CHRISTMAS
GIFTS: The Gift Giving Tradition
Giving gifts in their honor
originated around the 1200s when provincial French nuns brought presents to poor
children's homes on the eve of December 6, St. Nicholas' feast day.
In England in the 1700s, charity gift-giving at Christmas time conveyed a
different message.
The poor -- most often bands of boys and young men -- claimed the right to march
to the houses of the well-to-do, enter their halls, and receive gifts of food,
drink, and sometimes money.
The rich had to let them in because Christmas was the one time of the year when
peasants and servants exercised the right to demand that their wealthier
neighbors treat them as equals.
The rich were afraid not to comply.
##
CHRISTMAS
GIFTS: The Gift Giving Tradition
In the 1700s in America, the
gift-giving custom had become popular and gifts such as money and foodstuffs
were being exchanged among friends and family.
Sometimes everyone in a community received apples for Christmas, or perhaps a
handkerchief or a hand-knitted scarf. Even a length of rope was a suitable
present gratefully received.
Before the Industrial Revolution, most children's playthings were homemade, but
by the 1800s factory-made products were available.
