#washingtonirving

Rip Van Wrinkle by Washington Irving needs no introduction. It is one of the most well-known stories ever written, and has been parodied more times than years Rip was asleep. For any of you who have been sleeping longer than Rip, let’s summarize the plot again: “Rip Van Winkle” is an 1819 short story by Washington Irving about a Dutch-American villager who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains…

Washington Irving

Washington Irving (1783-1859) fue un autor, ensayista y diplomático norteamericano famoso por sus relatos cortos La leyenda de Sleepy Hollow y Rip Van Winkle. Fue el primer autor profesional norteamericano y también el primero en adquirir reputación internacional.

Washington Irving

Washington Irving (1783-1859) était un auteur, essayiste et diplomate américain, surtout connu pour ses nouvelles La légende de Sleepy Hollow et Rip Van Winkle. Il fut le premier auteur professionnel américain et le premier à acquérir une réputation internationale.

How Christmas Was Shaped by 19th-Century Literature

How we celebrate Christmas today is largely shaped by a small group of authors who recorded festive traditions in the 19th century. These authors include Washington Irving (1783-1859), Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863), and Charles Dickens (1812-1870). By capturing in popular print festive traditions, many of which dated back to medieval times, these authors caused something of a Christmas revival.

19th-century literature, sometimes expressly concentrating on Christmas and at other times merely using the holiday as a jovial setting for a fictional story, captured what were, in many cases, fast-disappearing traditions, which future generations would return to and update. Thus, such activities as carol singing and masque balls returned to fashion. In addition, writers of Christmas stories, which were often serialised in hugely popular weekly magazines, helped spread newer ways to celebrate such as the sending of Christmas cards and the decorating of a Christmas tree. In this article, we present through selected extracts just how some of these 19th-century authors managed to capture the spirit of Christmas for posterity.

Christmas Literature

Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Irving's Christmas

Washington Irving was an American author who travelled through England in 1818. In his Sketch Book, Irving devoted five chapters to recording how Christmas was celebrated in rural England.

Travelling any great distance in the 19th century often involved a long, tiresome, and uncomfortable journey in a stagecoach. Nevertheless, the certainty of seeing friends and family again, revelling in home comforts, and feasting on festive fare made the journey one of high anticipation. Irving describes the joys of travelling home for Christmas:

In the course of a December tour in Yorkshire, I rode for a long distance in one of the public coaches, on the day preceding Christmas. The coach was crowded, both inside and out, with passengers, who, by their talk, seemed principally bound to the mansions of relations or friends, to eat the Christmas dinner. It was loaded also with hampers of game, and baskets and boxes of delicacies; and hares hung dangling by their long ears about the coachman's box, presents from distant friends for the impending feast. I had three fine rosy-cheeked schoolboys for my fellow-passengers inside

…I could not but notice the more than ordinary air of bustle and importance of the coachman, who wore his hat a little on one side, and had a large bunch of Christmas greens stuck in the button-hole of his coat.

…Perhaps the impending holiday might have given a more than usual animation to the country, for it seemed to me as if everybody was in good looks and good spirits. Game, poultry, and other luxuries of the table, were in brisk circulation in the villages; the grocers', butchers', and fruiterers' shops were thronged with customers. The housewives were stirring briskly about, putting their dwellings in order; and the glossy branches of holly, with their bright red berries, began to appear at windows.

My little travelling companions had been looking out of the coach windows for the last few miles, recognizing every tree and cottage as they approached home… (The Stage-Coach, 94-9)

19th-Century Coach Caught in Snow

Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Irving finally arrives at the old English hall where he has been invited to spend Christmas. Still Christmas Eve, he describes the decorated interior:

The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelming fireplace, to make way for a fire of wood, in the midst of which was an enormous log glowing and blazing and sending forth a vast volume of light and heat; this I understood was the Yule log, which the squire was particular in having brought in and illumined on a Christmas Eve, according to ancient custom.

…Supper was announced shortly after our arrival. It was served up in a spacious oaken chamber, the panels of which shone with wax, and around which were several family portraits decorated with holly and ivy. Besides the accustomed lights, two great wax tapers, called Christmas candles, wreathed with greens, were placed on a highly-polished buffet among the family plate. The table was spread with substantial fare; but the squire made his supper of frumenty, a dish made of wheat cakes boiled in milk, with rich spices, being a standing dish in old times for Christmas Eve. (Christmas Eve, 110-11)

Irving goes on to describe the traditional activities of Christmas morning.

When I woke the next morning, it seemed as if all the events of the preceding evening had been a dream…While I lay musing on my pillow, I heard the sound of little feet pattering outside the door, and a whispering consultation. Presently a choir of small voices chanted forth an old Christmas carol, the burden of which was

Rejoice, our Saviour he was born On Christmas Day in the morning

…the morning was extremely frosty; the light vapour of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold, and covered all the trees and every blade of grass with its fine crystallizations. The rays of a bright morning sun had a dazzling effect among the glittering foliage. A robin, perched upon the top of a mountain ash that hung its clusters of red berries just before my window, was basking himself in the sunshine… (Christmas Day, 117-18)

Christmas Eve by Hoover

Library of Congress (Public Domain)

After attending the family prayers, Irving has a hearty breakfast before walking to the local church for the traditional morning service.

