Journey Through Christmases Past - Christmas in America by Penne L. Restad & Christmas Carols

 

Welcome to our newest feature, Journey through Christmases Past. This series is a nostalgic celebration of the holidays we all remember...

• The history and traditions of the holiday.
• The décor that filled our homes.
• The toys that defined each decade.
• The television and movie shows that brightened the season.
• The outfits we adored (and the ones we definitely didn’t).

Along the way, I’ll sprinkle in a few of my own Christmas memories. So settle in with a cup of your favorite hot beverage and join me on a journey through Christmases past.

Happy Sunday... for a few more hours. We now have only 46 days until Christmas 2026!

I've been staging a late 1800s Queen Anne to prepare it for sale. One finishing touch is LED candles for the front- and side-facing windows. I had ChatGPT try decorating it for the holidays. It isn't a perfect representation, but it certainly made me want to move in there. 

All this time spent in a historic home got me thinking more about Christmas in America during the 1800s. In Penne L. Restad's book, Christmas in America: A History, she states that by the 1880s Americans had reinvented Christmas by blending customs and rituals from the past, creating new traditions, and investing the holiday with meaning suited to their own time. Restad argues that "urbanization, mechanization, and the power of commerce and industry transformed American life at an ever-increasing rate, leaving old values and even the idea of constancy behind" (p. 105).

One way this translated into the modern world of the 1880s was through Christmas carols. While many holiday songs drew inspiration from older European and seasonal traditions, new Christmas music also emerged during this period. Here are the authors and dates of some of our most beloved songs of the season:

• "Silent Night" - Austrian priest Joseph Mohr (1818)
• "Joy to the World" - American composer and music educator Lowell Mason (1836)
• "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" - English Anglican cleric and a principal leader of the Methodist movement Charles Wesley (1739) and evangelist George Whitefield modifications (1753/54), then put to music thanks to Felix Mendelssohn (1840)
• "O Holy Night"- Atheist wine-merchant and poet Placide Cappeau (1847)
• "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" - Unitarian pastor Edward Hamilton Sears (1849)
• "Jingle Bells" - Unitarian clergyman Reverend John Pierpont (1856)
• "We Three Kings of Orient Are" - Organist Richard Storrs Wills (1857)
• "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" - Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1863)
• "O Little Town of Bethlehem" - Episcopal rector Phillips Brooks (1865)
• "Away in a Manger" - Author unknown (1885)

Restad's book is still available if you wish to read more. Check it out here.