festivals. It was not until about 1840 however, when

festivals.

It was not until about 1840 however, when England’s Queen Victoria decorated a family tree, that the Christmas tree as we now think of it permanently caught the popular fancy in the English-speaking world.

Inspired by Dutch immigrants’ stories, author Washington Irving is credited with reviving Christmas celebrations in the United States and contributing to the Santa Claus legend with his Knickerbocker’s History of New York, published on Saint Nicholas Day in 1809. In 1822, Clement C. Moore, further established the Santa Claus myth when he wrote a poem called “A Visit from St. Nicholas” for his children.

A Christmas Carol, written by English author Charles Dickens in 1843, helped popularize such Christmas traditions as giving gifts; decorating with holly, evergreens, and mistletoe; serving the Christmas feast; and spreading goodwill and charity toward the poor at Christmas.

The rest, as they say, is history. As with much of its history, the revival of secular Christmas provided complementary impetus to religious commemoration of Jesus’ birth. Many familiar Christmas Carols such as Silent Night, Jingle Bells, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear were written before the Civil War.

And of course, giving gifts means acquiring those gifts hence the commercialization of Christmas became and remains both much deplored' and much practiced.

There has thus been a long and at times stormy past to this most joyous of holiday seasons. I mean really: Banned in Boston! But no matter what one calls it and regardless of one’s religious persuasion, the best of both the old and new traditions of renewal, charity, and hope for peace and good will among all peoples somehow continue to shine through and above all else. In keeping with this spirit, ‘ere this column is driven out of sight, “Merry (you fill in the blank) to all and to all a good night!”