Our breakfast consisted of what the squire denominated true old English fare…there was a brave display of cold meats, wine, and ale on the sideboard.

…On reaching the church porch, we found the parson rebuking the grey-headed sexton for having used mistletoe among the greens with which the church was decorated. It was, he observed, an unholy plant, profaned by having been used by the Druids in their mystic ceremonies…

turned over the leaves of a folio prayer-book with something of a flourish; possibly to show off an enormous seal-ring which enriched one of his fingers, and which had the look of a family relic…

The orchestra was in a small gallery, and presented a most whimsical grouping of heads…There were two or three pretty faces among the female singers, to which the keen air of a frosty morning had given a bright rosy tint; but the gentleman choristers had evidently been chosen, like old Cremona fiddles, more for tone than looks…

…The parson gave us a most erudite sermon on the rites and ceremonies of Christmas, and the propriety of observing it not merely as a day of thanksgiving, but of rejoicing…and concluded by urging his hearers, in the most solemn and affecting manner, to stand to the traditional customs of their fathers, and feast and make merry on this joyful anniversary of the Church…I have seldom known a sermon attended apparently with more immediate effects… (Christmas Day, 119-126)

Going to Church on Christmas Day

Library of Congress (Public Domain)

Irving returned to the hall, and as he dressed for the triumph of the day, the Christmas dinner, the local poor were given meat and ale in return for their contribution to the general air of merriment with their dancing, singing, and making of music.

The old squire kept up old customs in kitchen as well as hall; and the rolling-pin struck upon the dresser by the cook, summoned the service to carry in the meats.

The dinner was served up in the great hall, where the squire always held his Christmas banquet…The Butler entered the hall with some degree of bustle: he was attended by a servant on each side with a large wax-light, and bore a silver dish, on which was an enormous pig's head, decorated with rosemary, with a lemon in its mouth, which was placed at the head of the table.

The table was literally loaded with good cheer, and presented an epitome of country abundance, in this season of overflowing larders. A distinguished post was allotted to 'ancient sirloin'…There were several dishes quaintly decorated…a pie, magnificently decorated with peacock's feathers, in imitation of the tail of that bird, which overshadowed a considerable tract of the table…I found the tide of wine fast gaining on the dry land of sober judgment. The company grew merrier and louder as their jokes grew duller.

After the dinner table was removed, the hall was given up to the younger members of the family, who…played at romping games…Blind-man's-buff… a burlesque imitation of an antique mask…which, from its medley of costumes, seemed as though the old family portraits had skipped down from their frames to join in the sport…and as the old manor-house almost reeled with mirth and wassail, it seemed echoing back the joviality of long departed years. (Christmas Dinner, 132-44)

Santa Claus by William Holbrook Beard

William Holbrook Beard (Public Domain)

Washington Irving

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was an American author, essayist, and diplomat best known for his short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. He was the first professional American author and also the first to achieve an international reputation.

He influenced such notable 19th-century authors as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman; "The unorthodox fantastical sensibilities he displayed in his tales … set the stage for the Romantic and Gothic writers that followed him" (Bradley, vii). Many of the characters in Irving's stories have become household names: Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and, of course, the Headless Horseman. He was a notable innovator, with a sense of style and form that kept his writings fresh, and his short stories and sketches have endured as the first fictional chronicles of the American experience.

Early Life

Named after General George Washington (1732-1799), Washington Irving was born in New York City on 8 April 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolutionary War with Great Britain. He was the last of eleven children born to a prominent Manhattan merchant family. His father, William, was Scottish-born while his mother, Sarah, was English-born. There is little evidence to suggest that Irving attended either public or private school. As a child he read widely in English literature: William Shakespeare, of course, but also the English essayist Joseph Addison as well as the Irish novelists Laurence Sterne and Oliver Goldsmith.

In 1804, he showed signs of tuberculosis, so his brothers sent him to Europe for two years where he kept extensive journals. Upon his return to the United States, he studied law under Judge Josiah Hoffman and passed the bar. Although he would practice law for a short time, he preferred to write. His extensive travels throughout England and the United States fueled his love of writing: "I was always fond of visiting new scenes and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels and my tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city to the frequent alarm of my parents" (quoted in Bradley, 9). Irving came from a very close-knit family who encouraged his writing; this closeness was something that would remain part of his life. Writing was commonplace in the Irving home. For recreation, his brothers wrote poems and essays. His brother Peter had a newspaper The Morning Courier, and at the age of 19, using the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle, Irving wrote a number of satirical essays on the theater and New York society. In many of his writings, Irving often used pseudonyms, such as Jonathan Oldstyle or Geoffrey Crayon.