Place in the American Christmas

Abstract

The festival of Christmas is intimately linked to the attachment to places and the notion of home held by Americans. Both the practice of Christmas and the meaning of home underwent radical transformation during the nineteenth century. Theories of festivity highlight the political character of seasonal celebrations, but a historical approach gives an understanding of the role of place in the American celebration of Christmas. An interpretation of this role that relates the festival to recent notions of the family, the child, and the private home is suggested. EACH year in late November or early December, the overwhelming majority of Americans begin making preparations for their most important festival. Considering the amounts of money, time, and feeling devoted to it, Christmas obviously has a crucial role in American culture. Only at Christmas is there an entire season of festivity. The power of both the marketplace and the family is mobilized to support the celebration. Christmas is more meaningful to Americans than any other seasonal event. What is most striking from a geographical perspective is the extent to which people transform the landscape at Christmas. Visiting almost any American village, town, or city at Christmas, one cannot help but notice how the community is given over to the festival. Colored lights, evergreens, and a variety of religious and secular ornaments decorate civic sites, shopping districts, and private homes. Most scholars who have commented on the social and cultural meaning of Christmas have interpreted the festival as an interlude, a special time set apart from the rest of the year (Barnett 1954). But the attention given to composite landscapes and individual dwellings suggests that place, as well as time, is important to the celebration. By definition Christmas is a season, but as a festival it has a certain locus: to borrow a phrase from Peter Jackson (1988, 225), it literally takes place. Almost any celebrant of this festival, if asked where it should take place, would respond that ideally Christmas should be celebrated at home. The place of Christmas is thus not merely incidental to the celebration: it is crucial. This essay explores the relationship between Christmas and place in the United States. Examining this relationship unavoidably also raises the issue of the political role of Christmas. The essay has four sections. The first outlines the lineaments of the relationship between place and the contemporary practice of Christmas. Before attempting an interpretation of this relationship, a second section provides an overview of the development of the festival. The third section explores the theoretical issues involved in interpreting festivals in general. The final section presents an interpretation of the centrality of place to the modern Christmas by relating the historical revival of * DR. MCGREEVY is an assistant professor of geography at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.220 on Fri, 02 Sep 2016 04:21:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms