Show J 0 aa ef A P T int portrait of antel C joel 0 erts 0 polyn ett irv 4 t t by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 0 HEN you read the title of this article did you exclaim men alen who aho helped I 1 make christmas why what does that 41 4 mean there was only one man who made christmas and he was born near ly 2000 years ago truel true I 1 if it had not been for the birth of jesus christ there would be no occasion for celebrating december 25 as christmas day and if that cele bration had been kept to its original form there would be no occasion for writing an article such as this but the fact is that there has grown up around the celebration of christmas a great variety of customs traditions and practices which we now regard as essential parts of that observance even though they may have departed from its original meaning some of these have had such a gradual evolution that it would be immoss ble to ascribe them definitely to any one person but there are others which we can trace directly to one or more individuals hence the theme of men who helped make christmas what it is now in this article A 0 A fitial certainly santa olaus claus seems to be an essen bial part of the christmas celebration speak of him and there rises to mind a picture of a plump elf like little man who radiates laughter and good cheer why should he be that sort of per son on instead of the stern gaunt rather forbid able elble figure solemn and majestic in trailing robes carrying in one hand a basket of presents and in the other a birch rod as an awful warning to naughty children such as he was when he was known as or the bishop saint N ch olas by the first dutch settlers in this country the answer to that question Is the names of ethree ethree writers james K bauld ng washington irving and dr clement 0 moore and an un known american artist it was washington irv ing who in his knickerbockers s history of new york in 1809 wrote the first f description of the new type of santa claus and made Sinter klass or st nicholas the patron saint of the dutch colonists of new amsterdam the archetype of all of those jovial many breeched long pipe smoking burghers the next writer to paint a word portrait of banta santa claus was irving s friend and collaborator james paulding who in his book of st nicholas first published in 1827 said santa claus was as gallant a little dutchman as ever ener smoked his way through the world pipe fore most but it remained for dr clement dark clark moore in his poem A visit from st nicholas to give a more definite word portrait of st nicholas and pretty definitely establish in the mind of the public what santa claus looked I 1 ke how much moore drew upon irn irving ing and bauld ing for his description Is not known but there Is a curious parallelism in some of his words and some of theirs although moore himself 40 years later said that a portly rubicund dutch man living in the neighborhood of his fathers country seat chelsea near new york city sug to him the idea of making st nicholas the hero of his christmas piece for his children then in 1839 a book called the poets of america edited by john beebe was published it contained moore a poem and the illustration for that was a picture of santa claus reproduced above who the painter or the engraver ft as Is unknown but it is bel eved that this was the first time a picture of santa claus was ever printed thus it was washington irving james F paulding clement C moore and the unknown illustrator of iveese reese a poets of america helped make male christmas by giving us our present idea of the patron saint of the holiday A what would christmas be without christmas hymns and christmas carols and what song has been more often sung on christmas eve ene or ie Is more beloved than silent night holy night it was on december 24 of the year 1818 that jo net mohr assistant pastor of the newly dished st nicholas parish church in the I 1 atle village of oberndorf near salzburg austria handed banded to franz gruber a schoolmaster of arns dorf who was organist for the church a poem with the request that he be write for it a suitable melody arranged for two solo voices chorus and a guitar accompaniment the reason for the lat ter being that the organ in the little church had broken down so franz gruber sat down at his grandfather grandfathers s desk immediately wrote a simple melody for the poem and that night en on christmas eve in st nicholas parish church was yas for the first time eung sung stille to the tact fact that the little organ in oberndorf had broken down Is due the widespread larley of the hymn the organ bu ider karl man alan racher of fugen in zillertal Ziller tal had feen sent for to make male the necessary repairs he ile heard the air and hummed it in his native country where it became very popular in a short time and soon spread all over the world thus it wis is too that josef mohr and fiana gruber tho austrians helped make christmas n A ay amb app esaa glow zhe birst card ir S X r 4 J james kirat far I 1 einar h do you enjoy sending hending out christmas ahr atmas cards to your friends if you do then you should know the name of sir henry cole an englishman for it was he who originated this custom later famous as a social and educational reformer henry cole was a pioneer in niu illustrating chil dren s books with woodcuts of famous paintings in 1846 he conceived the idea of sending decora tive cards to his friends bearing his good wishes for their happiness at christmas so he went to his friend J C horsley a member of the royal academy in lon ion