more watchful than the Easter Bunny. Whatever the belief, telling a story about Santa Claus may have reminded the first graders to be “on their best behavior,” compared to those who told other stories. Dixon and Hom wondered if, perhaps, those children who more strongly believed in Santa and the Easter Bunny would be more likely to donate more gum than those who did not believe as strongly, so they also asked the children’s parents to indicate the degree to which their children believed in these fantasy figures. The results on this measure indicated that the kindergarten children had stronger beliefs in both figures than the first graders, but degree of belief was not related to donation behavior.

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THE PSYCHOANALYSTS CHIME IN… The field of Psychoanalytic Psychology begins with Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He first worked as a physician, and began to notice that many of his patients were complaining of symptoms for which there were no apparent organic causes (e.g., claiming paralysis of an arm, but there had been no physical trauma to cause the paralysis). Dr. Freud tried many methods (e.g., hypnosis) to try to treat these patients, and finally developed his “talking cure” that became psychoanalysis. Dr. Freud believed that your personality was divided into three parts: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Id houses all the raw biological forces that shape our destiny, particularly the instincts. He believed that the sexual and aggressive instincts (our “dark side”) were particularly bothersome to us. When we are born, we are a “bundle of Id,” a collection of unconscious instinctive drives and needs that must be met—immediately, if not sooner! All of development, then, is merely a channeling and reorganizing of these drives. The child goes through five clearly defined stages as these drives are reorganized, during which time the other two personality characteristics, the Ego and Superego, form. The Ego consists of rational thoughts and plans to help cope with reality: a negotiator or referee, if you will, between the demands of the Id and reality. After the Superego develops, the Ego must also handle the demands of it in addition to the demands of the Id. The


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Superego can be thought of as being similar to what is commonly called a “conscience.” But the Superego is very harsh—there is a right way and a wrong way, and no in-between. This, then, is the background of the Psychoanalytic authors that follow. They tend to have a negative view of human nature, which is seen in their belief that sexual and aggressive impulses are the primary motivators of all behavior, including Christmas customs. Eisenbud (1941) believed that holidays were opportunities for people to gratify wishes and other types of enjoyment that were normally kept to a minimum by guilt. For example, some people, only at holidays, will engage in overeating and drinking, especially of foods that were popular during their childhood. He felt that it was at Christmas and New Year’s in particular that such regressions occurred, and “when it is all over, repression [forcing things into the unconscious] resumes and the air is disinfected with good resolutions” (p. 639). In his article, he goes on to describe the particulars of two cases of people experiencing negative reactions to Christmas. In the first case, a 34-year-old woman had difficulties maintaining employment (among other things), usually finding herself out of a job around Christmas time. Dr. Eisenbud was able to trace her problems to a root cause: The scene was of a busy household in the confusion of preparations the day before Christmas. The patient, four at the time, was trying to get some attention from her mother who was flying about the place in a flurry of last minute duties and who kept putting the child off with some irritation. Finally the child was told that she must withhold her demands until Santa Claus came; that if she were a good little girl Santa would bring her anything she desired. That night, the patient remembered, she prayed to Santa Claus earnestly and ardently. She had only one wish and that was to be like her brother, two years older, the pet of the family and especially the mother to whom the patient was nothing but a burden. If she were a boy the child suspected, she too could claim the mother’s love; therefore she prayed that Santa Claus change her into a boy. She was confident that on Christmas morning she would awake to find the transformation accomplished. (p. 642)

Of course, this wish was not fulfilled and the patient was never to achieve a penis, which she viewed as the way to her mother’s love. The wish for a penis, and indeed the memory of the Christmas when she was four years old, were repressed, driven from conscious awareness. Once the memory and the wish were uncovered in therapy, Eisenbud relates that the patient was able to enjoy some aspects of Christmas that she had not been able to enjoy for a number of years.

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The second patient was a woman of twenty-eight who also had negative views of Christmas and who had personality problems that would emerge most strongly at this season. During the course of her therapy, she related to Eisenbud two dreams that had Christmas elements in them. In one: The patient came into the analytic room where a horrible sight met her eyes. In the air next to the wall above the couch was something in the form of a snake with its downward pointing head so raised that it stuck out from the wall horizontally. On closer inspection the patient saw that what had given the appearance of a snake was really a collection of droplets of blood suspended in the air and conforming to that shape. She inferred that a snake must have been there but had been destroyed and that now only the blood remained as a sign of its former presence. The patient then felt easier when she looked down and saw a pool of glue in the middle of the analytic couch. (p. 643-644)

Eisenbud claims that the patient had severe castration anxiety and fantasized that the analysis would “glue” to her “the long lost penis in place of which she now had only menstrual blood” (p. 644). Why have this dream at Christmas? Apparently the shape of the droplets of blood reminded her of a stocking she used to hang near the chimney on Christmas Eve as a child. Eisenbud felt that her negative reaction to Christmas also stemmed from an incident as a child. The patient recalled her first menstrual period at age 12. She had been in her room on Christmas Eve, fantasizing about the gifts she would receive, and wondering if she would receive more than her brother. She masturbated, breaking a selfimposed stricture against the practice. The next day, on Christmas morning, she got her period and was so traumatized by the experience she decided it must have been some sort of punishment, that she had injured herself while masturbating. Sterba (1944) believes that Eisenbud was wrong to try to dissociate the pathological reactions to Christmas from the Christmas season itself. Sterba believes that the very content of Christmas is influential in our emotions. He goes on to give as an example of this the fact that Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, and he proposes that that adults’ behaviors at Christmas time replicates this as they unconsciously act out a birth within the family. First, you have a period of preparation where there is increasing excitement and anticipation (which corresponds to pregnancy). The secrecy in buying, wrapping, and hiding presents, where people yell at you not to come in the room, he says, is like keeping children away while a woman is in labor. Then there is the relief in the form of being allowed to see and open our presents (the birth). Finally, after eagerly opening the presents, there is exhaustion (much like what occurs after birth).


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Why does Santa come down the chimney? Well, Sterba believes that the fireplace and chimney symbolize the vulva and vagina (although we are not consciously aware of this representation)—so the child/presents must come out of the birth canal. Another symbol for pregnancy is Santa’s bag of presents. Apparently, one old legend of St. Nicholas (one of the forefathers of Santa Claus) is associated with childbirth: …three boys, on their journey home from school, take lodging at an inn, or as some version have it, farmhouse. In the night the treacherous host and hostess murder the boys, cut up their three bodies, and throw the pieces into casks used for salting meat. In the morning St. Nicholas appears and calls the guilty ones to task. They deny guilt, but are convicted when the saint causes the boys, sound of body and limb, to arise from the casks (p. 82).

Thus, Sterba feels that to have a better understanding of the emotional disturbances of patients concerning Christmas (e.g., especially of childbirth issues), the feelings and emotions raised by and inherent in the celebration itself must be considered.

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James Barnett (1946), in his interpretations of Christmas in American culture, describes how this holiday is viewed as a time of relaxation from the daily grind of everyday life, and that it is very much a family-centered festival. He, too, notes that adults often display regressive behaviors during the holiday, as when the adults play with the toys purchased for their children, as well as engaging in overeating and drinking (especially of the foods they associate with their childhood). The family trains children in the culture of gift-giving, and Barnett asserts that these exchanges must be performed in such a manner as to take into account the recipient’s relationship to the giver. Christmas, then, can be viewed as a complex time of the year, when many (and varied) emotions must be dealt with. He states that “there is much dammed-up emotion of guilt and uneasiness which finds release in the ritual affirmations at Christmas that Christ is the Prince of Peace and that we should love our neighbors and give generously to the poor and needy” (p. 62). In the journal Psychiatry, Renzo Sereno discusses some thoughts—very negative ones—on Santa Claus and related Christmas customs. He professes that children are involved in the “Santa Claus practice” against their will and with deep distress. Parents, for their own fulfillment, foist presents upon their children to bolster their own self-esteem. Sereno conducted “intensive interviews” of adults (p. 391. Note: with how many people is not stated, nor where they came from—e.g., were they patients in his own practice or were they recruited from the general public via advertisements), none of whom “admitted having believed in Santa Claus or recalled good times and pleasant memories associated with Santa himself” (p. 391). Sereno characterizes gift giving negatively, as well. According to his appraisal, two factors are considered when choosing gifts for others: one’s income and one’s relationship with the person for whom the gift is chosen. Thus, the price of the gift determines its value: because of this, it cannot truly be a gift (a true gift is one where its value is not measured by price, as in items that are made by the giver). He goes on to state “the psychiatrist is well aware of the hostility implied in gifts and of the instances in which gifts are given as a substitute for true affection. If the gift is purchased at a high price, the disbursement of the money is a form of atonement which has the purpose of dispelling the guilt caused by the awareness of being niggardly in true affection” (p. 393). The commercialization of Christmas purloins the love that is meant to be the focal point of the celebration, thus “the adults of our day and age tend to be lonely, bewildered souls bereft of guidance, unable to receive or to give spontaneous love and affection” (p. 396).


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Yet more negativity can be found in the work of Meerloo (1960), who characterizes Santa Claus as the “bringer of neurotic symptoms” (p. 1031). Even Christmas cookies (especially those in the shape of Santa) cannot escape his scrutiny—he suggests that they represent a socially acceptable form of cannibalism. Like Sereno, Meerloo also has a negative conceptualization of giftgiving (“Many silk ties are given as substitute for human ties”, p. 1033). Meerloo suggests that when we give to others, what we are really trying to do is negate the hostile impulses and feelings of envy that we unconsciously possess. If we truly gave presents to others to please them, then we wouldn’t see thousands of people returning gifts after Christmas. Proctor (1967) presented a series of “clinical notes” based on his observations of a number of children who had been in therapy and interviews of a group of “normal” children. His summary of the points presented in his paper touched upon the following elements: (1) Children have a variety of expectations and attitudes about Christmas and Santa, depending on their level of maturation. Proctor asserts that those under 12 are not very concerned about the religious aspects of the holiday, being primarily occupied with the thought of what they would be receiving. (2) We generally think of Christmas as being a happy time, but it is not necessarily so for children. (3) Be aware that underlying the outward (or manifest) Christmas request is an unconscious wish. Thus, some level of disappointment always accompanies every gift received: “for example, if the female still directly wishes, albeit unconsciously, for a penis and is unable to accept any substitutes (dolls, guns, a musical organ with which to play) she is doomed to

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disappointment, rage, and depression” (p. 659). (4) Santa is a very complex figure, and can serve multiple functions at a number of levels of awareness. Finally, (5) some children come to resent the Santa myth as a lie perpetuated by adults: they feel they have been betrayed and fooled. Thus, the Christmas celebration touches upon many levels and kinds of feelings, and there is sure to be some level of disappointment for children no matter what efforts are taken by the parents and other loved ones to make the season a happy one, according to the psychoanalysts.

O STRESSFUL NIGHT… Certainly, Christmas is recognized as representing many things, from crass commercialism to holy birth—and stress. McPhee (2005) reminisces about Christmas celebrations and how “Christmas, like weddings and funerals, reveals the fault lines in a family” (p. 166). Divorce “fractures” Christmas, with the courts ordering children to one parent Christmas Eve, the other Christmas day, with stress (experienced by parents and children) accompanying such decrees. Additionally, Jane Brody (2003), writing her “Personal Fitness” column for the New York Times, characterizes the holidays this way: “Few people would disagree with the observation that this is the most stressful time of the year for most people, men as well as women. Holiday preparations, planned vacations, gifts to buy and wrap and send, homes and yards to clean and decorate, bothersome relatives you “must” spend time with, kids home from school, end-of-the-year deadlines” (p.7). She goes on to describe the field of psychoneuroimmunology where the interaction of brain, emotion, and immune system is studied, and how stress can be related to illness. So what does research tell us about the links between stress and illness? One way to assess stress is through the use of scales. One such scale was developed by Holmes and Rahe (1967) and was called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS). The person completing the scale circles each event that has happened to him/her in the past year. Each event is assigned a number representing a certain amount of stress, from 1 to 100 life change units (LCUs: death of a spouse ranks highest in stress with 100, while minor violations of the law ranks lowest, an 11). Christmas is assigned 12 LCUs. Once you have circled all the events, you then add up the points associated with them. Subsequent studies with the SRRS have indicated that there does seem to be a relationship between illness and stress: of the people who score between 150-199 life change units, about 37% will experience a major health change; of those who score


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between 200 and 299, approximately 51% will experience a major health change; and of those who score 300 or above, 79% will experience a major health change. Life Event Death of spouse Divorce Marital separation Jail term Death of close family member Personal injury or illness Marriage Fired at work Marital reconciliation Retirement Change in health of family member Pregnancy Sex difficulties Gain of new family member Business readjustment Change in financial state Death of close friend Change to different line of work Change in number of arguments with spouse Mortgage over $10,000 Foreclosure of mortgage or loan Change in responsibilities at work Son or daughter leaving home Trouble with in-laws Outstanding personal achievement Wife begin or stop work Begin or end school Change in living conditions Revision of personal habits Trouble with boss Change in work hours or conditions Change in residence Change in schools Change in recreation Change in church activities Change in social activities Mortgage or loan less than $10,000 Change in sleeping habits Change in number of family get-togethers Change in eating habits Vacation Christmas Minor violations of the law

Average Value Life Change Units 100 73 65 63 63 53 50 47 45 45 44 40 39 39 39 38 37 36 35 31 30 29 29 29 28 26 26 25 24 23 20 20 20 19 19 18 17 16 15 15 13 12 11

The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (reproduced from Holmes and Rahe, 1967).

