The Battle for Christmas is a book, written by Stephen Nissenbaum, which discusses the evolution of the Christmas holiday and how it came to be so. Before the 1800s, Christmas was viewed as an occasion for riots and drunkenness. In his book, Nissenbaum presents how this culture transformed in the nineteenth century and how Christmas became a festival of consumerism and domesticity. Below is a review of factors that led to the bringing of the civilized Christmas holiday and the problems that were encountered in doing so. How poor people such as slaves, newsboys, and students celebrated the Christmas holiday. Reviewing how this holiday benefited them and how the new practices would soon become a great disadvantage to them. In the Massachusetts
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This was found quite affordable, and even the underprivileged had the ability to decorate, thus reflecting the folk tradition. However, as time passed, ornamentation standards were raised by newspapers and widely read women’s magazines. The traditional style soon happened to be overtaken by sophisticated ones. Tree decorating was in the mainstream over homemade decorations, which was eventually viewed as a waste of time to create at home. The new use of tree decoration involved buying miniature charming glass ornaments. To the poverty stricken, this was quite an expense and as a result, they never wanted the new ways to buyout the simple and traditional Christmas …show more content…
They formed gangs known as Anticks. They would invade the houses of wealthy citizens, perform a short bawdy skirt and in the end, demand pay for their entertainment. If the host was unwilling to give them money or food, they would scare the women and children in the house, pull off door hinges, and even break windows. If rival gangs met, there would be a bloody brawl and everyone involved would get severely injured. Christmas soon became perilous for everyone, but despite this, efforts to ban the holiday were in vain. People found this method of celebrating Christmas favorable, even though happiness would be at a
This was found quite affordable, and even the underprivileged had the ability to decorate, thus reflecting the folk tradition. However, as time passed, ornamentation standards were raised by newspapers and widely read women’s magazines. The traditional style soon happened to be overtaken by sophisticated ones. Tree decorating was in the mainstream over homemade decorations, which was eventually viewed as a waste of time to create at home. The new use of tree decoration involved buying miniature charming glass ornaments. To the poverty stricken, this was quite an expense and as a result, they never wanted the new ways to buyout the simple and traditional Christmas …show more content…
They formed gangs known as Anticks. They would invade the houses of wealthy citizens, perform a short bawdy skirt and in the end, demand pay for their entertainment. If the host was unwilling to give them money or food, they would scare the women and children in the house, pull off door hinges, and even break windows. If rival gangs met, there would be a bloody brawl and everyone involved would get severely injured. Christmas soon became perilous for everyone, but despite this, efforts to ban the holiday were in vain. People found this method of celebrating Christmas favorable, even though happiness would be at a