for the des agn and the re suit was the card which is reproduced above abone but few Englis hn en followed cole coles s lead and the business of making chrison as cards got un der way very nery slowly in england it was even slower slover in getting started in this country in 1873 louis prang a lithographer of boston exhibited samples of his floA flowered ered business cards lat the vienna expos tion and they attracted consider able on oft he ile had an agency in london and one of his women employees there her name Is unknown suggested to hm him thit th it he put a greeting in place of the i ame of his firm and issue them as CI cl r atmas cards tl TI Is was done the next year so that 1874 marl s the le re ginning of the christmas card in this co antry so sir henry cole the angl and louis prang an american can be added to the I 1 st of men who helped make chr atmas A do your letters go out bearing a christmas seal as u well ell as a postage stamp tl ese days if tl ey do its it s because E nar Hol boell a clerk in the post offee at copenhagen denmark wh ie sorting the mountain of christmas ma I 1 in 1903 had the idea of another stamp for letters whick should combine a christmas decoration idea with alth some practical pur purpose poe he lle went vent with his plan to the head of the postal service and others with influence and au an dhority and so when ahen the first christmas seal committee held a meeting to discuss the pur pose and use of the poss ble income from the christmas seal and it was nas decided that the first object was the erection of a hosp tal for lar children and in general the income from the seal should always be for the fight against tu bercu losis in one form or anoil er upon appi appl cat on to tl e then king christian tx IX Hol boell secured the permission to have a likeness of the deceased queen louise on the first christmas seal and the king becque so in te rested that he be himself selected the picture which he wished used the success of the venture was overwhelming the first printing of seals was tin med abely increased to 6 and over 5 were sold S nee that time the christmas seal sale in denmark has brought in enough money to erect large numbers of sani sanitaria tarla and convalescent homes for tubercular patients hoi hot boell the modest postal assistant became post master at charlotten near copenhagen and a danish cross of knighthood was his badge of honor he died of heart trouble in his sixty second year on february rebr uary 23 1927 I 1 in 1909 the idea reached america and when jacob etis a native bathe of denmark who had be come an american saw the queer little stamp on mall mail arriving from his homeland he immedi abely sent a letter of inquiry to denmark the reply was a personal one from mr who explained in detail the method of procedure through an american woman miss emily B s sell the idea was presented to the american red cross which after several years of sue sales turned the project over to the american nationiel Nati onil anti tuberculosis association which has since had charge of it so einar Hol boell the dane jacob klis the danish american and miss fruity bissell the american helped make christmas A if william erustis secretary of war var in am 1809 hadn haan t turned down the suggest on of president mad son that joel roberts I 1 finsett be appointed quarter master general of the army we might never have lime had those brill ant crimson flowers which we know as po as a part of our christmas decoration here s why joel roberts lonett lon I 1 f nett ett vas a nathe withe of son south carolina who ho stud ed medic ne for a time at ed finburgh university an ana later graduated in mill tary science and mathematics at woolwich academy III health i pees stated a long iong period of tra travel el in europe and asia after which he re turned to america and reque requested ted president mad ison to furnish him with in I 1 tary employment madison made the si gg estion of the q larter master generalship bit aistis E aistis objected so mad ison offered po ro nett a inic mission sion to south america for the purpose of establishing friendly rela eions with rith the people there and investigating the prospects of their struggle for independence from spain this led to his becoming something of an au an dhority on latin american relations to his ap to a special mission to mexico in 1822 2 and his appointment as the first united states minister to that country in while holding that position he first beheld the exotic beauty of a brilliant red flower native nathe to that country when poinsett returned to h s home in south carolina in 1829 he brought with him some come of the seeds of the plant an I 1 i 1 a hundred years ago in 1833 he sold some of the plants which he had grown in his hothouse hotho uce to robert bolst of philadelphia pu st the flower eupher bla his poinsettia and although the scientific name has since become I 1 a rima the name poinsettia honoring the man who brought it to this country has stuck and it has become one of our ch ef floral decorations decoration at it christmas tivie poinsett later became secretary of war in van puren s cabinet after which he retired from pub lie ile life in the cemetery of the town of states burg S C is a s mple marble tablet which bears this inscription sacred to the memory of joel R poinsett v aho vho ho departed th s life on the twelfth of december 1851 in the seventy third year of his life A pure patriot an honest man and a good christian to this might be added he helped make christmas 40 by western newspaper union ti abc J LA |