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However, the relationship of stress to health is complicated, and a score on a rating scale is not the only factor that plays a role. Your prior experience with the stressful event, the kind of coping skills you have, your current health status, and what you do when you become ill (e.g., do you take care of yourself and seek appropriate medical help, or will you mope around and eat a gallon of ice cream in one sitting?) all will influence whether or not you become ill (and how severe the illness is: Hock, 1999). So will Christmas make you sick? If you add the stress of Christmas to an already stress-filled life, then you may be more susceptible to an illness, but as Hock indicates, many other factors play a role here.

THE SADDEST DAY OF THE YEAR? For some, the arrival of the Christmas season brings gloom and depression, not tidings of joy. For example, those who have lost a loved one often find holidays extremely difficult to get through. The absence of a loved one during a time when family is emphasized can be unbearable, and, understandably, bring on many negative emotions, including depression. Goin (2002) advises that the holidays can be troublesome times to get through, with patients being especially vulnerable. Those who have lost a loved one experience “a painful crisis” (p.


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1370) on the first Christmas; in the second holiday season, different emotions come to the forefront and the person has to reconfigure his/her sense of what a family is and how its members should behave. But aside from these cases, there is also a general impression that the “holiday blues” affects the population as a whole, not just those who are bereaved. How pervasive are negative feelings around the holidays in the general population? When research is examined, two distinct pictures emerge. Psychoanalytic literature presents an extremely bleak view of the holidays, in that they believe that many people experience what are called the “holiday blues.” For these people, certain aspects of childhood that had been repressed (that is, driven from conscious awareness) become expressed once again during the holidays, although the person hopes for a better resolution than what had occurred in the past for these unfinished or unresolved issues. “But the unresolved issues of jealousy, sibling rivalry, envy, and an intensification of childhood wishes are often rekindled rather than dissolved by exhaustion, alcohol, exaggerated hopes, and the unfamiliar intensity of contact with family members” (Goin, 2002, p. 1370). The idea that there is more anxiety and problems at Christmas time is not new: Sattin (1975) felt that “all periodicity, such as holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries, reminds us of the passage of time and leads us to reflect on our past and future, and our relationships to ourselves, family, and God. This re-evaluation of self and life can produce anxiety. Perhaps it is in reaction to this anxiety that we go to such great lengths at Christmas to enjoy ourselves. Failure to do so underscores our mortality” (p. 157). Those who are well-adjusted are able to enjoy Christmas and other holidays, but for those who have psychological issues, the holidays are a time of regression, anxiety, and depression. As evidence of this, Sattin presented clinical data from a group of patients who had already been diagnosed with schizophrenia and were in group therapy. The sessions revealed greater amounts of regression, anger, dependency, and depression than usual, and Sattin suggested that therapy sessions around the holidays may reveal even more information for the therapist than at other times. Pollock (1971) concurs that “anniversary reactions” can occur on holidays, especially in “vulnerable” individuals who have a history of family disruption (either due to separation, divorce, or death of the parents). Thus, at a time when the family unit is emphasized, these people have no family to go to, or may feel unloved or unwanted: their “gift” is the appearance of a variety of symptoms.

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But what about the general population? If there truly is an increase in depression during the holidays, then one would expect to find concrete evidence of such a trend in some indicators of depression, namely an increased number of suicides, attempted suicides, or psychiatric hospital admissions. One of the first studies examining the relationship between suicide and the holidays was conducted by Lester and Beck (1975). They looked at completed suicides in New Jersey and Philadelphia in 1970 and 1972 (a total number of 743), and at attempted suicides in Philadelphia in 1971 and 1972. The date of the death/attempt was analyzed, and when the major holidays were examined, there were no statistically significant tendencies for suicides on these days (compared to other days). Lester (1979) went on to analyze national data on suicides and homicides in the United States in 1973 (apparently the first time complete daily numbers of suicides and homicides were given). He found that suicide was most likely to occur in July and August, and were also more likely to occur on Mondays. Fewer suicides occurred on major national holidays (e.g., Christmas) compared to the week earlier or later. Phillips and Liu (1980) expanded on this earlier research by including larger numbers: they examined daily suicides in the United States from 1972 to 1976. Their work found a decrease in the number of suicides on major holidays and just before them. However, after the holiday, there tended to be an increase in suicides. The decrease before was proportionately larger than the increase after, so what you see is overall decrease in suicides around the holidays. Phillips and Wills (1987), using an even larger set of data


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(188,047 suicides in the United States between 1973 and 1979), found once again that Christmas was associated with a very low risk of suicide on all counts (before the holiday, on the day of, and after the holiday). Yet another indicator of depression (and problems in general) could be seeking help. Hillard, Holland, and Ramm (1981) examined data from psychiatric emergency room admissions at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina during the time period of July 1972 through June 1979. According to the authors, it serves an area similar (in terms of demographics and diagnoses) to Cleveland, Boston, and New Haven, Connecticut. What they found was that December was a time of low utilization, with a decline in visits to their psychiatric emergency room in the weeks before Christmas, and a rise 1-3 weeks after (of about the same magnitude as the decline before). Black or white, male or female, the pattern was the same. Christensen and Dowrick (1983) examined data on suicide, attempted suicide, and “family disturbances” in Anchorage, Alaska during the time period of January 1979 through December 1981. Their data came from three sources: the Anchorage Police Department, calls to a crisis hotline, and admissions to the Anchorage Community Mental Health Center (ACMHC). Results indicated that that calls to the police regarding “family disturbances” peaked in the summer, as did the number of admissions to the ACMHC. The number of calls to the crisis hotline concerning suicide and depression peaked in the autumn, but statistics revealed that there really were no significant differences among the seasons concerning these calls or the actual suicide and attempted suicide rates. Masterson (1991) also found that parasuicide (“non-fatal, deliberate selfharm”, p. 155) varied according to season. He examined parasuicide hospital admissions in Edinburgh from 1969 through 1987 (a total of 22,169), and found that for women especially, there was a cycling of these type of events, with the lowest number of admissions occurring over December and the highest over the summer months. Thus, studies of some indicators of depression (suicide rate--both attempted and completed, parasuicide rate, psychiatric hospital admission, number of calls to crisis hotlines) would suggest that there is no increase in depression over the Christmas holidays. But how then do we explain the psychoanalytic literature and the popular impression? It might appear that people who already have problems (e.g., schizophrenia) may experience more symptoms or a worsening of symptoms at Christmas. But it may also be that the therapists, who are not immune to the influences of (or their beliefs about) the holiday season themselves, may either be seeing more problems in their patients than are there or are somehow being more solicitous at this time and eliciting more information from their clients. Certainly,

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the psychoanalytic literature (i.e., the case reports discussed here) could not be considered scientific, yet they are often what are cited as the basis for media reports on the so-called “holiday blues” (Albin, 1981; Diamond, 1967).

The idea of depression being worse around Christmas (the “holiday blues”) has assumed mythic proportions, and is fed by the media. For example, in newspaper articles, writers speak of how the “suicide rate rises” (Brody, 1980), when studies show the opposite. Also present in media reports are terms like “holiday blues,” and how “millions” of people suffer from them, as well as much advice on how to avoid them or lessen their impact. If these “blues” are not having an impact in your daily functioning (i.e., you are not calling in for advice, seeking admission to psychiatric hospitals, or attempting or committing suicide), then do the “holiday blues” really occur and should we be perpetuating this myth? Science just is not supporting the idea that “holiday blues” really exist.


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REFERENCES Albin, R. S. (1981). The holiday blues—a Christmas fable? Psychology Today, 15, p. 10-12. Barnett, J. H. (1946). Christmas in American Culture. Psychiatry, 9, 51-65. Brody, J. E. (2003, November 25). Personal Health; Give more joy to your world: Cut holiday stress. The New York Times, p. F7. Brody, J. E. (1980, December 17). Personal Health. The New York Times, p. C22. Christensen, R., and Dowrick, P. W. (1983). Myths of mid-winter depression. Community Mental Health Journal, 19, 177-186. Coyle, F. A., and Eisenman, R. (1970). Santa Claus drawings by Negro and White children. The Journal of Social Psychology, 80, 201-205. Craddick, R. A. (1961). Size of Santa Claus drawings as a function of time before and after Christmas. Journal of Psychological Studies, 12, 121-125. Diamond, E. (1967, December 17). Singing those Christmas holiday blues. The New York Times, p. 229-234. Dixon, D. J., and Hom, H. L. (1984). The role of fantasy figures in the regulation of young children’s behavior: Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and donations. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 9, 14-18.

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Eisenbud, J. (1941). Negative reactions to Christmas. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 10, 639-645. Goin, M. K. (2002). Practical psychotherapy: What is it about the holidays? Psychiatric Services, 53, 1369-1370. Hock, R. R. (1999). Forty studies that changed psychology: Explorations into the history of psychological research (third edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Holmes, T. H., and Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213-218. Hillard, J. R., Holland, J. M., and Ramm, D. (1981). Christmas and psychopathology: Data from a psychiatric emergency room population. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 1377-1381. Lester, D. (1979). Temporal variation in suicide and homicide. American Journal of Epidemiology, 109, 517-520. Lester, D., and Beck, A. T. (1975). Suicide and national holidays. Psychological Reports, 36, 52. Masterton, G. (1991). Monthly and seasonal variation in parasuicide: A sex difference. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 155-157. McPhee, M. (2005, December 4). Let nothing you dismay. New York Times Magazine, pp. 164-167. Meerloo, J. A. M. (1960). Santa Claus and the psychology of giving. American Practitioner and Digest of Treatment, 11, 1031-1035. Phillips, D. P., and Liu, J. (1980). The frequency of suicides around major public holidays: Some surprising findings. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 10, 41-50. Phillips, D. P., and Wills, J. S. (1987). A drop in suicides around major national holidays. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 17, 1-12. Pollock, G. H. (1971). Temporal anniversary manifestations: Hour, day, holiday. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 40, 123-131. Proctor, J. T. (1967). Children’s reaction to Christmas. Oklahoma State Medical Association Journal, 60, 653-659. Roodin, P. A., Vaught, G. M., and Simpson, W. E. (1971). Christmas tree drawings before and after Christmas: A re-examination. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 33, 365-366. Sattin, S. M. (1975). The psychodynamics of the holiday syndrome. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 4, 156-162. Sechrest, L., and Wallace, J. (1964). Figure drawings and naturally occurring events: Elimination of the expansive euphoria hypothesis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 55, 42-44.


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Sereno, R. (1951). Some observations on the Santa Claus custom. Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, 14, 387-396. Sterba, R. (1944). On Christmas. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 13, 79-83.

Chapter 4

THE SANTA LETTERS

Many stories are told of acts of charity and giving at Christmas time—gold coins in Salvation Army kettles, and children, in their letters to Santa, telling him to give their toys to someone poor. Scores of volunteers assist in a number of ways throughout the season. The United States Post Office does a tremendous amount of work, both volunteer and otherwise, at Christmas time. “Operation Santa Claus” is an annual tradition where postal employees, on their own time, respond to children’s letters to Santa. Some write letters, others purchase gifts for needy children. New York City’s “Operation” began in 1927, when clerks donated their own money to buy food and toys for some of the children who wrote to Santa. According to Scannell (1995), at least 23 post offices (in addition to New York City’s) participate in “Operation Santa.” These USPS volunteers have been profiled in a number of stories. After the terrorist actions of September 11, 2001, the volunteers still answered letters—albeit more cautiously. According to reports in the news media,

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the letters to Santa appeared to be different after the terrorist attacks: many were requesting intangible things like peace and happiness, as well as gifts for others (Guinness, 2001; Associated Press, 2001; Sanders, 2001). It should be noted, though, that sympathy in letters to Santa has been a part of the custom for many children. Durham (2000) reported on letters to Santa received by Britain’s Royal Mail: many of these letters also showed interest in helping others. When I first developed the Santa letters project, I had no idea where it would take me. I was happy to be able to use and preserve the letters, which would otherwise have been discarded. A reporter from our local paper interviewed me about the project, and the story made the front page of the Live! section of the paper (Wintermantle-Durkin, 2003). No parent ever contacted me (or the Postmaster) to indicate dismay or disapproval of the project—on the contrary, whenever I talked to people about it, they all thought it was an interesting idea and wanted to know what I had found. The students, too, indicated that it was by far their favorite project to work on, and although I no longer teach the Research Methods Laboratory, whenever I give presentations on the material the students love it. In this chapter, I will describe the results of some of the analyses of the letters. First, I will describe the previous research that has been done; then, I will give you an idea of where the letters in my study come from and how they were coded. Specific topics of analysis will then be discussed: year differences, traditional vs. non-traditional letters, gender differences, and politeness differences. Some aspects of the results have previously been published (Slotterback, 2006).

