Christmas in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America: A Historiographical Overview

Armstrong, Neil

doi:10.1191/1478003804cs0006ra

Cited by 5 publications

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“…indeed, as Cindy dell Clark's interviews with American children and parents concerning the meanings attached to Christmas demonstrates, 'consumers create transcendent meaning in their lives by sacralizing objects consumed ' (1995, p. 99). While a good deal has been written about the ways in which Christmas texts and practices are located in the context of consumer practices (Clark 1995;schmidt 1995;Belk 2001) and are implicated in the formation of cultural traditions (Clark 1995;Armstrong 2004), sustained analyses of Christmas texts make only limited appearances in studies of childhood, children's literature and popular culture. Yet stories, films and picture books that focus on the celebration of Christmas provide a surprisingly rich source of cultural information about the ways in which children and childhood are constructed in reference to the broader social world, and the enduring popularity and commercial success of Christmas texts speaks to their potency in the cultural imagination.…”

Section: Spirits Miracles and Clauses: Economy Patriarchy And Childhood In Popular Christmas Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spirits, Miracles and Clauses: Economy, Patriarchy and Childhood in Popular Christmas Texts

Saltmarsh¹

2007

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In this paper I explore the notion of childhood as it is re/configured in Christmas texts through the discursive frames of industrialisation and global capitalism. Through a poststructuralist analysis of three Christmas texts from the 1840s, 1940s and 1990s, I map discursive shifts in the ways that children and childhood are constructed in relation to the discourses of capitalist societies. Three texts are examined in detail: A Christmas Carol, published by Charles Dickens in 1843; the 1947 version of the film, Miracle on 34th Street; and the 1999 Walt Disney film, The Santa Clause. While these texts provide only a small sample from the thousands of texts available, their commercial success and sustained popular appeal makes them particularly significant sites of analysis. Dickens' text is widely considered 'the most often repeated and imitated secular Christmas story of all' (Belk 2005, p.18), which has itself 'become sacred Christmas literature' (Belk 2005, p. 19). The success of Miracle on 34th Street led to several remakes for television audiences, with major motion picture remakes released in 1973 and again in 1994, while The Santa Clause the role credited with launching actor Tim Allen from a successful television career into a string of Hollywood blockbuster films won the 1995 People's Choice Award (USA) for Favourite Comedy Motion Picture, and was followed by sequels in 2002 and 2006 (IMDb, 2007). When considered together, these three popular, enduring and commercially successful texts illustrate some of the ways in which cultural texts are implicated in constructing children, over time, as particular kinds of economic subjects.

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Section: Spirits Miracles and Clauses: Economy Patriarchy And Childhood In Popular Christmas Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spirits, Miracles and Clauses: Economy, Patriarchy and Childhood in Popular Christmas Texts

Saltmarsh¹

2007

pecl

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“…The social construction of modern Christmas around the Victorian 'Holy Trinity'shopping, family and goodwill (Johnes, 2016) represents an important subject of debate among social scientists and cultural historians (Weightman and Humphries, 1987;Miller, 1993;Nissenbaum, 1997;Armstrong, 2004;Whiteley, 2008;Connelly, 2012). However, the social scientists paid little attention to the mechanisms through which the meaning of Christmas is built across the life course, although a prospective dynamic perspective would provide a better understanding of Christmas as a subjective reality internalised in the course of socialisation, considering that holidays are susceptible to continuous redefinitions in accordance with changing contemporary situations (Santino, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the social power of Christmas: a prospective qualitative study of assigning meaning to Christmas along the life course

Cucu-Oancea

2023

Longitudinal and Life Course Studies

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This article relies on a prospective qualitative study, that provides valuable insight into the mechanism through which the meaning of holidays is built over time. Following a life course perspective, the article analyses the continuities as well as the twists and turns of the meaning of Christmas in relation to significant turning points that occur along the paths of individual lives in transition to adulthood. Grounded on an inductive approach, the study draws on longitudinal qualitative data collected through solicited diaries, kept by 14 young Romanian adults, around Christmas time, along four panel waves (2004, 2010, 2016, 2020). Results show that there is no universal configuration of the meaning of Christmas, but rather a diversity of personalised dynamic configurations, in line with individuals’ subjective realities, which are sensitive to family traditions passed down during socialisation, and constantly updated with each generation that assumes them, but also to significant life events that occurred on their early adult life course trajectories, determining a re-evaluation of attitudes about self, life, religion and others. The article concludes that Christmas, as a social construct, is a malleable bearer of values, which acts both as a ‘sword’ and as a ‘shield’ that diarists use according to the needs, wishes and challenges that arise in their transition from adolescence to enhanced adulthood.

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“…After attending a concert given by the Auckland Choral Society, he wrote fondly giving). 75 Although new to England, the tradition was already important to English settlers such as Lush.…”

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“…74 Similarly, at Maketu (Lush's favourite immigrant settlement) the situation was dire as there was no work available. 75 This guide did not know the way and after much hesitation and adventure they arrived in the evening in a decidedly wet state (thanks to flooded roads).…”

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‘In Quietness and in Confidence Shall Be Your Strength’: Vicesimus Lush and His Journals, 1850-1882

Nelson¹

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<p>From his arrival in New Zealand in 1850 until his death in 1882 Reverend Vicesimus Lush kept a regular journal to send to family back “home” in England. These journals chronicle the life of an ordinary priest and settler in the Auckland region, his work, relationships and observations. This thesis examines the journals as texts: their role in correspondence and maintaining connections with family. Using Lush’s record of day-to-day experiences, the thesis deals with his emotional attachment towards various expressions of “home” (immediate and extended family, houses, relationship with English land and customs) and explores his associated sense of belonging. Lush’s role as a priest within the New Zealand Anglican Church also informed his writing. Witnessing and participating in the “building” of the Anglican Church in New Zealand, Lush provided a record of parochial, diocesan and countrywide problems. Lush’s journals track the Anglican Church’s financial struggles, from providing stable salaries to financing church buildings. “Building” the Church required constructing churches and building congregations, adapting liturgical traditions and encouraging the development of a uniquely Māori church. This thesis also uses the journals to explore Lush as a social commentator. As a witness to the settling and building of the colony, Lush observed the Taranaki and Waikato Wars, the Waikato Immigration Scheme and the Thames Gold Rush, and their impact on the development of settler living. In addition, the final chapter deals with Lush’s changing perceptions of Māori, particularly during the Waikato wars compared with while he lived in Thames.</p>

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Christmas in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America: A Historiographical Overview

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Spirits, Miracles and Clauses: Economy, Patriarchy and Childhood in Popular Christmas Texts

Spirits, Miracles and Clauses: Economy, Patriarchy and Childhood in Popular Christmas Texts

Exploring the social power of Christmas: a prospective qualitative study of assigning meaning to Christmas along the life course

‘In Quietness and in Confidence Shall Be Your Strength’: Vicesimus Lush and His Journals, 1850-1882

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