Chesterton on Celebrating Christmas Early

In a column for the London Daily News (collected in a volume entitled All Things Considered), G.K. Chesterton wrote on celebrating Christmas before it came, which he called a “dangerous” and “disgusting habit.” 

The column features a number of other points about Christmas, including the (English) practice of eating turkey on it; however, the opening paragraph is perhaps the most powerful, as Chesterton explains the importance of making a holiday (from the Old English for “holy day”) last for just a day.

Why shouldn’t Christmas be celebrated for a longer period of time, given how momentous the event it commemorates (the birth of Jesus Christ)? Chesterton argues that what makes a holiday special is that it “breaks upon one brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment the great day is not and the next moment the great day is.” Thus, holidays are a day for a reason: part of their enjoyment is due to their suddenness and brevity.

Furthermore, it is important to recollect that the word “Christmas” is from “Christ Mass”; that is to say, the explicit purpose is the celebration of the birth of Christ in the form of a Mass, which the Church has decreed is to take place on December 25 (or in the evening on the 24th, for a vigil mass). The concomitant celebrations, while not mandated by the Church, are an important part of the cultivation of the “Christmas spirit,” that of joy, generosity, and hope.

However, is any one of these practices the essence of Christmas? Different cultures have developed different Christmas customs; for instance, in some cultures, presents are not given on Christmas, but rather on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, as is common in Italian culture (at least in certain regions of Italy). 

It seems that from a religious perspective, the only commonality between all celebrations of Christmas is the eponymous Mass of Christ.

Therefore, secular Christmas celebrations, such as feasts, gift-giving, Christmas trees, and the like are good inasmuch as they contribute to the cultivation of virtue for which Christmas is intended; however, when they are seen to be the essence of the holiday rather than as contingent aspects of it directed toward some broader theme or purpose, they distract one from the actual purpose of the day’s existence in the first place.

A focus on celebrating Christmas when it actually comes (December 24 and/or 25) can rectify this, because it concentrates the day’s contingent traditions on their actual subject: the day itself. If this is done, the day can retain its significance and uniqueness while allowing for enjoyable practices (after all, an air of solemnity and quiet reflection is hardly celebratory, as the holiday is meant to be). Moreover, remembrance of the real reasons for celebratory customs like gift-giving (the cultivation of virtues and the celebration of a holy day) allows one to enjoy Christmas qua Christmas (literally, Christ mass) rather than as a chance to consume and receive goods, as it is often treated, or as a day for secular enjoyment without any particular significance (and if one is not celebrating the birth of Christ on Christmas, what exactly is one celebrating?).