The Battle for Christmas (69 page)

4.
Cited in Kevin Danaher,
The Year in Ireland
(Cork: Mercier Press, 1972), 241–242.

5.
Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall,
Ireland, Its Scenery, Character, etc
. (3 vols., London, 1861–63 [orig. published in 1841), vol. 1, 23–25. The Halls refer to this as “the only Christmas gambol remaining in Ireland of the many that in the middle ages were so numerous and so dangerous as to call for the imposition of the law, and the strong arm of magisterial authority” (ibid., 25).

6.
Colm Kerrigan,
Father Mathew and the Irish Temperance Movement, 1838–1849
(Cork: Cork University Press, 1992), passim (the pledge figure is from p. 82).

7.
Ibid., 76–77 (social advancement), 107–127 (repeal).

8.
See entry of Dec. 23, 1842, where he “[gave] audience to half the world, some humbly begging for a little help, some asking merely for a loan….” David Thomson, with Moyra McGusty, eds.,
The Irish Journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840–1850.A Selection
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), 59.

9.
Ibid., 25. (Dec. 25–26, 1840). Two years later, on New Year’s Eve, 1842, Mrs. Smith wrote that she and her husband would “drink it [the old year] out in negus upstairs and punch below” (ibid., 60).

10.
[New York]
Irish World
, Dec. 28, 1872. For a different reading of temperance, see Paul Johnson,
A Shopkeeper’s Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815–1837
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1978); and, of working-class immigrants and the reform of holiday celebrations, see Roy Rozenzweig,
Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870–1920
(Cambridge and New York, 1983), 65–92, 153–170.

11.
These dates appear in James H. Barnett,
The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture
(New York: Macmillan, 1954), 20.

12.
Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, in the Year 1855
, ch. 91, 549;
Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, in the Year 1856
, ch. 113, 59–60.

13.
John R. Mulkern,
The Know-Nothing Party in Massachusetts: The Rise and Fall of a People’s Movement
(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990), 79, 89–90, 101, 108–11 (the quotation is on p. 108). The Know-Nothings lost control of the state legislature in the 1856 elections. See also Ronald P. Formisano,
The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s—1840s
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1983).

14.
Boston Daily Bee
, Feb. 8, 1856; see also
Boston Courier
, Feb. 8, 1856, for a letter pointing to the financial effects of the bill. (While Rep. Vose was a Know-Nothing, he was also a leader of the
opposition
to the temperance legislation that had passed the previous year.)

15.
This point is made in William B. Waits,
The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving
(New York: New York University Press, 1993), 8.

16.
Interview recorded by Alan Lomax, on “Leadbelly: Go Down with Aunt Hannah” (The Library of Congress Recordings, vol. 6; reissued by Rounder Records, 1994: CD 1099).

17.
“I begin to whoopie” is from Peetie Wheatstraw, “Santa Claus Blues” (1935),
Peetie Wheatstraw (1930–1941)
, da Music, CD 3541–2; “New Year’s Blues” is from Tampa Red, “Christmas and New Year’s Blues” (1934), from
Complete Works, vol. 6, 1934–35;
Document Records DOCD-5206; “valentine’s Day” is from Walter Davis, “New Santa Claus”
(1941), from
Complete Works, vol. 7, 1940–46;
on Document Records DOCD-5286. One blues song that does deal with children and presents (sung from a woman’s perspective, it is about a man who has abandoned his woman and children during Christmas week) ends by reporting happily that another man has entered the singer’s life—“there’s a big fat Santy [Santa] walkin’ in my front door.” See Victoria Spivey, “Christmas Without Santa Claus” (1961) on
Woman Blues
(text by Victoria Spivey: Prestige / Bluesville Records? V-1054. For another Christmas-reunion blues, see Floyd McDaniel, “Christmas Blues” (1992),
The Stars of Rhythm ‘n’ Blues
, CMA Music Productions CD, CM-10007.