The Santa Letters

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DEAR SANTA…ANALYSES OF CHILDREN’S LETTERS AND TOY REQUESTS This is the stuff dreams are made of—the glitter, the wishes, the heart’s desires: letters to Santa Claus. Children have been writing letters to Santa for decades, although Post Office officials will tell you that the number of letters to Santa increased tremendously after the movie “Miracle on 34th Street” came out in 1947 (Scannell, 1995). Not all letters make it into the postal system. A survey of my students (the Christmas Traditions Survey) found that some placed their letters on the mantel or table for Santa to find, while others burned their letters in their fireplaces, believing the smoke would carry their wishes to Santa at the North Pole. Still, every December, many missives flood Post Offices around the world, all trying to make their way North. Several researchers (myself included) have been lucky enough to get permission to study the letters, interrupting their trip to the head elf only momentarily. The glitter, the greed, and the generosity captivated me. What kinds of things had other researchers found? One of the first systematic studies of children’s letters to Santa was done in 1975 by Caron and Ward. They investigated children’s requests to Santa by interviewing 84 mother-child dyads in Montreal. A month before Christmas, the children were asked to write a letter to Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas and where they got their ideas. The mothers were trained to keep track of requests made to them, and the television commercials at this time were also analyzed. Caron and Ward found that children tended to request things like toys that could be played with alone (e.g., dolls, models), sports toys (e.g., balls), and competition toys (e.g., “slot racing sets”). The children apparently got most of their ideas for gifts from television and friends. Their findings indicated that younger children asked for more toys than older children (but older children ended up getting more of their specific requests). Middle-class children requested more “non-interactive” toys while upper-class children requested more “competition” toys: both groups received the types of toys they requested. About half of the gifts received had not been requested by the child (neither in their letter to Santa, nor in requests to their mothers). The toy requests that were made both to Santa and their parents were most likely to be fulfilled. Caron and Ward concluded that despite what children saw on television, the family environment was what was important in determining the type of toy chosen as gifts for the children.

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Richardson and Simpson (1982) examined gender differences in children’s letters to Santa Claus. They chose to use the letters because although parents or other authority figures may prod the child to write the letter, the child dictates the content of the letter. Studying letters to Santa gives researchers a very different picture into children’s toy preferences precisely because this content is voluntarily dictated. Most often in toy-preference research the children must choose toys from a limited assortment made available by the researchers. Because the “sky’s the limit” in writing to Santa, letters to Santa offer a more naturalistic view of the kinds of toys children really want. Richardson and Simpson’s final sample consisted of 750 letters from the main post office in Seattle, Washington. Their analyses indicated that boys and girls made a similar number of requests (between five and six) per letter. They also found that boys and girls requested similar numbers of popular items, but that boys and girls differed in terms of the types of toys they requested: for example, girls were much more likely to request “domestic” items and things related to the home than were boys. Downs (1983) also chose to analyze children’s letters to Santa because of their spontaneous nature. Downs points out that in prior studies of toy choice among children, the children were forced to choose between sex-appropriate and sex-inappropriate toys. Gender-neutral toys, such as crayons, were not included as a potential choice. This, then, potentially led to an inflated estimation of sexappropriate preference scores. The letters to Santa are not only spontaneous but also allow the researcher to gauge the importance of sex-appropriate, gender neutral, and sex-inappropriate toys for boys and girls. One hundred and fifty-four children in Houston, Texas were asked (by their teachers) to write letters to Santa. All of the children who wrote the letters indicated that they believed Santa was real. Downs found that girls requested more toys than did boys. Overall, a higher percentage of the toys requested were for gender-neutral toys, compared to requests for sex-appropriate or sexinappropriate toys. Boys were far more likely to request “boy” toys or neutral toys than “girl” toys, while girls were more likely to request neutral or “girl” toys than “boy” toys. Downs was not certain whether the girls’ preference for neutral toys was (1) a consequence of efforts to reduce sexism, (2) a typical developmental sequence of greater sex-role flexibility at this age in girls, or (3) a here-to-fore unrecognized facet of toy preference.

The Santa Letters

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Otnes, Kim, and Kim (1993) suggest that children’s letters to Santa Claus can be used to gauge how influential advertising is by examining how often children request name brands. Pollay (1986) found that toy sales in the month of December alone account for approximately 40% of annual sales, and children are routinely bombarded with advertisements for toys and games at this time, so the potential exists that children might recognize and request toys by brand names. Otnes et al. used 344 letters from a Southwestern city in the United States. They found that boys and girls did not differ in terms of the amount of gifts requested, and that approximately 52% of the items listed in the letters were for specific brand names (there were no differences between males’ and females’ tendencies to request by brand name). Otnes et al. also found that about 85% of the children mentioned at least one brand name in their letter to Santa, and that boys and girls requested different types of brands. In particular, the boys’ requests tended to be for a few, very popular brand names whose products are considered stereotypically “boy toys.” The brands that were most requested were also most heavily advertised (almost $61.5 million spent, mostly on television advertisements). Otnes, Kim, and Kim (1994) again analyzed children’s letters to Santa Claus to examine gender differences in how language was used. The 344 letters from the previous study were re-analyzed to assess gender differences in communication style. The content of the letters was broken down into units and each unit was coded into one of six categories: (1) politeness; (2) Christmas holiday aspects; (3)

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direct, blatant requests; (4) indirect requests; (5) conveying affection for Santa; and (6) “altruistic” requests. Their results revealed that boys and girls did not differ in terms of the number of gifts requested, although the girls’ letters were longer than the boys’. There was a trend toward the girls being more polite in their letters, although it was not statistically significant. However, those girls who did use polite units of language used them more frequently than the boys. Girls also made more references to Christmas elements in their letters than did the boys. Boys were more likely to make direct requests than girls. Those girls who used compound (indirect) requests did so more frequently within their letters than did boys. Girls were more likely to use affectionate appeals (i.e., “I love you Santa”) than boys, although boys and girls did not differ in terms of their altruism. Otnes et al concluded that boys and girls do use different types of strategies to request material goods, with girls’ letters being more expressive and affectionate than boys’. Otnes et al. suggest that the gender differences found in adult requesting behavior may have its roots in how children are socialized, given their findings in children’s written requests. Robinson and Morris (1986) took a slightly different approach to studying sex-typing and toy choice: they gave toy inventory sheets (in January) to 115 children to take home to their parents. The inventory sheets asked the parents to describe the toys their child received for Christmas, and to indicate whether or not the child had requested the toy. The toys indicated by the parents were classified as to being “toys for boys,” “toys for girls,” or “toys for both.” The toys were additionally categorized as to type (e.g., vehicles, weapons, arts and crafts, etc.).

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The parents reported that their children received an average of about six toys at Christmas, with individual children receiving as few as three or as many as 16 toys. The results indicated that the boys requested more gender-stereotyped toys than girls, regardless of age (i.e., 3, 4, or 5 years old). The analyses for the girls indicated that more gender-stereotyped toys (i.e., “girl toys”) were requested with increasing age. Only one boy received a cross-sex toy (specifically because he requested it), while one third of the girls received a cross-sex toy. With regard to the requested toys the boys received, results indicated that they included things like action figures, weapons, and vehicles more than girls. In contrast, girls requested (and received) more arts and crafts items, dolls, and domestic toys than the boys. When the parents gave toys to the children (i.e., non-requested toys), they tended to give vehicles to the boys and dolls to the girls. Robinson and Morris concluded that by the age of five, children are very gender-stereotyped (in terms of the gifts they request), and they suggest that these preferences for traditional gender-stereotyped toys have been fairly stable for the past 50 years (based on previous studies of sex-typing of young children). They also concluded that boys acquire gender-stereotyped toy preferences earlier than girls, which they suggest is not surprising given that boys tend to be more strongly sex-typed than girls by their parents and their male peers.

WHERE THE SANTA LETTERS IN MY STUDY COME FROM AND HOW THEY WERE CODED To date, 1,235 letters to Santa Claus have been entered into my database. The Postmaster of the Greater Scranton Area graciously allowed me to have access to the letters after volunteers from the post office and a local credit union answered them (our local Post Office participates in Operation Santa). Scranton is located approximately 120 miles from New York City, and is a family-oriented community of approximately 76,000 people (Chamber of Commerce, 2003). Three main areas of commerce in the region include retail, manufacturing, and health care (United States Census, 2000). The Postmaster of the greater Scranton area forwards all letters to Santa collected by the Post Office to me at the University of Scranton. Letters were pulled at random from large sacks. The letters span six years (1998-2003). Boys wrote 553 of the letters while girls wrote 682. To determine whether each child was a boy or girl, two elements were examined. In some letters the children stated “I have been a good boy/girl”; in those cases where sex of the child was not stated, the names of the children

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were evaluated using lists of names for boys and girls. If a name was ambiguous (i.e., could be either a girl or a boy, like “Pat”), the lists of toys requested were also examined. Previous research has indicated that children tend to request sexappropriate toys (e.g., Downs, 1983; Otnes, Kim and Kim, 1994), thus, the lists were viewed as another clue to gender identity. No form letters (i.e., those that had the words “Dear Santa” printed at the top of the page and had fill-in blanks), letters written by parents (e.g., “I can’t afford to buy presents, so please bring my children these toys”), letters without names, or envelopes full of pictures of toys (and nothing else) were used. I, along with 46 pairs of students in Research Methods Laboratory, coded the letters on a number of characteristics. To assess politeness, the numbers of “please” and/or “thank you” statements were counted as it was thought to be easy for the students to recognize and be consistent on coding. Also, given that there undoubtedly was a range of ages included in the sample (very few children listed their ages), it was thought that even the very youngest children would be capable of using “please” and “thank you,” while more advanced forms of politeness (e.g., indirect requests—“I would like to have…”) would underestimate the amount of politeness in letters because the youngest children would not use them. Similar to Marcon and Kutsch (1995), we used three classifications of politeness: zero polite statements (below average politeness), one polite statement (average politeness) and two or more polite statements (above average politeness). In addition to counting the number of “please” and “thank you” statements, the letters were also classified into these categories. “Traditional” letters were coded as those that had both a traditional opening (i.e., “Dear Santa”) and closing sentiment (e.g., “Love, Timmy”). Letters that had either a traditional opening or a traditional closing, but not both, were classified as “hybrid” letters, and letters that had neither a traditional opening nor closing were classified as “lists” (i.e., these letters looked like a business memo: “To: Santa, From: Timmy. Here is my Christmas list.”). The letters were also coded for patriotic sentiments (e.g., “God bless America,” “Pray for those in the World Trade Center and Pentagon”), whether or not any drawings were included, and if any patriotic drawings were included. Finally, wishes for Firefighters/Police officers (either as toys desired or specific wishes for) were evaluated, and if there were any specific concerns for Santa (e.g., “Have a safe trip”) as well as any specific family concerns (e.g., “Please ask the angels to look after my aunt. She is having surgery next week” and “All I want for Christmas is for my mom and dad to be nice to each other and not be fighting”)— see Appendix A for an example of a coding sheet.

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Finally, the type, number, and price of toys requested were coded as were the type, number, and price of “other” requests (e.g., clothes, CDs, computers), whether or not the child mentioned being good, and whether or not the child expressed concern for Santa or others (e.g., the elves, Rudolph). Inter-rater reliability across the 46 pairs was 85%.

SOME GENERAL RESULTS Four hundred and twenty-nine of the letters comprised a true list (i.e., they resembled a memo: “To Santa, From Timmy: Here is my Christmas list”), and 487 were classified as a traditional letter (i.e., they had both a traditional opening “Dear Santa,” and a traditional closing sentiment “Love, Jonathon”). Three hundred and nineteen were classified as “hybrid” letters (i.e., they had either a traditional opening or a traditional closing, but not both). Approximately 20% of the letters contained wishes for other members of the family (siblings, parents, and other relatives, as well as pets), and 32% mentioned whether or not they had been good. Thirty-one percent expressed concerns for the other “folks” at the North Pole (e.g., “How are the elves?”, “Tell the reindeer I said hello”, “I hope Mrs. Claus is doing fine”), and 12% mentioned leaving food

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for Santa and/or the reindeer: the most frequently mentioned was cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer; approximately three percent mentioned other foods (e.g., chocolate pudding). Thirty-one percent contained drawings. Some children stapled their school pictures to the letter so Santa would know what they looked like and several other children included graded papers from school to prove they had been working hard. Approximately four percent of the children’s letters expressed a specific concern for Santa’s safety (e.g., “please be careful when you fly”), and three percent expressed concerns for family members (e.g., “All I want for Christmas is for my mom and dad to be nice to each other and not be fighting”). Fifty-eight percent of the letters expressed no politeness to Santa (i.e., they had not a single “please” or “thank-you”). Approximately 31% of the letters contained a single instance of politeness, and 12% contained two or more polite statements. Table 1 lists some other statistics for the letters. Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for a number of letter characteristics by year of letters

Year

Number of Letters

Number of Pleases and Thank yous

Number of Toys Requested

1998

136

1999

152

2000

105

2001

163

2002

342

2003

337

0.58 (0.92) 0.55 (0.79) 0.59 (0.90) 0.75 (1.48) 0.65 (0.96) 0.57 (1.17)

4.83 (4.41) 7.13 (10.12) 7.42 (8.90) 5.31 (5.67) 6.28 (8.76) 6.03 (8.26)

Number of “Other” Requests 2.99 (3.36) 3.03 (3.68) 4.90 (9.71) 2.55 (3.05) 2.29 (6.33) 2.40 (3.84)

Average Cost per Request $32.09 ($41.22) $45.55 ($82.77) $103.70 ($601.53) $65.94 ($334.39) $157.87 ($2167.69) $46.74 ($150.33)

ANALYSES OF THE LETTERS BY YEAR The only year differences seen involved whether or not the children expressed wishes for other people (usually family members), inquired about the North Pole folks, the number of patriotic sentiments, the type of letter written (traditional vs.

