More to the Man...
A New Country With New Traditions?
Beginning in September, the usual groans about Hallowthankmas begin. People start asking why each holiday can’t just stay in its own month from October to January first. The fact is that they never really have. The reality of the American experience is that we had to begin our own traditions, and that often meant borrowing from the experiences of the countries that initially set up the colonies that would eventually become the United States. This doesn’t just apply to our holiday traditions; it also extends to our literary traditions. Sometimes though…just sometimes, an American becomes the trendsetter, even if he isn’t given the credit for it. This is the case when it comes to the wonderful works of Washington Irving.
Father Hallowthankmas...
Thanks to his magnificent story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, when most Americans hear the name Washington Irving they immediately conjure up images of pumpkins, graveyards, and a headless horseman chasing a gangly schoolteacher towards a covered bridge. Very few connect Irving to the long-bearded man who fell asleep in the Catskills one day only to wake up twenty years later to a country he did not recognize, and fewer still associate him with Christmas. This is a shame really when you consider that much of the way Americans celebrate the holiday is due in large part to the wonderful stories that he wrote about the holiday.
An American Christmas?
Because he was the first American author to be able to support himself solely through his writings, Washington Irving is considered the Father of American Literature. Irving is responsible for how many Americans celebrate Christmas as well. Many Americans are also stunned to find out that he did it in the same 1819 book that gave them the uniquely American characters of Ichabod Crane and Rip Van Winkle. The stories found in his Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. tell paint a picture of food, fun, and festive decorations in rural Yorkshire, England which Irving had visited during his travels abroad from 1815 to 1832. The set of Christmas-themed essays found in his Sketch Book would be later collected and published together as Old Christmas around twenty years after his death.
The Irving Effect...
It should come as no surprise that Irving chose to explore English traditions in his essays concerning the holiday. After all, the United States wasn’t even 50 years old at the time that he was writing which means that many newly minted Americans were still Englishmen and women at heart. Because Christmas was not widely celebrated in the US, Irving was also in the unique position of being able to shape how Americans could make it their own. This American Christmas to come would include things such as Christmas candles, a crackling fire to burn the Yule log, and mistletoe—all of which are mentioned in the opening parts of Irving’s essay Christmas Eve. Irving’s work would go on to inspire both Clement C. Moore’s 1823 A Visit From St. Nicholas and Charles Dickens’ 1843 classic A Christmas Carol.
Christmas Ashes...
It is hard to imagine that the very writings that would go on to inspire two of the most famous pieces of Christmas literature would be swept away and forgotten about as quickly as Yule log ashes but that is essentially what happened. With his simple Englishness, Dickens lent legitimacy to the English traditions that Irving had made famous in 1819, and the jovial red clade, white-bearded, round-bellied elfish version of St. Nicholas in Moore’s poem did the rest. It is worth noting though that Irving mentioned St. Nicolas well before Moore though. In fact, Irving’s first work, Knickerbocker’s History of New York, was published in 1809 and paid homage to Saint Nicholas in Chapter II of Book II stating, “On looking about them [the Dutch settlers to the New World] were so transported with the excellences of the place that they had very little doubt the blessed St. Nicholas had guided them thither as the very spot whereon to settle their colony.” This quote paints St. Nicholas in a different role than Americans are used to seeing him though since here he acts as the patron saint of sailors rather than the jolly gift giver who paid for three poor girls’ dowry thus inspiring gift exchanges and stocking hanging to celebrate the Christmas holiday. Irving does give his readers insight into the appearance of St. Nicolas as well in Book II, Chapter III, but it is not as detailed as the description provided by Moore, and there are no tiny reindeer helping St. Nicolas out. Instead, in Book II, Chapter V, “the good St. Nicholas [comes] riding over the tops of the trees, in that self-same wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children.”
Moore To The Story...
The resemblances between Irving’s St. Nicolas and Moore’s version do not just stop at the gift-giving. Irving also tells his readers that, for Olofffe, “the significant sign of St. Nicholas [is] laying his finger beside his nose and winking hard with one eye.” St. Nicolas does this exact same thing in Moore’s work in line 50. In line three Moore tells his reader that “The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,” just as Irving tells his reader in Book II, Chapter IX that “hanging up a stocking in the chimney on St. Nicholas Eve” is all part of the Christmas tradition. There are so many resemblances between Knickerbocker’s History and A Visit From St. Nicolas a person could make a career out of just studying them. They could also make a career out of comparing Irving's work to that of Dickens to see where inspiration and imitation meet. For now, though, I am content to enjoy all of their stories and be grateful to the men who wrote them for shaping the holiday traditions that I have passed down to my own children.
Words To Live By...
Dickens may have given us such gems as “God Bless Us, Everyone” and Bah Humbug” but Washington Irving tells us that when it comes to Christmas, “amidst the general call to happiness, the bustle of the spirits, and stir of the affections which prevail at this period…It is, indeed, the season of regenerated feeling—the season for kindling not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart.” This is the moral lesson behind Dicken’s classic tale of redemption set during the most festive time of the year, and for that, we all owe Irving a debt of gratitude. Without him, the holiday season and the spirit of giving and forgiving that it inspires might look and feel very different than it does today in the US. For this reason, Grace Slick and I believe that Irving is both the Father of American Literature and of American Christmas past, present, and future. Have a great holiday season everyone. Keep reading and keep smiling, and if you feel the urge then be sure to visit Slick and me over on Instagram by clicking on any of the pictures in this blog post. Until next time, seek joy.
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