18.
Robert Johnson, “Hellhound on My Trail” (1937: from
The Complete Recordings
, Columbia C2K-46222; 1991) [King of Spades Music, 1990]; “Every day is Christmas” is from Joe Turner, “
Christmas Date Boogie”
(1948 / 9: from
Tell Me Pretty Baby
, Arhoolie CD 333 (1992) [text by Joe Turner]; “like a rooster” is from Champion Jack Dupree, “Santa Claus Blues,” from
The Joe Davis Sessions, 1945–46
(Flyright FLY CD 22, 1990). The term
Christmas
could actually become a euphemism for sex, as in the blues song “Merry Christmas, Baby.” After an opening verse that makes the association between Christmas and sex—by repeating the words of the title and adding, “you sure did treat me nice”—the second verse opens with a line in which the very term
Christmas
has come to mean “sex”: “I’m comin’ home, comin’ home for Christmas right now.” By the end of the song we have come to hear the repeated refrain “Merry Christmas, Baby” to mean simply
Thanks for the great sex, baby
. See Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, “Merry Christmas, Baby” (1991) on I
Want to Groove with You
, Bullseye Blues/Rounder Records CD BB 9506 [text by L. Baxter and J. Moore: St. Louis Music Corp., 1948]. The association of Christmas with leisure in African-American rural culture has remained so strong that the idea of
working
on Christmas Day is powerfully symbolic. In Howlin’ Wolf’s “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” for example, the singer suggests how hard his lot is by simply noting that he spent Christmas Day in his “overalls” [text by Chester Burnett, Arc Music Corp., BMI].

19.
“Dresser drawers” is from Sonny Boy Williamson, “Santa Claus” (1960), [text by Rice Miller]
Bummer Road
(Chess/MCA CHD-9324, 1991); “this very Christmas night” is from Charley Jordan and Verdi Lee, “Christmas Tree Blues,” in
Charley Jordan: Complete Recorded Works
, vol. 3 (1935–37), Document Records CD, DOCD-5099; “backdoor Santa” is from Clarence Carter, “Backdoor Santa” (1960), from
Snatching It Back: The Best of Clarence Carter
Rhino/Atlantic CD (1992), R2–70286 [text by Clarence Carter Carter and Marcus McDaniel: Screen Gems-EMI, BMI]; “even if my whiskers is white” is from Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Christmas Eve Blues” (1928:
Complete Recorded Works
, vol. 3: Document Records DOCD 5019); “hang your stocking by the head of the bed” is from Charley Jordan and Verdi Lee, “Christmas Tree Blues” (cited above); “on your Christmas tree” is from Peetie Wheatstraw, “Santa Claus Blues” (cited above, note 14): the same image is used in Charley Jordan, “Santa Claus Blues” (1931), on
Complete Recorded Works
, vol. 2: Document Records DODC-5098. Other Christmas blues include: Bessie Smith, “At the Christmas Ball” (1925:
Complete Recordings
, vol. 2); Will Weldon, “Christmas Tree Blues” (1937), on
Will Weldon as Casey Bill: The Hawaiian Guitar Wizard, 1935–38;
Blues Collection/EPM, 1994” by W. Weldon; Sonny Boy Williamson [John Lee Williamson], “Christmas Morning Blues” (1938:
Complete Recorded Works
, vol. 2: Document Records, DOCD-5056); Lightnin’ Hopkins, “Santa,” on
Mojo Hand
, Golden Classics CD (Collectible Records Corp., Narbeth, Penn., CD-5111; Walter Davis, “Santa Claus Blues,” from
Complete Works
, vol. 6); Charlie Johnson, “Santa Claus Blues,” from
Complete Works
, vol. 2 (1931–34); and Freddie King, “Christmas Tears” (from 17
Hits)
.

20.
Mikhail Bakhtin,
Rabelais and His World
(Cambridge: MIT, 1968), 4–18, 145–154. For ongoing vestiges of carnival, see Peter Stallybrass and Allon White,
The Politics and Poetics of Transgression
(London: Methuen, 1986), 171–190.

21.
But it appears that in many places Thanksgiving itself came to take on some of the aspects of carnival. For an account of this development, see Harriet Beecher Stowe’s historical novel
Oldtown Folks
(Boston, 1869), ch. 27: “How We Kept Thanksgiving.” For
a contemporaneous perspective, in 1818 the
Farmer’s Cabinet
(an Amherst, N.H., newspaper) printed an article lamenting the “frolicks of Thanksgiving” and wishing that “the period annually set apart as a season of devout thanksgiving … were in reality a season of heart-felt and religious gratitude … when the
heart
and not the
appetite
should be the source of thanksgiving.” The same editorial suggested that Thanksgiving had also become at least semi-commercialized, a time when “farmers and merchants make their calculations to profit by its return, in the disposal of their various articles.”
(Farmer’s Cabinet
, Dec. 26, 1818; reprinted from the
New Hampshire Patriot)
.