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list vs. hybrid), the number of drawings in general, the number of patriotic drawings, and in the overall number of requests. Chi-square analyses indicated that there was a difference among the years (χ2 (5) =17.10, p .1). Finally, the number of children who expressed no politeness vs. one polite statement vs. two or more polite statements also has not changed over the years, χ2 (10) = 10.91, p > .36, nor has the tendency for children to tell Santa to be careful on his trip (χ2 (5) = 9.66, p > .08). As I stated in the journal article about the Santa letters analyses, given the number of ways in which the lives of people around the world and in the United States have changed since September 11, 2001 it is perhaps comforting to find that one tradition, letters to Santa Claus, remains largely unchanged. However, it is interesting to note that world events do have an impact on children’s lives in ways that might not have been anticipated: that is, their letters to Santa. The effect has been to amplify some feelings, like patriotism (for example, “God bless America,” “Pray for those in the World Trade Center”), and to increase a sense of altruism (that is, requesting things for others), rather than other feelings, like fear, for Santa or others. The tremendous outpouring of altruism suggested in media accounts of children’s letters to Santa Claus in the months following the terrorist acts in the United States (for example, Associated Press, 2001; Guinness, 2001) has been verified empirically (in a small way) in the current analyses. The media accounts of fantastic altruistic letters (Associated Press, 2001; Guinness, 2001) were not observed here: It may very well be that in a time when people desperately needed and wanted to see something good, they took more notice of those salient altruistic letters. It may also be that letters from other areas, especially New York City, were more directly affected by the terrorist actions and perhaps were different from the letters studied here. The letters were obtained from the post office in Scranton because the author resides and works in this city: It was thought that the postal officials would be more likely to entrust a local person with the letters. Further work needs to be done to obtain letters from other areas of the country for comparative purposes.

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The fact that children requested fewer things overall in 2001 compared to 2000 may be an indication of two inter-related circumstances: The terrorist actions and a subsequent economic downturn. Figures from the Congressional Budget Office (August, 2002) reveal that contrary to the stock market boom in the late 1990s, the stock market drop after September 11, 2001, and subsequent market volatility had negatively impacted many business investors and the economy. Otnes et al. (1993) speculated that perhaps the number of gifts requested from Santa could reflect the status of the economy, and suggested that tracking the letters over a number of years could give an indication of this. Previous researchers have reported anywhere from 5.3 requests (Richardson and Simpson, 1982) to 7.2 requests (Otnes, et al., 1993). The letters analyzed in these two studies came from different areas of the United States (Seattle, Washington and the “Southwestern United States,” respectively), so it is possible (although not very probable) that these variations in terms of number of requests may be due to differences in the regions of the United States. The experience of working with the letters from 2001 certainly was different from other years in a number of ways. For example, among the Santa letters of 2001 was the first (and only) death threat to Santa that has been encountered in the five years of the study (“Dear Santa, I am going to kill you and steal all the toys from your workshop. Love, Joey”). Also, because of the threat of anthrax, workers at the post office opened all the letters addressed to Santa from 2001

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before they were sent to the author; one parent, on the envelope, wrote to the postal workers that the letter “was a child’s fantasy” and not anything harmful. Thus, on many levels, the Christmas season of 2001 was very distinctive (see Slotterback, 2006).

ANALYSES EXAMINING TRADITIONAL VS. NON-TRADITIONAL LETTERS Another way to examine the letters to Santa would be to compare the “traditional” letters to the “list” or “hybrid” letters. What differences could be found between them? To answer this question, a series of univariate ANOVAs were run with type of letter (true list/traditional letter/”hybrid” letter) as the independent variable. A significant difference was found for number of inquiries regarding the North Pole inhabitants, F(2, 1071) = 22.07, p < .001 (Eta2 = .04). Post hoc analyses (Tukey’s LSD) indicated that traditional letter writers had more questions for and about the North Pole inhabitants than either the list writers or the children who wrote “hybrid” letters, while the hybrid letters had more than the list writers. A significant difference was also found for the number of “pleases” and “thank-yous” expressed in the letters to Santa, F(2, 1235) = 6.40, p < .002 (Eta2 = .010). Post hoc analyses (Tukey’s LSD) indicated that the traditional letters had more instances of politeness than both the other types of letters, and the hybrid letters in turn had more than the list letters, although the overall level of politeness for all letters was low (mean number of “pleases”/“thank yous” for list writers, traditional letters, and “hybrid” letters were 0.48, 0.73, and 0.64, respectively). There was also a significant difference regarding total number of requests contained in the letters, F(2, 1234) = 18.15, p < .001 (Eta2 = .029). Post hoc analyses (Tukey’s LSD) determined that the traditional letters contained fewer requests than the “hybrid” letters, which contained fewer requests than the list writers (means = 6.92, 8.72, and 11.20, respectively). The requests to Santa can be broken down into two categories: toys and “other” requests (for example, animals, snow, non-toy requests). With regard to the number of toys requested, a significant difference was found for the types of letters, F(2, 1235) = 25.46, p < .001 (Eta2 = .040). Post hoc analyses indicated that the traditional letter writers requested the fewest amounts of toys compared to the other types of letter writers (Mean = 5.56, sd = 8.26). The “hybrid” letter writers requested fewer toys (Mean = 5.56, sd = 5.61) than the list writers, who requested the most toys (Mean = 8.31, sd = 9.38). The type of letter only approached

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significance with regard to “other” requests, F(2, 1234) = 2.59, p = .075 (Eta2 = .004). Finally, there were no differences among the types of letters written with regard to average cost per request and number of patriotic sentiments (all F’s < 1.0, all p’s > .2). The “traditional” letter writers (that is, those who had both a traditional greeting and closing statement, “Dear Santa,” “Love, Meg”) differed from the “list” writers (that is, those whose letters resembled memos, “To: Santa, From: Katie, Here is my Christmas list.”) in several ways. First, the traditional letter writers used more politeness in their letters and requested fewer items than the list writers, although it must be noted that the level of politeness was strikingly low: The average number of “pleases” or “thank yous” used by the children was less than one, even for the traditional letter writers. In the instances where the children used five or more polite sentiments in their letters, it was because they had requested live animals for Christmas. One boy wanted a golden retriever puppy: He used sixteen “pleases” in his letter to Santa (the highest number of polite statements). Another child, a girl, wanted a horse (she said she would keep it in the kitchen): She used six “pleases” in her letter (the second highest number of polite sentiments). Second, the traditional letter writers also requested fewer things overall than the list writers, especially toys. However, the two groups did not differ in terms of the average cost of each item: It appears that the traditional letter writers asked for fewer things than the list writers, but the items requested really did not differ in terms of cost. Many of the children had an appreciation for just how much their requests could cost, indeed, some included information about specific catalogs, page numbers, and prices in their letters to help Santa better locate exactly what they wanted. Some indicated that they hoped they weren’t being too greedy; others, in their lists, starred or highlighted those items they wanted the most—if Santa could get the remainder, that would be great; if not, as long as the major requests were fulfilled, they would be satisfied. It may be that knowing the cost of the items requested inhibited the traditional letter writers from asking for more, or that they have a different strategy than the list writers: Perhaps these children believe that by asking for fewer things, they are increasing the likelihood that their requests will be granted. Caron and Ward (1975), in their small sample of Montreal children, found that of the children’s requests to Santa, only about twenty-one to thirty-two percent were fulfilled. An interesting follow-up would be to survey children about their gift requests to Santa and determine how likely they believe it is that their requests will be granted.

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ANALYSES EXAMINING GENDER DIFFERENCES A third way to examine the letters would be to see if boys and girls differed in terms of the type of letter written, politeness, and types of toys requested. Marcon and Kutsch (1995) reported on a study of letters to Santa that were published (unedited) in a Florida newspaper. The letters were solicited through the newspaper and the children knew their letters would be published. Their results indicated that there were differences between those children who were polite and those who were not: the most polite children (i.e., those who used two or more polite terms in their letters) requested the fewest, and least expensive, toys. Marcon and Kutsch also found that girls were more polite than the boys. However, the fact that the children knew their letters would be published may

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have influenced the form and content of their letters. Another methodological issue concerns the selection of the letters: did the editors of the paper publish every letter that was sent to them, or were some filtered out? Are the letters that are sent to Santa via U.S. postal service different from those studied by Marcon and Kutsch? The letters of boys and girls in the current study differed in several aspects. More girls than boys included drawings with their letters (χ2 = 8.41, p < .004), and although boys and girls did not differ in terms of whether or not they inquired about North Pole inhabitants in their letters, when they did inquire, girls expressed more concerns for the North Pole inhabitants than did the boys (t (1067.703) = 3.27, p < .001). Boys and girls did not differ in terms of the type of letter they chose to write (i.e., a true list vs. a traditional letter vs. a “hybrid” letter), whether or not they mentioned wishes for siblings/parents/pets, if they mentioned having been good all year, if they had inquired about the North Pole inhabitants, if they were planning on leaving food for Santa and/or the reindeer, if they included a patriotic picture, and whether or not they expressed any family concerns (all χ2 < 2.09, p’s > .2). They also did not differ in terms of how they were categorized for politeness: there were no significant differences in the percentage of boys vs. girls classified as not at all polite (zero “pleases” or “thank-yous”), average politeness (one polite statement), or above average (two or more polite statements), χ2 (2) = .33, p = .85. By far, the most frequently studied aspect of children’s letters to Santa concerns gender differences, usually with regard to toy choice (e.g., Downs, 1983; Otnes, et al., 1994; Otnes, et al., 1993; Richardson and Simpson, 1982). Similar to what Otnes, Kim, and Kim (1994) found, there were no gender differences in terms of the number of requests made to Santa in the current study; also, no gender differences were found with regard to politeness. Otnes et al. found in their sample that girls wrote longer letters than boys and expressed more affection for Santa. Otnes et al. speculated that this was a reflection of how boys and girls are raised in our society, with girls being encouraged to openly demonstrate affection. Perhaps the gender difference found in the current study with regard to girls including more drawings, expressing more concerns for North Pole inhabitants, and expressing more patriotic sentiments in their letters are a result of girls writing more complex letters than boys: certainly, number of drawings was not discussed in previous literature examining letters to Santa.

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ANALYSES EXAMINING POLITENESS Finally, a fourth way of studying the letters to Santa would be to examine them in terms of politeness. Each successive generation of a society must be educated concerning the traditions, obligations, and morality of their culture, for without that knowledge civilization could not continue. Over time, some of these traditions and obligations change. One area where substantial transmutation has occurred is in what is considered polite behavior. According to Ferguson (1976) the use of politeness formulas (e.g., saying “please” and “thank you”) is a universal phenomenon across all human societies. Politeness, and changes in the customs that embody polite behavior, has long been a focus of commentary. Sophocles in the fifth century wrote of how youth had bad manners, no longer rose when others entered a room, and tyrannized their teachers (Dacey and Kenny, 1997). Today, media reporters stress that there are problems with civility (or the lack thereof): Farnsworth (2002) reported that 61% of Americans felt that rude behavior was increasing, and Parady (2002) alleges that, as a society, we have become “less civilized in the so-called social graces” (p. 23). Anecdotal evidence thus would seem to indicate a lack of politeness, but what would a scientific study find? Studying politeness is difficult: often, when people know they are being observed, they change their behaviors (a major problem with naturalistic

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observation studies). Another way to study politeness would be to ask people, through a survey, about how polite they are, but this too has problems, as people would report what they think you want to know or ought to know about them. A good way to study politeness, then, would be to do so unobtrusively. One unobtrusive source would be to examine the letters to Santa Claus. Pragmatics (learning when to say what to whom) are the last part of language skills to emerge, and are what most clearly distinguishes the speech of older children from younger ones. Children acquire these skills from interactions with parents (Berko Gleason, Perlmann, and Grief, 1984; Snow, Perlmann, Gleason and Hooshyar, 1990). Politeness, one aspect of pragmatics, can be shown at a variety of times during an interaction, but especially so when making requests (Leonard, 1993). Therefore, one would expect to see numerous polite examples in children’s letters to Santa Claus. Many sources describe the stress and strain families are under today, and suggest that we need to develop more family traditions that will provide some sense of stability and belonging (Ban Breathnach, 1990). Some suggest that our society has become more informal and fragmented (e.g., Wallace, 1997). Perhaps a decline in manners and politeness has accompanied this fragmentation. This may be echoed in the manner in which children write letters to Santa. How many children continue to write traditional letters (using opening and closing sentiments), “pleases,” “thank-you,” or refer to time-honored customs such as concern for the North Pole family (e.g., Santa, Mrs. Claus, Rudolph, the elves) and mentioning being good? Have lists of toy requests replaced this way of life? Little attention has been given to examining politeness in children’s letters, specifically letters to Santa Claus. Results indicated that there were differences among the politeness categories in terms of number of concerns expressed for the North Pole inhabitants, F(2, 1235) = 10.52, p < .001. Post hoc analyses (Tukey’s LSD) revealed that the most polite letters (i.e., those with 2 or more polite statements) expressed the most concerns while those letters with one or fewer polite statements did not differ. Chi-square analyses also indicated that the politeness categories varied among the type of letter written (i.e., list, traditional, hybrid): the majority of the list writers (65%) included no polite statements in their lists, while 48% of the traditional letter writers used at least one “please” or “thank you” in their letters (17% of these letters used two or more polite statements), and approximately 44% of the hybrid letters used one or more polite statements, χ2 (2) = 30.62, p < .001. An ANOVA with politeness category and average cost of requests revealed that there were significant differences, F (2, 1235) = 3.18, p < .05. Post hoc analyses (Tukey’s LSD) indicate that those letters with two or more polite statements had

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the highest average cost of request ($312.62) compared to those letters with one please or thank-you ($53.78) and letters with no pleases or thank-yous ($52.34) (which did not differ from each other). There were no significant differences among the politeness categories for total number of requests, number of toys requested, and number of “other” requests (all F’s < 2.23, all p’s > .11).

