Commercialization of Christmas

 

Christmas tree lighting at the White House.

          Christmas time in America is always full of joy, rituals, and of course presents! America did not always have these things. We didn't always celebrate this holiday full of fun. Christmas wasnt always a legalized holiday either. It wasnt until the 1800's when Christmas became legalized. Also all the Christmas traditions we have now did not start until the late 19th and early 20th Century.



Christmas Stockings

         In the early 19th century, christmas traditions started to become alive. The day Jesus was born was starting to be taught in sunday school, and it started to become a celebration. Christmas hymns were composed, and other new customs became a part of the celebration. Americas christmas traditions are from German customs, for example the Christmas tree. The tree focuses on giving and recieving. in the late 19th century, people would cover their trees with small gifts and goods to eat,also stockings would be hung on them so more stuff could be put on the tree. Media introduced the tradition of the tree also. Trees became popular, and businesses could begin to sell them. Selling christmas trees became a factor of why tree decoration businesses started also. The white house has an annual christmas tree lighting which sparks up the season of joy, peace, and gifts!
        
          The tree was also a place to showcase a gift exchange. Gifts eventually grew in size and amount, this is when wrapping paper became fashionable. Presents grew too large to hang on tree, so when placed under the tree wrapped you know you are presented with a gift. Gift giving could sometimes be controversial. People could argue that it takes away the meaning of christmas. The coming of age of commercialization of christmas is mainly through gifts. Hand-made gifts used to be chosen over purchased gifts, but as time went on, it was easier to purchase gifts. Gifts also became popular because of the tale of Santa Clause.



Santa in a Coca Cola Ad

       Santa Claus started when Clement C. Moore wrote "A Visit From St. Nicholas", and illustrator Thomas Nast. In this book, St. Nick delivers gifts, and shows the emphasis of kids and special family time. Santa's image is mainly from the illustrations of Thomas Nast. The image of a beard, big belly, and a red suit became popular. Charity became a big thing through Santa also. Santa was also seen as a romantic vision of American Capitalism, because his elves help supply his toys unselfishly and they worked very hard. He became so popular that he was promoted in many ads during christmas time, which made christmas a lot more commercialized.

      Other customs that the Germans introduced to the U.S. are Christmas cards. They became popular because they were an image of joy and they drew long distance, family and friend, relationships together. Louis Prang was the man who started the christmas card buisness, he was a German immigrant who quickly became a printer in the U.S. He described his cards as small, affordable, and artistic. He would sponsor competitions for the making of christmas cards, it became big quickly and other manufacturers entered the market of Christmas cards. Not only did the Germans bring tradition that became popular, but so did the Victorian age. The victorians helped shape christmas tradition, having a them of family, peace, and goodwill.



http://www.netplaces.com/family-christmas/the-history-of-christmas/christmas-in-america.htm
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ulh&AN=9612097978&site=src-live
http://www.cro2.org/default.aspx?page=reviewdisplay&pids=3231493
http://www.amazon.com/Fabulous-Century-1870-1900-editors-Time-Life/dp/B000KNMTQ0
http://www.historytoday.com/penne-restad/christmas-19th-century-america

http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees

Faces of America

While watching Faces of America, I realized that most of us all have ancestors who immigrated to America. I learned that it must have taken a lot of hope and courage to come to a country to look for a new beginning. A new beginning, in a new place, with a new language, and a new culture. I find all of these things shocking, because I probably would be too scared. Many people left their loved ones just because they saw hope for them in America. I learned that some immigrants were lucky but some were not.
I would consider my great grandmother to be one of the fairly lucky ones. Just like most of the immigrants who came to America, my grandmother came for the hope of a new beginning. She came to the states by herself from Ireland when she was 18 years old. Her name was Sheila McAuliffe. She changed her name to Julia when she came over and married a man whos last name was McAuliffe, he was also from Ireland. She came through Ellis Island and lived in the bronx. She was a maid at the Drake Hotel in New York City. This hotel was one of the highest hotels in New York, located on Park Avenue and where many famous people would stay. She worked her way to being the supervisor of the maids and eventually retired and moved to New Jersey. Just to add in a cool fact, her apartment in New Jersey over looked Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I find this very cool because everyday she could look out her window and remember the hope of why she came to America. I think a "nation of immigrants" means that America is one of a kind. Its special enough for millions and millions of people to look at it with hope just like my great grandmother had. I'm very glad I know about this, and i'm very interested about finding out more about my ancestors.

