The Top 40 Traditions of Christmas: The Story Behind the Nativity, Candy Canes, Caroling, and All Things Christmas (9 page)

Stewart went from being penniless to making his fortune and paid that kind deed back many, many times over.

Workplace Secret Santas usually begin in early December, giving people time to shop and give their gifts before the Christmas holidays.

Why?

Larry Stewart began his philanthropic work after he had been broke and unable to pay for a meal. The owner of the diner pretended to find a twenty-dollar bill and gave it to him. In better times Stewart followed that example in giving his cash directly to people who needed it.

People like Stewart, who help others anonymously, are often appreciative of the blessings in their lives and want to share what they can with others who are less fortunate. For them the thanks aren’t the important thing. They get that most underestimated of feelings, the pure pleasure of simply giving. If you don’t know that pleasure, try being a Secret Santa!

Who?

Josef Franz Mohr’s life got off to a terrible start. His parents were unmarried, and his father was an army deserter. Society would have wanted nothing to do with him. But choirmaster Johann Heirnle spotted his musical talent and sponsored him in his studies for the priesthood. While serving as a priest, Father Mohr wrote a poem entitled “Silent Night, Holy Night.”

During a period of recuperation from illness, he met Franz Xaver Gruber, who put the poem to music. Herr Gruber was the local schoolmaster and church organist.

Later Father Mohr would recall his meeting with Herr Gruber as one of the most precious moments of his life.

What?

“Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht,” as it is called in the original German, was a song composed with a guitar accompaniment in mind, but it is just as beautiful with a full orchestral backing or no accompaniment at all.

While the modern version is contemplative, almost a lullaby, the original arrangement was a bit more upbeat.

The singing of “Silent Night” by soldiers led to Christmas truces in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and in the trenches in France during the First World War.

The song has been translated into at least forty-four languages, and Bing Crosby’s version of the Christmas classic has sold more than ten million copies.

Where?

Joseph Mohr’s first assignment as an assistant priest was in the Austrian village of Mariapfarr in the Salzburg district. Mariapfarr is where he is believed to have composed the poem “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.”

After falling ill, the priest was sent to recuperate in Salzburg. On his way to complete recovery, he was assigned to the Saint Nicholas Church in Oberndorf.

Franz Gruber was the schoolmaster at a nearby village and the organist at Saint Nicholas.

One day Mohr visited Gruber in his hometown of Arnsdorf. The Gruber residence was where the words and music for what would become one of the most famous Christmas songs ever came together.

When?

Joseph Mohr was born in 1792. The lyrics to “Silent Night” were written around 1816, when Mohr would have been around twenty-four years old. The date when the music was added to the words is stated with uncommon certainty, Christmas Eve, 1818. That same evening, it was performed for the first time, in the Saint Nicholas Church in Oberndorf.

In 1859 John Freeman Young, who would shortly afterward become a bishop of the Episcopal Church, in Florida, gave the world the English translation most used today.

In 1943 Hertha Pauli, an Austrian displaced by World War II, wrote
Silent Night: A Story of a Song
for her young American readers.

Why?

There are many stories about why Father Mohr wrote “Silent Night.” Most involve something terrible happening to the church organ just before the Christmas Eve service and the desperate priest having to come up with a hymn that could be sung without accompaniment. In some versions the church mice are responsible, having eaten the organ bellows!

In fact Father Mohr wrote his lyrics long before then, and church records show no such organ failure.

None of this takes away from the beauty of the song. And Gruber’s achievement in putting a tune to the lyrics on the day it was to be performed was surely a minor miracle in its own right!

Who?

The Star of Bethlehem was the astronomical phenomenon that alerted the Magi, who lived somewhere in the east, that the Messiah was to be born. The Magi were either Wise Men, astronomers, kings, or all three. Their identity is never stated, but it is suggested in some traditions that they had been preparing for the coming of the King of the Jews for some time.

The Magi may have been responsible for the tradition of giving gifts at Christmas. The fact that they gave three gifts often leads people to assume there were three Magi, but this is never stated, and in some eastern cultures it is believed there were twelve.

What?

There are many theories as to what the Star of Bethlehem might have been. Astronomers have reverse-plotted the course of the planets to see if any of them might have been “in conjunction” at the right time.

Halley’s Comet was in the sky—but not for a few years after the event. Chinese astronomers mention a large comet that appeared to hang in the sky for seventy days around the year 5 BC.

God could easily have aligned the planets or sent a comet to mark the birth of His son, but the star might also have been the light of the Lord shining down from on high.

Where?

If the Magi were in the east, the Star of Bethlehem must have risen in the west. This would have given them a direction but would not have helped pinpoint a destination.

After they talked to Herod, the star, which they had seen when it rose, appeared to take on a different role. It now traveled before them, leading them the few miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. A star hanging in the sky would have been of no use for that part of the journey, lending credence to the theory that the star was, in fact, a manifestation of God’s power, a light sent to guide the Magi to a specific place.

When?

The Star of Bethlehem “rose” in the sky when Jesus was born. When the Magi came to the court of King Herod, he carefully asked them when the star had appeared; then he ordered the killing of all boys in the Bethlehem area who were two years old or under. This suggests that the Magi had been traveling (or preparing and traveling) for two years. To have traveled such a distance suggests that the Magi had been anticipating the event for some time.