The overall lack of politeness in the letters to Santa was astonishing: it was expected that, because children were requesting things from Santa, they would use some politeness. However, Bates (1976) offers a potential explanation for this. She argues that children will use a variety of polite forms of speech in order to get something from the listener, and that children begin (very early on) to discriminate who would most likely comply with their requests, as well as which person needs the most formal, polite form of speech and which person will grant requests articulated in a more informal manner. Perhaps because children believe that Santa will bring them everything on their lists, they feel they do not need to be very polite. The current study also found that the letters in the three politeness categories (zero polite statements, one polite statement (average politeness), and two polite statements (above average politeness)) did differ. The most polite letters had the most inquiries about North Pole inhabitants (e.g., “How is Mrs. Claus?” “Say hello to the elves for me!”) as well as had the highest average cost for presents overall. The majority of list writers used no polite statements, while half of the traditional children used at least one polite statement: thus, the majority of the

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most polite letters were comprised of traditional letter writers who incorporated more of the typical Santa letter elements, like asking about the North Pole inhabitants and others (e.g., the Grinch). It may well be that the families of those children who wrote traditional letters may be different from the families of children who wrote lists: findings from unpublished data on Christmas Traditions Survey (Slotterback, 2004) suggest that the families of those people who wrote traditional letters were more likely to engage in other Christmas traditions, like caroling and attending special church services, and hosting the big Christmas meal, as well as having a special meal for Christmas day and hanging stockings.

END NOTE Children’s views of Santa are complex and multifaceted: not just a bringer of presents, he is also a grandfather, a father, an authority figure, godlike, a social worker. The requests made of him range from making it snow to watching over sick relatives, to making parents stop fighting. The impact of world events, like the terrorist attacks of 2001, and domestic events, like the impact of divorce, can be seen through the types of requests that children make. Every year, thousands of children around the world write to Santa, and their missives, their belief, touch the lives of those who handle and answer them. The final chapter examines beliefs about Santa Claus and how they change as children grow. It also considers the role of Christmas in our society, and what our practices say about us.

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REFERENCES Associated Press (December 21, 2001). Dear Santa: Letters take more serious, selfless tone this year. Retrieved Jan 4, 2002 at http://www.msnbc.com/local/kndu/m129544.asp Associated Press (2005). 130,000 wishes come true. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/ 2005/US/01/11/christmas.card.wish.ap/index.html Ban Breathnach, S. (1990). Mrs. Sharp’s traditions: Nostalgic suggestions for recreating the family celebrations and seasonal pastimes of the Victorian home. New York: Simon and Schuster. Bates, E. (1976). Language and context: The acquisition of pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, Inc. Berko Gleason, J., Perlmann, R. Y., and Grief, E. B. (1984). What’s the magic word: Learning language through politeness routines. Discourse Processes, 7, 493-502. Caron, A., and Ward, S. (1975). Gift decisions by kids and parents. Journal of Advertising Research, 15, 15-20. Chamber of Commerce (2003). 2003 Lackawanna Community Profile. Retrieved October 10, 2004 from http://www.scrantonchamber.com/ Congressional Budget Office (August, 2002). The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update. Retrieved October 10, 2004, from http://www.cbo.gov/Pubs.cfm Dacey, J., and Kenny, M. (1997). Adolescent Development (second edition). Chicago: Brown and Benchmark. Downs, A. C. (1983). Letters to Santa Claus: Elementary school-age children’s sex-typed toy preferences in a natural setting. Sex Roles, 9, 159-163. Durham, D. (2000). Sympathy tops Santa wish lists. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/Europe/12/22/santa.letters/index.html Farnsworth, L. (2002). Why courtesy counts. Parade Magazine, August 25, 2002, p. 8-9. Ferguson, C. A. (1976). The structure and use of politeness formulas. Language in Society, 5, 137-151. Guinness, M. (December 22, 2001). Letters to Santa, holiday cards lifting spirits to a new level. Retrieved Jan 4, 2002, at http://www.msnbc.com/ local/ctpost/m129699.asp Leonard, R. J. (1993). Requests, refusals, and reasons in children’s negotiations. Social Development, 2, 131-144. Marcon, R. A., and Kutsch, K. B. (1995). “All I want for Christmas:” Language pragmatics and children’s letters to Santa. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN.

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Otnes, C., Kim, K., and Kim, Y. C. (1994). Yes, Virginia, there is a gender difference: analyzing children’s requests to Santa Claus. Journal of Popular Culture, 28, 17-29. Otnes, C., Kim, Y. C., and Kim, K. (1993). All I want for Christmas: An analysis of children’s brand requests to Santa Claus. Journal of Popular Culture, 27, 183-194. Parady, M. (2002). Good Manners seem to be falling by the wayside. Hunterdon Observer, Saturday, July 13, 2002, p. 23. Pollay, R. W. (1986). The distorted mirror: Reflections on the unintended consequences of advertising. Journal of Marketing, 50, 18-36. Richardson, J. G., and Simpson, C. H. (1982). Children, gender, and social structure: An analysis of the contents of letters to Santa Claus. Child Development, 53, 429-436. Robinson, C. C. and Morris, J. T. (1986). The gender-stereotyped nature of Christmas toys received by 36-, 48-, and 60-month old children: A comparison between nonrequested vs. requested toys. Sex Roles, 15, 21-32. Sanders, J. (2001). Santa’s making his list and boy, has it changed. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.com/local/pisea/51707.asp Scannell, C. (1995). USPS volunteers for “Operation Santa Claus.” STAMPS, December 23, p. 19. Slotterback, C. S. (2006). Terrorism, altruism, and patriotism: An examination of children’s letters to Santa Claus, 1998-2002. Current Psychology, 25, 144153. Slotterback, C. S. (2004) [Christmas traditions]. Unpublished raw data. Snow, C. E., Perlmann, R. Y., Gleason, J. B., and Hooshyar, N. (1990). Developmental perspectives on politeness: sources of children’s knowledge. Journal of Pragmatics, 14, 289-305. United States Census (2000). American FactFinder. Retrieved October 10, 2004 at http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en Wallace, C. (1996). Elbows off the table, napkin in the lap, no video games during dinner: The modern guide to teaching children good manners. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Wintermantle-Durkin, K. (Dec 13, 2003). Letter heads: Local psychology professor analyzes letters to Santa as class project. The Scranton Times Tribune, p. B1-B2.

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APPENDIX A: CODING SHEET FOR SANTA LETTERS Letter # ________ Year:_________ Traditional Greeting: Yes (for example, Dear Santa…) Boy _____

No

Closing sentiment? Yes No (for example, Your pal…)

Girl _____

Other people’s wishes mentioned: Yes No

Mention being good:

Indicate concern for Santa/Mrs. Claus/the elves/the reindeer: (Number of concerns:_______ )

Yes

Yes

No

No

Mention leaving food: Yes No Type of food(s): ___________________________ Number of pleases and thank-yous: _______ Overall number of TOYS: _______ Give the number of toy requests falling into each of the following categories: Aggression/war _____ Prosocial/cooperative _____ Nurturant/homemaking _____ Spatial abilities/mechanical _____ Educational/Learning _____ Competitive/winning-losing Creativity/artistic _____ Physical activity/sports _____ Morality/values _____ Adventure/fantasy _____ Problem-solving _____ Technology _____ Stuffed animals _____ Action figure _____ Number of “Other” requests: ________ Types of other requests: ________ (1=CDs/movies/books/posters, 2=cosmetics/jewelry/clothes, 6=live animals, 7=snow, 8=health of family members, 10=other, 11=combination of requests) Estimated cost of ALL requests: __________ Number of patriotic sentiments: __________ (for example, “God bless America” “Pray for those in WTC and Pentagon”) Firemen/Policemen mentioned (either as toys or wishes for): Y N Drawings? Y N

Patriotic Drawings? Y N

Specific concern for Santa (that is, “have a safe trip”) Y N

Chapter 5

YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS

One of the more famous letters associated with Christmas was published in the The New York Sun on September 21, 1897. It was from a little girl named Virginia, and it concerned the existence of Santa Claus. The reply by one of the editors, Francis P. Church, has been cited, quoted, and paraphrased in movies and in print ever since (“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…”). What does research tell us about children’s beliefs in Santa, and how they change with age? In this final chapter the myths and origins of Santa Claus will be described briefly. Research concerning beliefs about Santa and how those beliefs change with age will be discussed; as well as what, how, and when to tell children about Santa. Finally, some thoughts about our current Christmas practices and what it suggests about our society will be presented, along with some concluding thoughts.

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Francis P. Church, The New York Sun, September 21, 1897.


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THE ORIGINS OF SANTA CLAUS: THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND Many stories exist about the origins of Santa Claus, some of which will be described in this chapter. As we begin to think about Santa Claus, children’s beliefs in him, and what he means to our society, it is important to keep in mind some wisdom from Curtis (1995): “Stories, myths, legends no doubt evolve somewhat as they are passed down pleasantly around the fireplace from generation to generation, but legends also have creators or codifiers and moments of presentation upon which others build. Santa’s story teaches that at crucial cultural moments a legend may be changed consciously and considerably to fit new facts, to meet new needs, or to find new ways to meet old needs” (p. 19). Many people have tried to tell the story of Santa Claus, and many people have influenced his image, each interpreting facts and old stories in light of thencurrent needs and research.

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Shlien (1953) asserts that one of the purposes of such sacred figures as Santa Claus is to unify, and Santa serves to integrate a very diverse society. He describes how, in one group of department stores that served primarily an African-American clientele, the Santas were white at first, which made some of the customers uneasy. Masks were tried and abandoned (they frightened the children): then the stores began using black Santas. One store reported “now that we’ve used both white and black it doesn’t seem to matter which he is—the children think it’s Okay” (p. 30). Hagstrom (1966) indicates that because belief in Santa Claus has been maintained in our society for so long, there is a social meaning and function associated with it. He asserts that Santa is a father figure and exists because affection cannot be expressed toward the real father, for two reasons: (1) the real father is not deserving of the child’s affection and (2) even if the real father received the affection he would reject it because he associates it with extreme dependency. “Thus, Santa is a consistently benevolent father image toward whom affectionate and dependent feelings may be expressed” (p. 250). This psychological meaning of Santa is but one small part of his total meaning. The Santa beliefs persist because there is meaning in them for adults as well: Hagstrom believes that “parents use the belief in Santa Claus to control children, to induce children to defer demands for gratification to Christmas and to make it appear that Santa, not the parents, causes the deprivation of children” (p. 250). He does acknowledge that there is a great deal of variability in how often Santa is used as a child control device. This variability is demonstrated by Anderson and Prentice (1994), who found that about 41% of the parents surveyed used Santa as a disciplinary threat (e.g., “Santa doesn’t bring toys to children who are bad”), and approximately 78% advised their children that Santa keeps an eye on them and knows who has been good and who has been bad. Yet another reason why Santa is so important to us is expressed by Hagstrom. He asserts that the parent is able to express real affection for his/her child via the anonymous gifts that Santa provides—there can be no feelings of bribery or bartering for affection because Santa never hangs around waiting to be thanked. This, then, enables the parent to give gifts in Santa’s name, allowing them to demonstrate sentiment toward their children. “Christmas rites permit the expression of positive sentiments in extended and nuclear families” (p. 252).


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JOLLY OLD ST. NICHOLAS One of the myths of Santa Claus is described by Shlien (1953), who recounts that Santa was in fact, St. Nicholas, who was “born of a noble family during a great storm and when he was an hour old stood upright with his hands clasped in prayer” (p. 27). Some time later, during a voyage to the Holy Land, he caused waves stirred up by a storm to be calmed by making a sign, which is how he came to be the patron saint of sailors. Nicholas was present at the Council of Nicea, where the date of Jesus’ birth was argued and decided upon.

Maymie Krythe (1954) also recounts that St. Nicholas was born to a wealthy family sometime around the end of the third century, and that both parents died during an epidemic. They left their wealth to him, and he decided to enter God’s service and was eventually chosen to become a bishop while still a very young man. Several legends persist regarding his ability to perform miracles, and he was also known for his generosity, frequently disguising himself to go among the people and hand out gifts, especially to children. St. Nicholas died in (or around)

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AD 341 on December 6 (now known as his feast day). He was buried in a shrine in Myra which was very popular, with pilgrims coming long distances to visit. Krythe (1954) says that “after the Saracens overran Asia Minor, they took Myra in 1034, and made it difficult for the Christians to go to the shrine” (p. 27). So the people of Bari, Italy, decided to take St. Nicholas’ remains and establish a shrine to him in their hometown, where a great church was erected. Indeed, Krythe asserts that more churches bear St. Nicholas’ name than any of the apostles! St. Nicholas came to the New World with the Dutch settlers, who named their first church in what is now New York for the saint. His apparel began to change as he began to be identified with the Dutch settlers. Washington Irving helped to organize a society to honor the bishop, and its members would meet on St. Nicholas’ feast day to “[smoke] long pipes … and [observe] other early Dutch customs” (Krythe, 1954, p. 30).

