Christmas Day of 1872 was an important day here in the Southern Tier, and especially in Corning.
It was the first Christmas that most Corning businesses gave their employees the day off.
That may bewilder us, for we’ve often been given the impression that once upon a time we treated Christmas with deep reverence, and that only lately has it become sadly commercialized, marginalized, or otherwise made war on.
Nothing’s more commercial than keeping the business running, of course. A photo from around 1898 shows a large grape packing house in Hammondsport with a full staff hard at work. A post card from the early 1900s was postmarked in Corning and Dundee on December 25, which means that both offices were working, along with some carrier between the two.
Even in A Christmas Carol, where Bob Cratchit has to negotiate the day off, on Christmas Day the Cratchits themselves cheerfully patronize the bakery, which rents out its ovens for people to cook their geese and turkeys.
Christmas had a hard time getting going in America, especially here in the northeast. The Pilgrims of course despised it, and Governor William Bradford wrote an amusing account of the first Christmas in Plymouth. (He wrote of himself in the third person, and I’ve modernized the spelling a little.)
“On the day called Christmasday, the Governor called them out to work, (as was used,) but the most of this new-company excused themselves and said it went against their consciences to work on that day. So the Governor told them that if they made it matter of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed. … [Later] he found them in the street at play, openly; some pitching the bar and some at stool-ball, and such like sports. So he went to them, and took away their implements, and told them that was against his conscience, that they should play and others work. If they made the keeping of it matter of devotion, let them keep their houses, but there should be no gaming or reveling in the streets. Since which time nothing hath been attempted that way, at least openly.”
In deeply Christian Massachusetts, Christmas was a crime: “whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by for-bearing of labour, feasting, or any other way, upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall pay for every such offence five shillings, as a fine to the county.”
The provincial legislature pointedly met on Christmas Day. Both they and the Pilgrims considered it an unbiblical superstition.
Where it WAS observed in America, it was pretty wild. Down south gangs of men (including slaves) tried to sneak up on somebody’s house. If they could get up close enough without being noticed, they’d shoot off a gun and yell “Christmas gift!,” whereupon the householder had to give them all liquor. As the day wore on the combination of guns and alcohol brought the results you’d expect.
In New York City in the early 1800s, a nostalgic former sheriff bemoaned that they no longer had a good old fashioned Christmas, which he described as gangs of young men forcing their way into people’s homes and boisterously singing until given enough food, drink, and money to make them go away.
That sort of thing was passable in an agricultural world, where you gave the workers a week or two off in the depths of winter and slaughtered a steer or two for them. But in the new industrial economy, employers wanted the workers back on the job, on time, not drunk, not exhausted, not hungover, the next day. A quiet family Christmas became the style, helped along by the quiet family of style-setting Queen Victoria and her German husband, who introduced English speakers to the Christmas tree. During and after the Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast (also German-born) created our modern picture of Santa Claus.
By the late 1800s Christmas was pretty popular in our parts, especially with merchants. Ads started later than we’re used to (around Thanksgiving), but they were just as frenetic as ours. Sampling some 1901 ads from the Hammondsport-Keuka Lake area we find:
*”Why not a Range, Stove, Cutter, Whip, Bells, Horse Blankets or Mechanics’ Tools? Because they are useful does not detract from their suitability for Christmas gifts.”
*”Santa Claus is a common sense old fellow… . He has a way of being practical as well as jolly…JUST NAME A MORE SUITABLE GIFT than a nice pair of Shoes, Slippers or Rubbers for any member of the family.”
*”Trains of cars, Ringing Bells, Mouth Organs, engines that steam up, Toy Banks, Toy Blocks, Doll Beds, Tool Chests, Drums, Whips and Guns.”
*”Six Trading Days to Christmas. We fear some people would not be ready for the ringing of Christmas Chimes if we did not keep counting the days and saying. Hurry! Hurry! Early in the day is a good motto to be adopted by Christmas shoppers.”
To some extent Christmas got more fun as it got more commercial… or maybe the commercialization capitalized on the fun. Local folks sent each other thousands of Christmas post cards – religious, sentimental, or humorous just as they liked.
Extensive decorations festooned the shopping streets (and the stores) of Hornell and Corning. In 1913 Corning folks crowded the streets and the roofs as crack pilot Frank Burnside flew Santa Claus from Bath to Corning by biplane (thanks to the city merchants). Christmas was finally here to stay and universally welcomed (but for a few sour Scrooges). And the rest, as they say, is history.