Gothamtide: Christmas words and images in nineteenth-century New York.

New Yorkers have long promoted the Christmas season, or Gothamtide as I call it, (1) which begins in early December and lasts until the twelfth day after Christmas, or January 6. While Christmas day was not declared a national holiday by the United States Congress until 1870, it was recognized as a holiday in New York State in 1849. (2) New York's prosperous ports (enhanced by the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825), the development of the transcontinental railroad system, and the rise of industry and commerce led to an increase in the number of immigrants settling in New York City, and--most pertinent to this article--the emergence of the family-centered middle class.

By 1825 New York City was the center of publishing in the United States, outpacing both Boston and Philadelphia. Innovative technologies, new advertising formats, economical postage, and efficient systems of distribution, all combined with an increased literacy rate, enabled New York City to produce two-thirds of the nation's periodicals with a circulation of some one hundred thousand. (3) Not surprisingly, as the century unfolded, printed media focusing on Christmas proliferated. Newspapers, magazines, and books, along with broadsides, sheet music, trade cards, greeting cards, game boards, and puzzles attest to the crucial role New York City played in developing national secular holiday traditions. (4) Given the diversity of people in the ever-changing urban environment of New York City, Christmas observances were at first based on ethnic, class, regional, and religious variations, but this slowly but surely coalesced into a national holiday.

However, it must be noted that until the latter part of the century, New Year's day was more widely celebrated than Christmas and received more attention in contemporary periodicals. One of the holiday customs continued by New Yorkers was the long-standing Dutch tradition known as New Year's day calling (see Fig. 2). Preparations often started months in advance. The house was cleaned or updated, jewelry and silver were rented if necessary, and special punch was sometimes ordered. (5) The ladies had elaborate coiffures dressed by "artistes in hair;" (6) and they dared not retire the night before for fear of mussing these creations. Lydia Maria Francis Child succinctly described the custom of the day: "Every woman that is 'anybody stays at home, dressed in her best, and by her side is a table covered with cakes, preserves, wines, oysters, and hot coffee." She explained, "The number of calls is a matter of pride and boasting among ladies." (7) For the gentlemen, New Year's day calling, or "cake day" as it was so metimes called, was a race to see how many calls one could make to the houses of friends and associates. While one melancholy gentleman lamented that he had lost his calling list so he did not know where to go, Philip Hone (1780-1851), once mayor of New York, noted in 1844 that he had made calls for five hours while his daughters entertained 169 well-wishers. (8) The day was so significant to New Yorkers that instructions for entertaining were detailed in The Knickerbacker The Complete New Years Visitor (1833)? Regrettably however, this New York tradition dwindled by the end of the century as the city rapidly expanded and neighborhoods fanned out.

Some holiday rituals evolved from pre-Christian Saturnalia and so were often accompanied by rowdiness, drunkenness, and the shooting of firecrackers (see Fig. 1). As early as 1772, one minister complained in a letter about the "gaming, drunkenness and throwing stones at cocks" at New Year's and pleaded for "hospitality, benevolence and sharing." (10) Journals, diaries, and letters offer more of the same: Lydia Maria Child wrote in 1843, "I never heard such a firing out of the old year, and such a firing in of the new." The poor woman retreated to her bed and was kept awake all night. (11)

By the end of the nineteenth century, however, such excesses of the season waned with the emergence of the celebration of the familial Christmas day John Flavel Mines (1835-1891) observed in A Tour Around New York and My Summer Acre: Being the Recreations of Mr. Felix Oldboy, "There is one modem improvement which would have delighted my grandmother's heart--the more general observance of Christmas day." (12) In 1884 Charles Dudley Wamer (1829-1 900), a noted author and editor, observed, "We have saved out of the past nearly all that was good.. .the revived Christmas of our time is no doubt better than the old." (13)

The tradition of giving presents to children evolved from the Dutch celebration of the feast day of Saint Nicholas on December 6. (14) In 1810 John Pintard, a respected civic leader and merchant, produced a broadside--one of the favorite printed mediums for spreading information--that was handed ...