One literary piece that had a tremendous influence on our perceptions of St. Nicholas was the poem “A visit from St. Nicholas” written in 1822 by Dr. Clement C. Moore. In Moore’s version of St. Nicholas, a sleigh with eight reindeer was introduced. The image of St. Nicholas was further advanced by the art work of Thomas Nast, a well-known cartoonist in the 1800’s. He depicted Santa as small (not much bigger than children), fur-covered, and rotund, a far cry from St. Nicholas’ ascetic appearance in pictures and images in his shrine in Bari.


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Later images of Santa Claus (e.g., Coca-cola advertisements in the 1930’s and beyond), seemed to have stretched him—now he is seen as full-sized (i.e., adult) and dressed in red cloth trimmed with fur (much different from Dr. Moore’s version, “a right jolly old elf” with a “miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer”). How such a big man fits down a chimney is one aspect of the story today that so mystifies children.

I BELIEVE…DO YOU? RESEARCH ON BELIEFS ABOUT SANTA What does a belief in Santa Claus indicate about a child’s cognitive abilities? Dr. Arnold Gesell (1949) used belief in Santa Claus to illustrate children’s mental growth. At first, children (up to 2 ½ years) are afraid of the “physical Santa” (the men in Santa suits at malls and stores). Dr. Gesell believed that most 3-year-olds knew of Santa before God, and this belief in Santa persists for some time. A seven-year-old may have moments of skepticism, but not until age 10 is the Santa myth abandoned. Dr. Gesell believed that this transition, in “well-constituted” children, probably occurs without any trauma. A more formal research study comes from Prentice, Schmechel and Manosevitz who in 1979 interviewed 72 children from preschool, first, and third grades about their beliefs in Santa Claus. It was expected that “children’s belief in Santa would decrease with increasing age, reflecting the child’s maturing ability to distinguish more accurately between fantasy and reality” (p. 659). These researchers used interviews to determine the content and intensity of the children’s beliefs about Santa, and a number of questions were also asked to gauge the children’s level of reasoning ability (e.g., “What makes the clouds move?” p. 660). Their results indicated that the largest shift from believing to non-believing occurred between preschool and first grade, concurrent with the largest shift in causal reasoning. As causal reasoning increased, belief in Santa decreased. However, this relationship is not perfect: there are some children who, although advanced in cognitive reasoning skills, still believe in Santa Claus. Prentice et al. suggest that there are tremendous incentives for children to continue to believe: these come especially from parents. Kowitz and Tigner (1961) interviewed 48 children ages 10 to 12 about their belief in Santa Claus and how they felt when they discovered he was not real. Approximately 40% of the children still believed in Santa, and 37% indicated that they had made adjustments in their conception of Santa to preserve their belief.

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Kovitz and Tigner went on to demonstrate that the concept of Santa does not simply disappear when it is contradicted: instead, six stages of adjustments are made before the disbelief is fully accepted. First, an appeal to an authority is made, e.g., “Mother can explain everything.” Next, the child will selectively attend to “facts” that support his/her beliefs (e.g., “Santa always eats the food I leave for him”). In the third stage, the child adjusts his/her belief by changing the point and avoiding the whole problem (the child will start talking about presents, for example, when asked about Santa). In the fourth stage, some changes to the Santa myth are allowed (e.g., the child will tell you that the Santas in the stores are just helpers, not the real Santa). In the fifth stage, the child may verbalize traditional information about Santa, but will indicate (through behaviors) that he/she doesn’t believe, such as by rolling his/her eyes, for example. Finally, in the last stage, the child will express doubts (e.g., about Santa being able to fit down the chimney). When the child no longer defends the concept of Santa Claus, there may be some initial negative reaction against the parents and the whole idea of Christmas, but this passes as the child reorganizes his/her information about Christmas and eventually re-accepts Santa as a myth.


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Blair, McKee and Jernigan (1980) interviewed 147 four- to ten-year-old children to determine the extent to which age and stage of cognitive development influenced belief in fantasy figures like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. The children were first classified as to their stage of cognitive development by their performance on a number of tasks then were interviewed to assess degree of belief in the fantasy figures. Their results indicated that the children’s age was more strongly correlated with belief than their stage of cognitive development: the older the child, the less likely it was that the child believed in the three fantasy figures (regardless of their stage of cognitive development). They also found that the boys no longer believed in the Easter Bunny by age eight, and Santa and the Tooth Fairy by age nine. The girls, however, no longer believed in all three figures by age eight. What about children whose families do not celebrate Christmas—what do they believe about Santa Claus? Prentice and Gordon (1987) examined Jewish children’s beliefs in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. One hundred forty children (three to ten years old) who were enrolled in Jewish Sunday Schools or preschools were interviewed, and their parents also completed a survey of their own attitudes and feelings about these fantasy figures and their attitudes toward Jewish traditions. Prentice and Gordon indicated that “many Jewish parents have reservations about their children participating in the Santa Claus myth because of its Christian connotations” (p. 140), and that there is much debate over the extent to which Jewish children should participate in Christmas. The researchers found that the children, despite parental encouragement or discouragement, did believe in Santa Claus as much as the Tooth Fairy, and that of the 140 children, only four had no knowledge of Santa Claus. The greatest amount of belief occurred for the youngest children. Have children’s beliefs in Santa changed over time? The very first study of Christmas customs and beliefs in Santa came from Frances E. Duncombe in 1896. She interviewed 1500 school children in grades four through eight in Lincoln, Nebraska during February and March, asking four questions: (1) “When you were little what did you think about Santa Claus? Tell all you can remember about your ideas of him.” (2) “How did you find out afterwards who he really is? How old were you, and how did you feel when you first learned this?” (3) “How do you think your former belief in Santa Claus has influenced you?” and (4) “Do you think young children should be taught to believe in Santa Claus? Give your reasons.” (p. 38). Despite differing cultural backgrounds or socioeconomic statuses, the children had a very uniform idea about Santa Claus: he was depicted as a “superhuman” who knew when children were good or bad. Apparently the second

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question caused some distress among the 4th and 5th graders, because some of them still believed in Santa. There was also some difficulty for the 7th and 8th graders: they could not remember just how they found out—it seemed that the discovery happened gradually. The third question caused some problems for all but the 8th graders, and most of them simply weren’t sure how the belief had influenced them. Regarding the fourth question, it appears that the majority of children believed that the Santa custom/tradition should be taught to younger children because it made them happy.

In 1979, Benjamin, Langley, and Hall replicated Duncombe’s research (what’s called a time-lag study, where different generations of people are surveyed with the same questions) using a sample of 884 public school students in Lincoln, Nebraska (a return rate of 56%). Three of Duncombe’s original (1896) questions were used (her question #3 was dropped because so few of her sample understood it). The major difference found in the answers of 1896 vs. 1979 concerned the qualities that were attributed to Santa Claus: the children in 1896 were much more likely to believe that Santa was superhuman. Most of the children in the 1979 survey found out about Santa on their own, gradually—similar to the experience of the 1896 children. However, more


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children in the 1979 sample were told about Santa from their parents. Benjamin et al. also found that the 1979 sample reported they were about 6 months older than the 1896 sample when they reached the realization that Santa wasn’t real. Boys reached this realization about 3 ½ months before girls in both surveys. The “modern” children reported feeling “sorry” or “cheated” more frequently than those of 1896, but the 1979 sample was more likely to think that younger children should be encouraged to believe in Santa.

WHAT, AND WHEN, SHOULD CHILDREN BE TOLD ABOUT SANTA? Anderson and Prentice (1994) surveyed 52 families about belief in Santa Claus and the emotional reaction (for both the parents and the child) upon learning that he is not real. All of the children (aged 9-12) were surveyed during summer camp, and the parents received a questionnaire in the mail. The children’s Santa Claus Interview began with asking the child “Tell us what you know about Santa”, followed by “Is Santa real or make believe?” (to independently assess whether or not the child still believed). Subsequent questions then probed the children’s memory as to how they discovered Santa was not real, what emotions they experienced, etc. The parent’s questionnaire consisted of 35 items focusing on the degree of parents’ encouragement of the child to believe in Santa, how the parents felt upon discovering the truth about Santa themselves as children, how they felt about their child discovering the truth, etc. Anderson and Prentice found that the average age at which children “found out” about Santa was approximately seven, and that children whose IQs were higher discovered the truth at earlier ages. In about 54% of the cases, the children figured out about Santa on their own, about 13% worked on the issue on their own then asked the parents about Santa, while the remainder (about 33%) were told the truth by their parents. When the children’s interview data was further examined, it was revealed that in finding out about Santa, most children experienced a gradual transition rather than a single incident that caused them to stop believing. Most parents had actively supported their children’s beliefs concerning Santa, engaging in activities such as reading stories about Santa, hanging stockings for Santa to fill, watching television shows or movies about Santa, and marking presents “From Santa.” Why did they do it? Most reported that it was fun and exciting (94%) and that it gave the children opportunity to participate in a common experience. It was expected that the greater the level of parental

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encouragement, the more distress the children would feel upon discovering he was not real. However, just the opposite was found: “the greater the level of parental encouragement through verbalization and behavioral interaction, the less the distress for the child on discovery” (p. 77). Anderson and Prentice speculated that perhaps those parents who are more encouraging of their child to believe are also more sensitive to their child’s experience and thus are more responsive to their child’s adverse reactions and better able to handle them. Upon discovering the truth, the children reported a wide range of emotions, but the intensity of those emotions was not great, and in fact the children tended to rate their positive emotions as more intense. Those children who learned the truth from their parents were no more distressed than the children who discovered the truth gradually, on their own. The children were also asked why they thought children were taught to believe in Santa. “Fifty percent explained it was so they could enjoy themselves or have fun at Christmas, while 21% indicated that it was an important tradition handed down generation to generation” (p. 79). Apparently, the use of Santa as a means of controlling children’s behavior was not great (at least in this sample): only about 8% of the children reported that Santa was used to get children to behave better. The majority of the children (71%) felt that children should be taught to believe in Santa, and that they would teach their own children about Santa (75%).


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Parents, on the other hand, fared worse upon their children’s discovery that Santa was not real: The most frequently described feeling was sadness as this discovery made parents more aware of their child’s continuing development and maturation. This finding suggested to Anderson and Prentice that parents have more difficulties accepting their child’s discovery than did the children themselves. My own research with the Christmas Traditions Survey here at the University of Scranton is similar to the findings of Anderson and Prentice. Of the 326 students surveyed, approximately 30% did not remember when they found out about Santa. Of those who remembered, 17% felt they just gradually realized, while approximately 16% had their parents tell them (many in response to specific questions of the children). About 28% had “caught their parents in the act,” so to speak: some recognized the wrapping paper that was used on “Santa’s gifts” as something they had seen hidden in a closet, or had caught their parents putting presents under the tree. Finally, the remaining 39% had been told by another child about Santa, the majority finding out from other children at school, siblings (usually when the siblings were angry with the younger child), neighbors, and cousins. Of all the students’ reports, only one indicated any distress when she found out about Santa: her father told her Santa had had a heart attack and died! Now that, most certainly, would tend to leave a negative emotional legacy in an individual. So what should you tell a child about Santa Claus, and when? Answer the questions as they are posed to you. I think that Kowitz and Tigner (1961) would suggest that children will hear what they are ready to hear no matter how detailed the explanation you give them. Does telling children about Santa Claus cause deep, irreversible trauma to their psyche? No, I don’t believe so. You may read about accounts in the media of people who had terrible reactions upon discovering the “truth” about Santa, but take care to discern if the media account is using case studies of patients with other psychological issues (e.g., some will cite Sereno’s 1951 work of patients undergoing psychoanalysis) or if it is more science-based, as is Kowitz and Tigner’s or Anderson and Prentice’s work. Be aware of your child’s emotions as they go through the process, and be there when they need you for comforting (if they do). Remember, YOU may need more comforting than they do as you realize your child has just taken another step closer to wanting the car keys!

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WHAT DO CURRENT CHRISTMAS PRACTICES SAY ABOUT OUR SOCIETY? Robinson and Staeheli (1991) speak of “The Christmas Machine:” the advertising that sells the public an idea of what Christmas should be like (“…a loving mom and dad, two biological children, and a full complement of cousins, aunts, uncles, and adoring grandparents…” (p. 9), a table groaning with rich, elaborate, abundant food, a house decorated to the hilt, with Christmas cookies and stockings galore). The machine begins earlier and earlier every year to push the ideas of Christmas and celebrating (for example, I have noticed a change in advertising in my 44 years—it used to be that you didn’t see Christmas decorations in stores until after Halloween, and now they can be found in stores as early as August; indeed, some stores are dedicated solely to Christmas decorations and operate year-round). And …the Christmas Machine has …power over us because it knows how to woo us; it speaks to the deepest, profoundest, and most sacred desires of the human heart. If it appeared as a monster, we would rise up and stop it. But the commercial messages of Christmas appear as promises that bring tears to our eyes. Look at the bounty we are promised by the December magazines and the glowing Christmas commercials:

Our families will be together and be happy. Our children will be well-behaved and grateful. Our wives will be beautiful and nurturing. Our husbands will be kind, generous, and appreciative. We will have enough money. We will have enough time. We will have fun. We will be warm. We will be safe. We will be truly loved. No wonder we stop, we listen, we want to believe. The problem comes when we buy into the notion that what we long for can be procured by the buying and selling of goods… (pp. 10-11).


