In preparation for Christmas, I read Stephen Nissenbaum's 1998
"The Battle for Christmas," a thorough exploration of this
season. The book's title will be deceiving, because it has
nothing to do with the recent sacred-vs.-secular Christmas
quarrels. Nissenbaum explores the myriad ways that Christmas has
evolved in our nation. It turns out we've been jockeying for
more than 300 years over what this holiday means. In Colonial
America our faith-filled ancestors banned Christmas altogether,
outlawing it in some colonies. Until the 1760s, one could not
even find an almanac that would print the word "Christmas" on
the date Dec. 25. This opposition was because Christmas had
become a drunken spectacle where gangs of poor young men roamed
the streets, making merry and engaging in acts of petty
rowdyism, vaguely like today's New Year's Eve. It was customary
and permissible for these gangs to knock on doors of strangers
to demand gifts. ("So give us some figgy pudding....") Our
nation's first "battle" for Christmas was