22.
“Hanukkah was probably attached to a solstice feast already celebrated in Jerusalem by Jews friendly to Greece.” Martin
Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine During the Early Hellenistic Period
(translated from the German; 2 vols., Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), I, 235; see also ibid., 303.

23.
Israel Abrahams,
Jewish Life in the Middle Ages
(New York, 1896), 389–398 (Chanukah exception is on p. 396).

24.
Increase Mather,
A Testimony Against Several Prophane and Superstitious Customs, Now Practiced by Some in New-England
(London, 1687), 41–42.

25.
See, for example, Michael Strassfeld,
The Jewish Holidays, A Guide and Commentary
(New York: Harper and Row, 1985), 187–196. This chapter bears the title “Purim: Self-Mockery and Masquerade.” See also Francis Spufford, “Pleasures and Perils of Purim,” in
Times Literary Supplement
, June 5, 1992. Spufford terms Purim “a carnival as Bakhtin described carnivals.”

26.
Daniel Miller, “A Theory of Christmas,” in Daniel Miller, ed.,
Unwrapping Christmas
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 3.

I
WROTE
this book in the course of three nonconsecutive years (and an additional summer) during which I lived away from my Amherst, Massachusetts, home. Serious work began in
1989–90
, when I was James P. Harrison Professor of History at The College of William and Mary. That appointment included the services of a helpful research assistant, Nigel Alderman, as well as the obligation to deliver several public lectures that managed to transform my Christmas project from a minor arrow in my scholarly quiver into a serious endeavor. John Selby of William and Mary’s History Department helped set up those lectures (and my entire year); Marianne Brink, Ann and Bob Gross, and Chandos Brown helped make the year both intellectually and socially memorable.

Much of the book was researched and written during the
1991–92
academic year, when I held a residential fellowship (funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities) at the American Antiquarian Society. But the AAS was more than a wonderful library. It has long been my second home, and the members of its staff are like family. Nancy Burkett (now the AAS librarian) and Joanne Chaison (now reference librarian) were each head of readers’ services when I first came to know them. Today Marie Lamareaux occupies that position. All three wore themselves out on my behalf, and without ever losing the graciousness that has long been a hallmark of the AAS. Laura Wascowicz spent hours of what seemed to be her own time hunting down children’s literature for me, and her cataloguing skills enabled me to locate items I would never have encountered on my own. Dennis Laurie went beyond the call of any possible duty several
times, doing research in newspapers I had not even asked to see. Tom Knoles always made the imposing AAS manuscript division user-friendly. Georgia Barnhill sprang into action whenever she found a picture she thought I might be able to use. Although John B. Hench worked in an office across the street, he was always a benevolent force and a supportive presence. Finally, there were the rewarding conversations with fellow readers at the AAS, readers who included Robert Arner, Catherine Brekus, Nym Cooke, Cornelia Dayton, Alice Fahs, Billy G. Smith, and Ann Fairfax Withington.

In the summer of 1993 I held an Andrew W. Mellon fellowship at the Massachusetts Historical Society. My work there was enhanced by the careful cataloguing of the voluminous Sedgwick family papers (which would otherwise have been impenetrable). I would especially like to thank Peter Drummey, Edward W. Hanson, Richard A. Ryerson, Virginia H. Smith, and Conrad E. Wright—and to remember the Thursday lunches and the conversations with Charles Capper.

Finally, in 1994–95 I finished the book at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, a fellowship stay that was made more than pleasant by the center’s able and amiable administrator, Susan G. Hunt, and by its present and former directors, Ernest May and Bernard Bailyn, respectively, and by Donald Fleming, who organized our seminars and directed my attention to Charles Loring Brace. Warren Center colleagues who offered support and assistance included Stephen Alter, Mia Bay, Steven Biel, Allen Guelzo, and Laura Kaiman. During my year at Harvard I was fortunate enough to live (and eat) at Eliot House, courtesy of its co-masters, Stephen A. Mitchell and Kristine Forsgard, and with the support of its former master (and my onetime teacher) Alan Heimert. Karl and Anita Teeter and Seth Rice provided encouragement and hospitality during my Harvard stay (Seth also helped out by reading German materials for me).

Then there is my first academic home, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. None of my leaves of absence would have been possible without the assistance of UMass. I would especially like to thank Deans Murray M. Schwartz and Lee Edwards, and History Department chairs Robert Jones, Roland Sarti, and Bruce Laurie, for their unhesitating and consistent support of this project in a time of serious fiscal duress.