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Changing family demographics (e.g., divorce, remarriage, single parents), increased distances from kin, and low incomes create problems with regard to a person’s ability to “buy into” the Christmas Machine. And Robinson and Staeheli suggest that for adults, the Christmas celebration is nothing but “stressful and ultimately disappointing” (p. 15). If people (both women and men) feel stressed about Christmas and don’t enjoy the holiday, these authors present exercises designed to help you become familiar with your current holiday role and behaviors and then determine what it is about the holiday that is so unappealing to you. Once you determine this, you can prioritize tasks and activities that are truly important to you and perhaps gain more enjoyment of the holiday season without feeling so overburdened.

Certainly, it is acknowledged that there is stress associated with Christmas: as discussed in Chapter 3, Christmas is found on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Anything that can cause a change in behavior creates stress: Christmas, with all its attendant traditions, causes stress by making changes in our day-to-day routines. The more changes you make (the more things you decide you have to do to celebrate Christmas), the more stress you will experience. Your coping skills and how you view the changes will influence how enjoyable the holiday is for you.

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WHAT DOES RESEARCH SAY ABOUT OUR SOCIETY? Kasser and Sheldon (2002) conducted a provocative study of activities that are associated with holiday well-being, using people from the community as well as a sample of college students. They assessed degree of participation in seven types of holiday activities: “(1) spending time with family; (2) participating in religious activities; (3) maintaining traditions (e.g., decorating a Christmas tree); (4) spending money on others via the purchase of gifts; (5) receiving gifts from others; and (7) enjoying the sensual aspects of the holiday (e.g., good food)” (p. 314). Other aspects examined included holiday consumption practices (e.g., how does well-being relate to engaging in activities that decrease the ecological impact (amount of trash, energy used) of the holiday festivities?), as well as demographic characteristics like age, sex, and income.


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The majority of their participants were white, ranged in age from 18 to 80, and yearly family income ranged from $4800 to $800,000. All of the surveys were done after the Christmas season had passed. Their results indicated that, as a whole, people had enjoyed their holiday and were relatively satisfied, but there was significant stress reported as well, especially among females. Participants’ income and education had no relationship to their Christmas well-being, but age did (higher levels of positive affect and Christmas well-being were associated with increasing age). Other factors associated with higher Christmas well-being scores included degree of experiences with family (the more things you did with your family, the greater the degree of Christmas well-being), degree of participation in religious activities (more participation in religious activities, higher degrees of Christmas well-being), as well as positive consumption practices (the more environmentally-friendly practices people reported engaging in, the more satisfaction and overall Christmas well-being they felt). In contrast to the factors associated with an increased sense of Christmas well-being, the activities that were associated with negative or low scores involved the materialistic aspects of Christmas. Those people who reported spending large amounts of money on others or who felt that receiving gifts was of major importance tended to report more stress, more negative affect (as well as less positive affect), and lower levels of Christmas well-being. Interestingly, helping others and engaging in traditions were not related to Christmas wellbeing. Kasser and Sheldon suggest that those people whose focus is on the materialistic aspects of the Christmas season engage in activities that relate to that focus, such as spending money on gifts, spending time shopping for them, and then wrapping them, instead of being involved with their family and religious activities that are associated with more positive emotional experiences. The older adults in their sample reported greater Christmas happiness, which the authors attribute to greater participation in religious activities and feeling that receiving gifts was of little importance. Also, being able to lessen the environmental impact of holiday traditions made people for whom such goals are important feel good about their Christmas experience. Finally, although males in their study reported having a merrier Christmas than did females, Kasser and Sheldon were unable to identify what might be causing the problems. They speculated that perhaps women are more likely than men to report negative experiences overall, and this has generalized to their Christmas experiences as well.

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CONCLUDING THOUGHTS Research would thus suggest that teaching children to believe about Santa Claus is not a damaging thing and that engaging in activities with your family and participating in religious activities can increase your sense of well-being and positive emotions. What is important is to do activities that are meaningful to you, and that you don’t try to do too much, which would increase your stress levels. Take the time to sit down and discuss with your family what is most important for them regarding the holiday—the answers they give you may surprise you, and if you then do just the important things, the consequent reduction in stress may delight you. If you are concerned about becoming overly involved in materialism, turn off the television, play games, cook together, listen to music together— anything to spend more time with your children. Judging by their letters, it may very well be all that they really want for Christmas.

“In the end, the origins of our American customs aren’t that important. Perhaps all that really matters is that we never do allow the time to come when we are too deaf to hear the songs and legends handed down to us as priceless gifts from countless generations past…or allow ourselves to become too blind to recognize the importance of Christmas in our lives.” Doyle (1998), page 8


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REFERENCES Anderson, C. J., and Prentice, N. M. (1994, Winter). Encounter with reality: Children’s reactions on discovering the Santa Claus myth. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 25(2), 67-84. Benjamin, L. T., Langley, J. F., and Hall, R. J. (1979). Santa now and then. Psychology Today, 13, 36-44. Blair, J. R., Mc Kee, J. S., and Jernigan, L. F. (1980). Children’s belief in Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. Psychological Reports, 46, 691-694. Church, F. P. (1897, September 21) Editorial. The New York Sun. Accessed http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/ on July 21, 2008. Curtis, B. (1995 winter). The strange birth of Santa Claus: From Artemis the goddess and Nicholas the saint. Journal of American Culture, 18, 17-32. Doyle, M. I. (1998). The Christmas Long Ago. Early American Homes, pages 2, 4, 6, 8. Duncombe, F. E. (1896). Children’s idea about Santa Claus. The Northwestern Journal of Education, 7, 37-42. Gesell, A. (1949). Human infancy and the ontogenesis of behavior. American Scientist, 37, 529-553. Hagstrom, W. O. (1966). What is the meaning of Santa Claus? American Sociologist, 1, 248-252. Kasser, T., and Sheldon, K. M. (2002). What makes for a merry Christmas? Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 313-329. Kowitz, G. T., and Tigner, E. J. (1961). Tell me about Santa Claus: A study of concept change. Elementary School Journal, 62, 130-133. Krythe, M. R. (1954). All about Christmas. New York: Harper and Brothers. Prentice, N. M., and Gordon, D. A. (1987). Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy for the Jewish child and parent. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 148, 139-151. Prentice, N. M., Schmechel, L. K., and Manosevitz, M. (1979). Children’s belief in Santa Claus. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 18, 658-667. Robinson, J., and Staeheli, J. C. (1991). UNplug the Christmas machine: A complete guide to putting love and joy back into the season (revised edition). New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. Sereno, R. (1951). Some observations on the Santa Claus custom. Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, 14, 387-396. Shlien, J. (1953). Santa Claus: The Myth in America. Human Development Bulletin (Spring), pages 27-32. Chicago: University of Chicago.

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INDEX A A Christmas Carol, 24, 38 A Visit from St. Nicholas, 36 action figures, 71 Adeste Fidelis, 9 advertising, xi, xiii, 69, 88, 104 affection, 52, 70, 82, 94 aggressive, 48 Alabama, 24 Albin, R. S, 61 alcohol, 57 ale, 28 Algona, Iowa, 16 Allied forces, 11 altruism, 70, 77, 88 altruistic, 70, 77 analytic room, 50 Anchorage, Alaska, 59 Anderson, C. J, 109 Andersonville, 5, 6 anger, 57 Anglo-Saxon, 28 animals, 16, 26, 79, 80, 89 anniversaries, 57 anniversary reaction, 57 anthrax, 78 anticipation, x, 36, 50 anxiety, 57 apostles, 96

apple pie, 28 apples, 28, 39 Archbishop of Canterbury, 35 Arizona, 24 Arkansas, 24 army socks, 4 Artemis, 109 Aryan, 12 Asia Minor, 96 Associated Press, 66, 77, 87 atonement, 52 August, 32, 36, 58, 78, 87, 104 Australia, 9, 12 Austria, 6, 27 Austria-Hungary, 6 authority figure, 68, 86 Away in a Manger, 39

B bacon, 35 Balkans, 6 balls, 67 Ban Breathnach, S, xi, 87 banquet, 39 Bari, Italy, 96 Barnett, J. H, 40, 61 Bates, E, 87 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 4 Battle of the Bulge, 17 Beck, A. T, 62

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Index

beer, 17, 28 behavioral, 43, 47, 102 Belgium, 12, 37 Benjamin, L. T, 109 Berko Gleason, J., 87 Berlin, 33 bicycle, 37 birdcages, 33 birth, 22, 23, 32, 50, 51, 95, 109 birth canal, 51 birthdays, 57 biscuits, 8, 10 black, 6, 17, 26, 45, 94 blackbirds, 29 Blair, J. R, 109 blood, 50 bombings, 33 Boston, Mass, 41 boys, 3, 4, 10, 15, 41, 51, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 81, 82, 99 brain, 54 brandy, 5 brass bands, 3 bread, 3, 6, 17, 39 Brewer, J, 40 Brody, J. E, 61 Brown, 13, 19, 87 Brown, W. R, 19 butter, 29

C Calends, 35 California, 24 camaraderie, 3, 15 camp, xv, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 28, 101 Canada, 14 candles, 17, 32, 33 candy, ix, 4, 12, 15, 18, 33 candy canes, ix, 33 caramels, 17 Caron, A, 87 carrots, 74 case studies, 43, 103 castration anxiety, 50 Catholic, 15, 21, 31, 37

Caucasian, 45 causal reasoning, 97 Central Powers, 6 century, 7, 9, 13, 15, 19, 32, 35, 83, 95 Chamber of Commerce, 71, 87 channeling, 48 Chase, E. D, 41 chicken, 3 childbirth, 51 chimney, 35, 50, 51, 97, 98 China, 13 chocolate pudding, 74 Christ, 22, 23, 29, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 50, 52 Christensen, R, 61 Christians, 29, 35, 96 Christmas boxes, 11 Christmas cards, 21, 26, 27 Christmas carols, 39 Christmas Day, 9, 21, 24, 39 Christmas meal, 17, 21, 30, 86 Christmas pie, 26 Christmas presents, 4 Christmas trees, 16, 19, 21, 31, 32, 33, 36 Civil War, 3, 6, 18, 20, 25, 38, 41 civility, 83 clothes, 5, 17, 37, 73, 89 coffee, 3, 4, 6, 30, 46 coffin, 29 Colorado, 24, 41 commercialism, 54 commercialization, 52 communication, xi, xiii, 69 computers, 73 Confederate, 3, 4, 18 Congressional Budget Office, 78, 87 Connecticut, 19, 24 conscience, 49 Constantine, 22 control, 94 cookies, x, 14, 17, 18, 53, 74, 104 coping skills, 56, 105 cork tree, 15 corn, 6, 28 cornmeal, 5 cost, 29, 80, 84, 85, 89

Index cotton, 33 Council of National Defense, 25 courtesy, 16, 87 Coyle, F. A, 61 crackers, 14 Craddick, R. A, 61 crisis, 56, 59 cross-sex, 71 crutches, 47 culture, xi, xiii, 18, 40, 44, 52, 83 Curtis, B, 109

D Dacey, J, 87 dance classes, 4 dark side, 48 dawn, 9, 22 dead, 3, 6, 7 death, 6, 54, 57, 58, 78 death threat, 78 decorations, ix, 33, 36, 104 Delaware, 24 Denmark, 39 dependency, 57, 94 Diamond, E, 61 direct, 70 disabilities, 47 disappointment, 53 District of Columbia, 24 divorce, 57, 86, 105 Diwali, 27 Dixon, D. J, 61 Doberitz Prisoner-of-War camp, 8 dolls, 33, 53, 67, 71 domestic, 68, 71, 86 donation, 47 Downs, A. C., 87 Dowrick, P. W., 61 dowry, 35 Doyle, M. I., 109 drawings, 43, 44, 45, 46, 61, 62, 72, 74, 75, 76, 82 drinking, 49, 52 Druids, 31 drunken, 8

115

ducks, 29 Duke University, 59 Durham, D., 87 Durham, North Carolina, 59 Dutch settlers, 23, 96

E Easter Bunny, 47, 61, 99, 109 ecological impact, 106 economic downturn, 78 economy, 26, 78 eggs, 16, 28 Egyptian Expeditionary Force, 9 Egyptians, 31 Eid al-Fitr, 27 Eisenbud, J., 62 Eisenman, R., 61 Elliott, J., 41 elves, x, 73, 84, 85, 89 embellishment, 46 England, 14, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 31, 32, 35, 39 envy, 53, 57 Europe, 29, 35, 87 exhaustion, 50, 57 eyewitness, 20

F family, x, xi, 11, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 49, 50, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 67, 71, 72, 73, 74, 82, 84, 87, 89, 95, 105, 106, 107, 108 fantasy, 47, 61, 79, 89, 97, 99 farmhouse, 51 Farnsworth, L., 87 father figure, 94 feathers, 33 Ferguson, C. A., 87 fertility, 38 fields, 39 fish, 26, 29, 33 fish nets, 33 Florida, 24, 81 flour, 28, 29, 30 foods, 5, 49, 52, 74

116

Index

Fort Sumter, 3 Fortnum and Mason, 12 Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry, 4 France, 6, 12, 28 Fredericksburg, 4 friend, 13, 33, 39, 55 fruit cocktail, 30 fruitcake, 5, 16 furloughs, 3

