We all have memories, often treasured, of Christmas seasons past. First as children, then parents and grandparents in our older years, we remember the stories we heard first in our youth and have continued to read in our latter years.
We all remember Charles Dickens, who left us The Christmas Carol (1843) about the tightwad Ebenezer Scrooge, who was transformed by visits from the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future. Scrooge finally got with it and celebrated the Yuletide by raising his clerk, Bob Cratchit’s wages and giving support to Bob’s crippled son, Tiny Tim. Dickens was an English author who set the standard for Christmas tales.
OUTLOOK readers ought to know that Presbyterians have contributed to our understandings about Christmas with their holiday stories.
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892-1973), was the famous daughter of Presbyterian missionaries in China and a missionary herself for a time. She introduced us to the country in “Good Earth” (1931) and helps us explore Christmas in her book, “Book of Christmas” (1974)*. In this collection, she includes stories by several authors with Presbyterian connections that illuminate insights into the meaning of Christmas. (Historical note: Early Presbyterians were not happy with what the Catholics and Anglicans had made of the holiday–a time of revelry and indulgence. By the early 19th century, their attitudes had turned around, as Penne L Rested tells us in “Christmas in America” [1955.])
Among the first writers we meet in Buck’s collection is Washington Irving (1783-1859), whose Scottish parents settled in New York. His father, a Presbyterian deacon and elder, was domineering and a strict disciplinarian. Irving’s mother and sisters gave him the affection and attention that shaped his early years. One of his brothers was a publisher who dabbled in literature. He and Washington published a burlesque periodical called “Salamagundi” in which the Republic is reduced to being a mere “logocracy”, a government of words, words, words.
Irving helped to touch off a resurgence of the Yuletide spirit, encouraged by such authors as Dickens, with his stories in Sketch Book (1819-1820.) In one story, “Christmas at Brace Bridge Hall,” he traces the spirit of the season in New York. We meet characters like the “parson”, who is somewhat conservative and expresses his unhappiness with the church sexton after he decorated the church with mistletoe, which had been used by the ancient pagan Druids. After Christmas music by orchestra and chorister, the parson delivers a sermon on the rites of Christmas citing authorities from Theophilus of Caesarea to St. Augustine. He touches on the Puritan dislike for Christmas celebrations, calling the feasting “mere popery.” Fortunately by this time, the congregation could look forward to a Christmas of food and games. The squire’s mansion hosted a joyous Christmas dinner along with stories of Christmases past and games.
Irving concluded his story with the hope that his tale would lift heavy hearts and penetrate any “gathering film of misanthropy.” We may reassure him that his story still lifts the human spirit.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), another author with deep Calvinist roots, also celebrated Christmas in her stories.
Stowe was born in Litchfield, Conn., the daughter of Lyman and Catherine Beecher. Lyman was a clergyman and seminary professor and president. Her brother was Henry Ward Beecher, a noted preacher of the time. Her husband, Calvin Stowe, was a biblical scholar who taught at the same seminary as her father, Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her landmark book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” presented a glimpse of slavery many at the time did not want to confront. The protagonist, the slave Uncle Tom, was a Christ figure.
One of her stories, “Christmas or The Good Fairy” can be found in Buck’s collection. It focuses on a young woman, Ellen Stuart, who is in a quandary about what to give her friends for Christmas. They are all well off, have everything and are “sick and tired of what they’ve got.” Ellen’s aunt leads her to a window at the back of their big house, which looks across an alley to a row of poor shanties. “What do you see?” the aunt asks her. Apparently for the first time, Ellen sees the needs literally at her doorstep. She becomes a “good fairy,” taking food, clothing and other help to the people in the shanties. As she sees how a cape for a newborn baby, an orange for a crippled boy, and money to provide food and fuel for two elderly women change their lives, her perspective on life changes. Her aunt reminds her that Jesus was born in a lowly manger and grew up to be a brother of the poor, lowly, outcast and distressed. Through Ellen, Harriet Beecher Stowe challenges those in “splendid dwellings” with “worlds of money” to be more concerned with those on whom the Babe of Bethlehem himself focused.
Henry Van Dyke’s “The Story of the Other Wise Man” is one of the better known stories in the Buck collection. Van Dyke (1852-1933) was born in Germantown, Pa., and graduated from Princeton College and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1894. After a pastorate at Brick church in New York City, he went back to Princeton to teach English. He served as a chaplain in World War I and as a diplomat. Always writing, Van Dyke is also know for the lyrics for the hymn “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” sung to the glad sounds of Beethoven.
The fourth Wise Man story came to him as if by inspiration, according to Van Dyke. But he had to study ancient history and travel to enrich it. The protagonist, Artaban, is a Median from a city high in the mountains of Persia. He wore the dress of the priesthood of the Magi in the worship of Zoroaster, the followers of whom at that time were considered enlightened people whose wisdom came from the stars. Artaban holds dear the prophesies that a star will come forth from Jacob and a scepter will arise out of Israel. He sets off on a thirty-three year quest to find this Promised One. His search interweaves with the gospel story from Bethlehem to Golgatha.
Pearl Buck did well in gathering stories and enabling readers of future generations to revisit Yuletides past. Even in 2004, we can take to heart Tiny Tim’s words, “God bless us every one.”
*Author’s note: Buck’s volume is not in print. But James Charlton and Barbara Gilson have collected similar material in A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories and Poems (1976) and Penne L. Restad has given an overview in Christmas in America, a History (1995).
JAMES H. SMYLIE is professor emeritus of church history at Union Seminary — PSCE in Richmond, Va.