My Great Grandmother on the far left, my mom, me, and my grandmother

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was a man who could be considered a "self-made" man. I would definitely consider him a "self-made" man because he grew up poor, but then made his riches grow. As a boy he dropped out of school when he was 11 to work with his father. His father was a seaman and Cornelius started to find the shipping buisness very interesting. When he was 16 he earned money to buy his own sailboat. He started a ferrying company in the New York harbor. He ferried people and goods from Staten Island to Manhatten.
Sailboats became a product that could not provide the level of reliability and cheap fares that customers wanted. He sold his sailing vessels because he was not willing to take the risk of loosing his cutomers. He bought and operated a steamboat buisness for Thomas Gibbons because the service was popular. At this point he was able to steal so many customers from his competetors that they paid him to leave the hudson river.
Once he was out of the steamboat buisness he purchased railroads in New York. He made his mark in the railroad buisness by improving service and offering customers low fares. 5 years after he began his railroad business he had made 25 million dollars. This shows that a becoming a "self-made" man in some ways are possible. From a poor boy to a multi millionare was a lot of work for Cornelius Vanderbilt, but he made it possible.

http://www.biography.com/people/cornelius-vanderbilt-9515195


Cornelius Vanderbilt

Inuit Environment Effects Their Way of Life

Beginnings of the Inuits

The land the Inuit Indians occupied were from eastern Russia, across Alaska, to Northern Canada, to Greenland. The Inuits ancestors came from Russia over the land bridge that was formed between Siberia, Russia and Alaska. This is how the inuits came over to the Americas. "Inuids" mean the people in the Inukitut language, which most Inuit Indians spoke. This was average of all Indian tribes to call themselves "The people" in their own language.

Environment

The environment which the Inuits lived on was the artic tundra. The land was frozen subsoil and permafrost. In the summer once the top permafrost layer thawed, it turned into just mud over a frozen layer of ground. There was no water drainage because of this. In the lower artic it was considered a polar desert.

Food Sources

Since the Inuit Indians lived on frozen land, they could not grow any plants. This means they never grew anything they cooked and ate. They mostly hunted for their food. Their diet contained of mostly meat that they hunted. The meat they hunted were meats such as whales, walruses, seals, caribou, and fish. Some fish they hunted for were salmon, smelt, halibut, cod and much more. They also hunted birds, for their meat and for their eggs.

Housing

An Inuit home being built

Many of the inuits lived in a home called an igloo. An igloo is a home made out of ice bricks around the same size. They are layed and stacked in a spherical way, the openings of the homes were dug out tunnels. If Inuits lived in an igloo they could not settle and would have to move because of the melting ice and movement of ice. In eastern greenland houses were made out of wood, stone, and sod. In central Canda there were no settlements, because of the sea ice they were living on and their housing of igloos. Along the Northern Alaskan coast were permanent villages, with houses made out of wood and sod. Around the summer, the inuits who lived in igloos would have to make tents made of stretched animals skins. They did this because there wasn't enough snow for the igloos. I also think that they made tents instead of houses so that they could still be able to move around and not have a permanent settlement.

Art



An Inuit Idian using a tool to carve ivory.

The Inuits loved the creation of art. A lot of their art was carved ivory, because ivroy is an easy access. The ivory came from walruses and whales. Much of their art work is linked to their spiritual beliefs and the environment of their land. They liked to have a good humour because their environment was so harsh. Cartoon strips were carved into ivory for enjoyment. Inuits had good mechanical skills, especially with the tools they made. Mostly all of their tools were made of ivory. It is to be said that their tools are just as good as their creations in art. They used these tools to carve their artwork and also for hunting and much more. They also used wood, especially for masks that they created for ceremonies. These wooden masks were for their cremonial dances. Many of their ceremonies are based around the though of having harmony between themsleves and the environment.

Clothing and New Inventions

These Inuit women prepare to go hunting in a kayak.

For the Inuit Indians, heavy materials for clothing were needed for their harsh weather. The women wore hooded skirts made of birds, their socks were made out of rabbit skin, long boots, also called "mukunks" were made from caribou and seal, and pants and gloves were made out of fox skin. The men wore almost the same except they wore shorter boots and wore polar bear for their pants. They also invented the kayak for hunting, and the umiaq for transportation.


Sources:
http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/polar/inuit_culture.html
http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/noamer_arctic.html
http://school.eb.com/eb/article-77655?query=inuit&ct=
http://preterhuman.net/texts/other/crystalinks/inuit.html

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