G geese, 10, 29 gender, 66, 68, 69, 71, 72, 82, 88 generosity, x, 35, 67, 95 Georgia, 24 Germany, 6, 12, 13, 17, 27, 28, 31, 32 Gettysburg, 5 gift, 14, 20, 30, 35, 37, 39, 47, 52, 53, 57, 80 girls, 4, 18, 39, 46, 68, 69, 70, 71, 81, 82, 99, 101 glitter, x, 67 gloom, 56 God, 20, 23, 31, 41, 57, 72, 77, 89, 95, 97 Goin, M. K., 62 gold, 35, 65 good behavior, 44 Gordon, D. A., 109 gratify, 49 Great Britain, 6, 14 Greece, 12 greed, x, 67 Grief, E. B., 87 Grinch, 86 grownups, ix Guadalcanal, 16 guilt, 49, 51, 52 Guinness, M, 87 gum, 47 guns, 10, 53

Halloween, 104 Hampshires, 11 handicaps, 47 handkerchief, 39 handle, 46, 48, 86, 102 happiness, 1, 66, 107 hard tack, 3 Hark! The Herald Angels, 9 Harrison, M., 41 Harrods, 12 harsh, 49 Harvard, 32 harvest, 39 health, 28, 39, 43, 54, 55, 56, 71, 89 heart attack, 103 Hebrew, 15 height, 46 Henderson Field, 16 Henry VII, 35 herring salad, 29 Hessian soldiers, 32 Hillard, J. R., 62 Hines, G., 41 history, xi, xiii, 19, 21, 41, 57, 62 Hoffman, R. C., 19 holiday blues, 57, 60, 61 Holland, 37, 59, 62 holly, 4, 26, 29, 38, 39 holy birth, 54 Hom, H. L., 61 homesickness, 8 homicide, 62 Hooshyar, N., 88 horse, 80 Hottes, A. C., 41 Houston, Texas, 68 human beings, 7 human nature, 49 hybrid, 72, 73, 75, 79, 82, 84 hypnosis, 48

H Hagstrom, W. O., 109 Hall, R. J., 109 Hallmark, 27

I Idaho, 24 Illinois, 24 immune system, 54

Index incense, 34 Indiana, 24 inn, 51 instincts, 48 Iowa, 24 Italy, 6, 12, 13, 28, 29

J

117

lithography, 26 Lithuanian, 33 Liu, J., 62 Lobdell, G. H, 20 Lord of Misrule, 22 Louisiana, 24 Lusitania, 8

M Japan, 13 jealousy, 57 jelly, 3, 29 Jesuit, 21 Jesus, 28, 32, 95 Jewish, 15, 99, 109 Julius I, 22

K Kansas, 24 Kasser, T, 109 Kenny, M., 87 Kentucky, 24 Kim, K., 88 Kim, Y. C, 88 King Arthur, 22 Kowitz, G. T., 109 Krythe, M., 41, 109 Kutsch, K. B., 87

L laboratory, x Langley, J. F., 109 language, 69, 84, 87 Latin, 28 leg braces, 47 legends, 32, 93, 95, 108 Leonard, R. J., 87 Lester, D, 62 lewd, 38 Lewis, J. E., 20 lie, 54 life change units, 54 Lincoln, Nebraska, 99, 100 list, 29, 72, 73, 75, 79, 80, 82, 84, 85, 88 literature, 38, 57, 59, 82

Maine, 24 mammoth, 20 manger, 26, 29 Manners, 88 Manosevitz, M, 109 Manufacturer and Builder, 36, 41 Marcon, R. A., 87 marmalade, 17 Maryland, 24 Massachusetts, 23, 24, 25 materialistic, 107 Maule, H. E., 20 McGinty, B., 41 McIvor, J., 20, 41 McPhee, M., 62 meat, 8, 28, 29, 51 media, 60, 65, 77, 83, 103 medical, 56 Medical Corps, 14 Medieval, 41 Meerloo, J. A. M., 62 memories, ix, x, xv, 35, 37, 52 menstrual period, 50 merchants, 4, 36 Merry Widow Waltz, 11 Michigan, 24 Middle East, 6 Middle English, 22 midnight, 8, 22, 39 Miles, C. A., 41 milk, 28, 74 mincemeat pie, 28 Minnesota, 11, 16, 24 Miracle on 34th Street, 67 Mississippi, 24 Missouri, 16, 24

118

Index

mistletoe, 4 models, 67 molasses, 35 moldy, 39 money, 4, 16, 29, 37, 38, 52, 65, 104, 106, 107 Montana, 24 months, 16, 39, 59, 77, 101 Montreal, 67, 80 mope, 56 morality, 83 Morris, J. T, 88 mortality, 57 mothers, 14, 67 motivators, 49 Mrs. Claus, x, 73, 84, 85, 89 murder, 51 Murray, A., 41 musical organ, 53 mutton pie, 28 Myra, 96 myths, 91, 93, 95

N name brands, 69 naturalistic, 68, 83 naturalistic observation, 84 Nazi Party, 12 Nebraska, 24, 41 needy, 52, 65 negative, 49, 50, 52, 53, 56, 98, 103, 107 Negro, 61 neighbors, 28, 32, 52, 103 Netherlands, 12, 13 neurotic, 53 Nevada, 24 New England, 23 New Hampshire, 24 New Haven, Connecticut, 59 New Jersey, 21, 24, 58, 62 New Mexico, 24 New Testament, 26 New World, 23, 96 New Year, 26, 34, 49

New York, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 40, 41, 54, 61, 62, 65, 71, 77, 87, 88, 91, 92, 96, 109 New York Sun, 91, 92, 109 New Zealand, 9, 12 Normans, 22 North Africa, 2, 6, 12, 15 North Carolina, 24 North Dakota, 24 North Pole, x, 67, 73, 74, 79, 82, 84, 85 Northumberland (Britain), 39 Norway, 12 Norwegian, 33 nose bags, 4

O O Little Town of Bethlehem, 39 obligations, 83 Ohio, 5, 20, 24 Oklahoma, 24, 62 Omaha, Nebraska, 36 Operation Santa Claus, 65, 88 Oregon, 24 organic, 48 ornaments, 33, 45, 46 Ortona, Italy, 17, 20 Otnes, C., 88 Ottoman Empire, 6 overeating, 49, 52 oyster soup, 3

P Pacific, 2, 19, 20 paper ornaments, 33 Parady, M., 88 paralysis, 48 parasuicide, 59, 62 parents, ix, xv, 14, 22, 25, 27, 35, 47, 54, 57, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 82, 84, 86, 87, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 105 Passchendaele Ridge, 10 patriotic, 72, 75, 76, 80, 82, 89 patriotism, 3, 77, 88 peace, 11, 13, 25, 40, 66 peacocks, 29

Index peanut butter, 30 penis, 49, 50, 53 Pennsylvania, 21, 24 penny postage, 26 Pentagon, 72, 89 pepper sauce, 3 periodicity, 57 Perlmann, R. Y., 87, 88 pheasant, 29 Phillips, D. P., 62 Pictor, L., 41 picture, 12, 45, 68, 82 pie-making, 36 pigeons, 29 pincushions, 4 plantation, 4 plum pudding, 10, 28 polite, 70, 72, 74, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85 politeness, 66, 69, 72, 74, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88 Pollay, R. W., 88 Pollock, G. H., 62 poor, 24, 35, 52, 65 popcorn, 33 pork, 17 posters, 47, 89 Postmaster, x, 66, 71 potatoes, 3 pragmatics, 84, 87 pregnancy, 50, 51 Prince Albert, 32 Prince of Peace, 52 Princess Mary Gift Box, 12 Proctor, J. T., 62 prophecy, 39 Protestant, 22, 31 psychiatric hospital admissions, 58 psychoanalytic, 59 psychoneuroimmunology, 54 punishment, 50 pup tent, 4 puppy, 37, 80 Puritans, 22, 23

119

Q Queen Elizabeth, 35 Queen Mary, 14 Queen Victoria, 32

R rabbits, 29 race, 22, 45 rage, 54 Rahe, R. H., 62 raisins, 28 Ramm, D., 62 rational, 48 Rawlings, K., 20 reality, 14, 48, 97, 109 red, 16, 45, 97 referee, 48 regression, 57 reindeer, 73, 77, 82, 89, 96 reinforcer, 43, 44 relatives, ix, 14, 30, 54, 73, 86 relief, 10, 50 religious, 23, 26, 29, 37, 53, 106, 107, 108 reorganizing, 48 repression, 49 resolutions, 49 Rhode Island, 24 ribbons, 16, 33 Richards, J. K., 20 Richardson, J. G., 88 Robinson, C. C., 88 Robinson, J., 109 Roman Empire, 22 Romans, 31, 35 Rome, 22, 29 Roodin, P. A., 62 Royal Engineers, 10 Rudolph, x, 73, 84

S Sabbath, 15 safety, 74 Saint Nicholas, 22

120

Index

sales, 25, 27, 69 Salvation Army, 65 Sanders, J., 88 Saracens, 96 Saturnalia, 22 Scandinavian, 40 Scannell, C., 88 schizophrenia, 57, 59 Schmechel, L. K., 109 Scotch, 15 Scots Guards, 7 Scottish, 39 Scranton, x, xv, 71, 77, 88 Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, 17 Seattle, Washington, 68, 78 Sechrest, L., 62 secrecy, 50 seed, 39 sensual, 106 sentiment, 72, 73, 75, 89, 94 separation, 55, 57 Serb, 6 sexism, 68 sex-role, 68 sexual, 48 Sheldon, K. M, 109 Shlien, J., 109 shoes, 37, 40 shopping, x, 36, 107 sibling rivalry, 57 siblings, 73, 82, 103 silk, 53 silver, 14, 33 Simpson, C. H., 88 Simpson, W. E., 62 Slotterback, C., 88 snake, 50 Snow, 10, 84, 88 Snow, C. E., 88 Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS), 54 soldiers, 1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 41 Sophocles, 83 sores, 39 South Carolina, 3, 24

South Dakota, 24 Southern, 3, 4 Soviet Union, 12 Spencer, O. M., 41 spices, 28, 29 spinsterhood, 35 spirits, 39, 87 Spokane Falls, Washington, 11 Staeheli, J. C, 109 steam, 25, 46 Sterba, R., 63 stock market, 78 stress, x, xiii, 43, 54, 56, 61, 83, 84, 105, 107, 108 stressful, 44, 54, 56, 105 subtleties, 29 sugar, 3, 4, 28, 30 suicide, xiii, 44, 58, 59, 60, 62 superhuman, 99, 100 superstitions, 39 survey, 19, 21, 67, 80, 84, 99, 100 sympathy, 66

T talking cure, 48 tangerines, 15 Tante Aria, 37 tea, 4, 6 teachers, 68, 83 television, 37, 67, 69, 101, 108 Tennessee, 24 Texas, 24 Thailand, 13 Thanksgiving, 36 therapy, 43, 49, 50, 53, 57 Thompson, T. R., 41 Thomson, S. W., 20 Three King’s Day, 27 Tigner, E. J., 109 tinfoil, 33 tinsel, ix toilet paper, 15 tools, 37 Tooth Fairy, 99, 109 Toy Manufacturers of America, 25

Index toys, x, 25, 35, 37, 41, 52, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 78, 79, 80, 81, 85, 88, 89, 94 traditional, x, 27, 66, 71, 72, 73, 75, 79, 80, 82, 84, 85, 98 traditions, x, xi, xiii, 18, 35, 40, 41, 44, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 99, 105, 106, 107 trains, x, 52 trauma, 48, 97, 103 trenches, 6, 7, 8, 10, 20 true love, 39 turkeys, 5, 29

U uneasiness, 52 Union, 3, 4, 12 United Kingdom, 12, 13 United States, iv, 3, 6, 13, 14, 17, 24, 27, 32, 35, 58, 65, 69, 71, 77, 78, 88 United States Census, 71, 88 University of Scranton, xv, 21, 22, 27, 71, 103 unobtrusive, 84 Utah, 20, 24

V vacations, 54 vagina, 51 Vaught, G. M., 62 vehicles, 6, 70, 71 Vermont, 24 Vietnam, 2 Virginia, vii, 23, 24, 88, 91 vulva, 51

W Wakefield, A, 20 Wallace, C, xi, 88 war comforts department, 12 Ward, S, 87 Washington, 24, 96 Wassail, 28 Watson, B., 41

121

weapons, 70, 71 weights, 39 well-being, 106, 107, 108 Werner, E, 20, 41 Wertenbaker, T. J, 41 West Africa, 15 West Virginia, 24 wheat, 28 white, 3, 7, 22, 45, 59, 94, 107 White House, 33, 41 width, 46 Wills, J. S, 62 Winchester, Virginia, 4 windmills, 33 window displays, 36 wine, 15, 16, 26, 32 Wintermantle-Durkin, K, 88 Wisconsin, 15, 20, 24 wishes, 49, 53, 57, 67, 72, 73, 74, 82, 87, 89 witnesses, 20 wool, 33 Wooster, Ohio, 32 World Trade Center, 72, 77 World War I, 6, 12, 18, 19, 20, 25, 29, 33, 41 World War II, 12, 19, 20, 29, 33, 41 wrong, 7, 22, 49, 50 Wyoming, 24

Y Yankee, 5 year, 3, 8, 10, 27, 29, 33, 35, 39, 40, 44, 46, 49, 52, 54, 66, 74, 75, 76, 77, 82, 86, 87, 97, 99, 104 youth, 83 Ypres Salient, 10 Yugoslavia, 12

Z Zeppelins, 8

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