Why Do We Give Gifts for Christmas?

The four magic words this holiday season seem to be buy, spend, save, and sale. Shopping is the activity that takes up our time this part of the year. With all of those twinkling bells comes finding and pursuing the perfect gift for our friends and loved ones. Have you ever wondered where the traditions of giving presents on Christmas comes from?

Experts report that the idea of giving gifts started long before ancient peoples had even heard of Christmas. Many pagans in Europe and the Middle East gave presents at several winter festivals beginning on December 17th. These festivals usually honored a Roman or pagan god that was the face of the season. During these week long celebrations in the dead of winter, pagans would lift their spirits with drinking and giving one another gifts.

Eventually, these festivals would be replaced and, ultimately, phased out beginning in the 9th century. The early church would take some of the aspects from the early pagan festivals and use them for their own incorporation of the celebration of the Christmas holiday. Church leaders wanted people to relate and participate in the festival, which is why they moved the date of their Christmas celebrations to December 25th.

Celebration of the Christmas holiday would continue through the centuries and eventually find its way to early America. Many Christmas traditions and celebrations were initially banned in America by religious leaders seeking to distance themselves from the pagan influences of the traditions. However, when Christmas traditions were finally embraced as a social norm, gift giving boomed as rural Americans carved wooden toys and made pieces of needlework in the agricultural off season to give to their friends and families.

As time moved forward, the Industrial Revolution would boost toy sales, and gift giving would eventually become so popular that the early New York City Macy’s would stay open until midnight in 1867. Critics would soon arise and begin making claims that Christmas was soon becoming too bothersome with all the gifts and commercialized cheer.

Other experts take a closer look at the evolution of the Christmas gift, examining the ideals and evolution of Christmas in New York City back in the 1850’s. Back in that time, tens of thousands of people would flood the city and bring with them Christmas traditions from their native lands. Many believed that gifts were connected to the three wise men and the Christian faith. Some people wanted to make the Christmas season more family friendly, which often meant bonding American family values with consumer capitalism. Eventually, with commercialization of gifts a class war ensued between elites and their working class counterparts, the latter of which were looking for a more rowdy and personalized Christmas. Reforms were slowly accepted to make Christmas more personal and home friendly for the American family. Gifts would no longer be given to pass the cold winter nights, but rather to appeal to the wants that we sometimes feel throughout the year. Put simply, we wished to celebrate Christmas with those that we love in a more personal way. This is usually expressed in personalized, carefully sought gifts and acts of love. So the next time you get caught in a buy, spend, save, and sale frenzy, don’t forget to take a second and think about why we go to such great lengths for our loved ones!