Astronomers have tried to connect the Star of Bethlehem with various astronomical events in the years around Christ’s birth, but none of these attempts have been conclusive.

Why?

Jesus is predicted all through the Old Testament, so it is not unlikely that eastern Wise Men, or philosophers, might have read similar predictions in their own lands and looked forward to the sign in the heavens that would mark his arrival in this world.

By bringing the Wise Men to the manger, the Star of Bethlehem may have fulfilled the line in Isaiah that says, “Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship” (Isaiah 49:7).

Perhaps it is not inappropriate that the birth of one who would become known as “the Light of the World” should be marked by a guiding light in the darkness.

Who?

“The Christmas Song” was written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells. Torme was a singer whose voice was described as being like velvet fog. He was also a composer, author, and actor. Wells was a songwriter, scriptwriter, and television producer. Torme recorded the song several times, but it will forever be associated with Nat King Cole, who recorded the song at least four times. Cole was Mel Torme’s first choice for the song.

Most people who have ever recorded a Christmas album have included “The Christmas Song.” There have been at least ninety covers by well-known artists such as Garth Brooks, James Brown, Rosemary Clooney, Celine Dion, and Bob Dylan.

What?

“The Christmas Song” is probably better known by its first line, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.” It was originally entitled “Merry Christmas to You.” Perhaps its writers felt it might be a little presumptuous to call their creation “
The
Christmas Song,” but the end result has as good a claim to that title as any other. If, of course, we are only talking about secular songs! “The Christmas Song” has no spiritual content but plenty of nostalgia and warm feeling.

Add Nat King Cole’s velvety voice to that mix, and you have a song that is as much a Christmas treat as any rich, chocolaty, sugar-laden dessert.

Where?

“The Christmas Song” was written on a scorchingly hot day near Toluca Lake in the San Fernando Valley. Mel Torme arrived at Bob Wells’s house for a prearranged work session. Torme let himself in, and Wells, who had been suffering in the heat, was nowhere to be seen. His notes, an attempt to write himself cool, were sitting on a music board. Torme saw them and recognized a hit in the making. Forty-five minutes after Wells came into the room, they had the song completed.

The Nat King Cole Trio recorded the song for the first time in WMCA Radio Studios in New York City.

When?

The collaboration, one of many between Mel Torme and Bob Wells, came about in July 1944.

Despite Nat King Cole loving the song and his being Torme’s first choice as singer, he was so busy it took almost two years for him to get around to recording it. He recorded it for the first time in June 1946, then again a month later, then again in 1952, and for the last time (and for the first time in stereo) in 1961.

The original King Cole Trio recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.

Mel Torme recorded the song in 1954, 1961, 1966, and 1992.

Why?

Bob Wells wasn’t enjoying the heat. Pacing his house in tennis shorts and a polo shirt, he decided to try to write something cooling. “All I could think about was Christmas and cold weather,” he told Mel Torme.

The notes he scribbled down were, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Yuletide carols being sung by a choir. And folks dressed up like Eskimos.”

That afternoon Torme and Wells completed something that would go on to become possibly the most-performed Christmas song ever.

By immersing themselves in winter, in the middle of summer, Wells and Torme made Christmas a little cozier for everyone.

Who?

Frederick Morris Feiker, who was press aide to Herbert Hoover while Hoover was the secretary of commerce, came up with the idea of a National Christmas Tree. Calvin Coolidge was the president Feiker had to convince. The first lady, Grace Coolidge, chose the location. The Electric League of Washington donated the twenty-five hundred red, white, and blue bulbs that adorned the tree, while the tree itself was donated by Middlebury College in Vermont.

The first family was joined by three thousand schoolchildren and six thousand residents of Washington for a carol service after the tree was lit. The gathering was segregated on racial lines with African Americans being allowed in after midnight.

What?

The National Christmas Tree (or the National Community Christmas Tree, as it was called in early days) has been many different types of trees over the years. It has been a live tree, a planted tree, a cut tree, and at times there have been two of them alternating. It has never been an artificial tree. It has been a balsam fir, a Norway spruce, a blue spruce, a red cedar, an Oriental spruce, and, as of 2011, it has been a Colorado blue spruce.

The trees have brought pleasure to millions of Christmas visitors, but they have suffered from environmental conditions, heat damage from the Christmas lights, and even train derailments!

Where?

The first National Christmas Tree was placed in the Ellipse outside the White House, the site approved by Grace Coolidge. The next tree was planted on the west side of Sherman Plaza. On other years, it has been situated in Lafayette Park, to the north of the White House, the South Lawn, and in various other sites around the White House grounds.

Some of these location shifts were made to give a more “homey” appearance, some to allow more people to have access, some for better TV coverage, and some were for security reasons.

Eventually the tree moved back to its original home in the northeast quadrant of the Ellipse.

When?

The first ever National Christmas Tree was erected on the Ellipse in time for Christmas, 1923. In 1924, after President Coolidge criticized the cutting down of so many trees for Christmas, a live tree was transplanted to Washington for the occasion.