I know well the history of Christmas in this country, and I find the Puritan outlawing of it to be reprehensibly reckless and a symptom of their bald historical and theological ignorance.
Partly because of their insanity on this point, assorted folk traditions of Northern Europe which used to have a profound Christian meaning were forced underground and out of the Church’s motherly embrace and into a kind of secular netherworld, where it was a short leap to full-on paganism. So St. Nicholas became Santa Claus. Collecting soul-cakes on All Hallows’ Eve became a day of dress-up and Candy Quest.
The “Northeastern WASPs” who revived Christmas did so out of a sense of restoring beauty and joy to an Anglicanism that the Puritans and their ilk had entirely bled out of parish life. The Victorian Christmas at its best was a beautiful and moving tribute to the Birth of Our Savior—one that even my non-Christian relatives deeply appreciate. That the Puritans’ descendants still don’t get it does not reflect well on them.
Northeaster WASP’s only revived Christmas because it was popular with their counterparts in England. Frankly, the Victorian Christmas revival was a desperate attempt to make religion important in places where its importance had been on a steady decline for a century. It’s hardly surprising that the New England states, which embraced Victorian Christmas the most in the US, were the first to fully break free of Christianity. New England is a cesspool of godless secularism and has been for half a century or more.
England isn’t any better. The decline of the English church dates to the early 19th century and accelerated during and after both 20th century world wars. By the early 60’s, the Christian faith had no foothold in England. Oh but they do love their Victorian Christmas don’t they? Even today it’s the most important holiday in England. Unfortunately few actually believe in Jesus Christ. Christmas is nothing more than a festive event remembering what never really was in England. After all, Victorian Christmas is German, brought to England by Victoria’s German husband Albert and popularized by the Royal Family. It was embraced by a culture that was fleeing Christ and is still embraced by a culture that has long since abandoned Christ. I would hardly hold Victorian Christmas, or Christmas of any sort, on some sort of pedestal.