The Art of Manliness

The Unexpected Origins of Our Christmas Traditions

Dec 21, 2022

Brian Earl, host of the podcast Christmas Past and author, dives into the fascinating origins of our holiday traditions. He reveals how Christmas evolved from a minor religious observance to a massive cultural celebration. Listeners learn about the surprisingly recent image of Santa Claus, the reasons behind bringing evergreen trees indoors, and the quirky history of fruitcake. Earl also discusses the decline of quaint traditions like roasting chestnuts and shares tips on rekindling the Christmas spirit in today's festive landscape.

55:05

Creator website

Episode guests

Brian Earl

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

4min

The Evolution of Christmas Traditions

19min

Exploring the Historical Roots of Christmas Tree Traditions

3min

The Evolution of Christmas Traditions

17min

The Christmas Chestnut: From Tradition to Obscurity

2min

The Changing Face of Christmas

10min

Celebrating the Season and Acknowledging Contributions

2min

With Christmas coming up, you're likely in the full holiday swing of things — decorating your tree, eating certain foods, listening to particular music, and buying and wrapping gifts. But did you ever stop to think about why it is you're taking part in this slate of often weird-but-wonderful traditions?

Brian Earl has traced the backstories of our Christmas traditions in his podcast and book called ChristmasPast. Today on the show, he shares some of those backstories with us, and explains how many of our seemingly fated and timeless traditions actually came about in fluky and fortuitous ways and are a lot more recent than we think. He first unpacks how Christmas went from being a small religious observance to a huge cultural celebration and how our idea of Santa Claus evolved over time, with our current conception of Old St. Nick being less than a century old. We then discuss how it is we ended up taking evergreen trees inside our houses and decorating them, the origins of the most recorded Christmas song in history, why fruitcake became the butt of jokes, and why hardly anyone roasts chestnuts anymore, on an open fire or otherwise. Brian shares what new Christmas traditions he's seeing emerge and which classic ones are going away, and I offer an important PSA to future parents about Elf on the Shelf. We end our conversation with Brian's tips for getting into the Christmas spirit if you haven't been feeling it.

Resources Related to the Episode

Connect With Brian Earl

Brian's Website and Podcast

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts

Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.