

How the Unitarians Saved Christmas!
Dec. 12, 2023
by Rev. Scott W. Alexander
(Credit and thanks to my UU ministerial colleagues…from whose excellent and thorough research I amply borrowed for this sermon – Rev. Tracy Springberry, Rev. Dr. Leonard DeRoche and Rev. Don Beaudreault )
Did you know that Christmas was illegal – literally illegal!-- for the first 150 years of American history? No??? Well, Did you also know that your American spiritual ancestors – the early Unitarians (and, to a lesser degree the early Universalists) – literally SAVED CHRISTMAS…and are responsible for many of the beloved ways in which modern Americans celebrate this festive holiday. As one of my UU colleagues Tracy Springberry out in Idaho, puts it, almost two hundred years ago, “It was the Unitarians who wove together Santa Claus, Christmas trees, gift giving around the tree, a focus on charity and ‘peace and goodwill toward all’ to create the Christmas that the majority of Americans celebrate today.”
Here is the true story! When the Puritans (who were once described by H. L. Mencken a religious people “with the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.”) came to this country in the early 1600’s, they banned Christmas (which had been a rowdy, drunken, pagan celebration in England where they had come from). In 1621, when some of the early settlers tried to take Christmas day off, the Governor William Bradford (who like most Puritans believed that Christmas was “un-biblical” because nowhere in the bible does it say for Christians to celebrate the holiday) ordered them back to work. Thirty years later, the General Court of Massachusetts declared the celebration of Christmas to be a criminal offense (subject to a fine of 5 shillings!)…and for nearly 150 years, celebrating Christmas was illegal (and essentially unheard of) in New England.
But then in the early 1800’s our Unitarian forebears – with their optimistic theology (which stressed the goodness of human nature, the importance of character and moral development, and a joyful outlook on life) – began forming congregations and writing books, pushing back against the pessimistic and dark teachings of Puritanism. As one of my colleagues puts it, “Christmas, the Unitarians believed, could be a holiday to promote their values of generosity and charity and social good [which Jesus had taught] and would be a wonderful way to build these values, particularly in children. Unitarians [of that day] were obsessed with how to raise generous children with good characters [From a sermon by Rev. Tracy Springberry]. And so Unitarians not only began celebrating the birth of Jesus in December, they also created many of the generous and optimistic holiday traditions Americans today hold dear…here are some of those traditions:
Rev. Charles Follen – Brought the Christmas Tree to America
It was the Unitarian minister (German immigrant and Harvard professor) Charles Follen who brought the German tradition of decorating the Christmas Tree to his family in Lexington, Massachusetts, a ritual which delighted his family and friends and soon spread all over New England.
Samuel Coleridge – brought the Christmas gift-giving ritual to America
It was Unitarian poet Samuel Coleridge who brought the tradition of Christmas gift giving to America…after he personally saw the gift-giving ritual around the fir tree give such joy to children in Germany…and wrote about it in the official Unitarian magazine of the time “The Christian Register.”
Clement Moore – wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas”
In 1823 Clement Moore (who is described by some historians as a “sometimes Unitarian” for during his lifetime his religious allegiance may have floated between Unitarianism and Episcopalian-ism) wrote perhaps the most famous Christmas tale of all times, “A Visit from St Nicholas” which (as you all know) is the wonderful story which establishes the beautiful idea that a kindly Santa Claus visits every single child around the world.
Thomas Nast – drew jolly Santa Claus
And it was Unitarian Cartoonist Thomas Nast who (in his drawings of St. Nick) placed Santa at the north pole, which was his way of sending the universalist message that he existed for all the children of the world.
Nathaniel Currier – drew holiday scenes for countless Christmas cards
And speaking of Christmas art, Nathaniel Currier (of the famous duo Currier and Ives) drew his countless and magical winter scenes which – for many generations – have used on millions of holiday greeting cards
Charles Dickens – wrote “The Christmas Carol”
And -- perhaps the most important Unitarian contribution to the spirit of Christmas, for it established charity and compassion as the moral watchwords of the holiday -- in 1843, British Unitarian Charles Dickens published is now famous holiday Story “The Christmas Carol” about the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge who – through the visits of the ghosts of Christmas -- learns the lesson of Christmas charity, compassion and love.
And Several of today’s most favorite Christmas Carols were also written by Unitarians.
Rev. Edmund Hamilton Sears – wrote “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”
“It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” (with its powerful message about peace on earth in verse four – “Peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling”) was written in 1848 by Unitarian minister Edmund Hamilton Sears.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – wrote “I Heard the Bells on Christian Day”
It was Unitarian Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote “I Heard the Bells on Christian Day,” which to him rang out “peace on earth and to all goodwill” as his comment on the horror of all wars, most particularly the Civil War which he (and the rest of America) had just lived through.
James Pierpont – wrote “Jingle Bells”
And, James Pierpont –the organist of the Unitarian Church in Savannah, Georgia, wrote the ever-popular Christmas tune “Jingle bells.”
The first publication of the (anonymous) lyrics to “Away in the Manger” was by the Universalist publishing house in 1844…
Rev. John Sullivan Dwight
and the old French Christmas carol “O Holy Night” was translated (and made popular in America) by the Unitarian minister (and abolitionist) Rev. John Sullivan Dwight
Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne – wrote “Do You Hear What I Hear?”
And lastly, in 1962 – during the Cuban Missile Crisis when world peace was so endangered and all Americans were terrified by the future, Unitarian Universalist Noel Regney and his wife Gloria Shayne (after seeing innocent sleeping babies in strollers being walked by their mothers in New York City) wrote the prayerful Christmas song “Do You Hear What I Hear?”…which ends with the hopeful lyric “the child, the child, sleeping in the night, He will bring us goodness and light, he will bring us goodness and light.” You should now that during World War II, Mr. Regney was a hero…he joined the French Resistance, led a party of Nazi’s into an ambush, and was badly wounded but survived to emigrate to America after the war…where he became a Unitarian Universalist.
Unitarian Church North
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