Through a lens: Christmas with Religious News Service
Unique snapshots from Christmas celebrations past, discovered in the Presbyterian Historical Society archives
The Presbyterian Historical Society is sharing an archival Advent calendar this year, posting one historic holiday image per day on its social media feeds in the lead-up to Christmas. On the first day of Christmas — December 14 — PHS introduced its readers to “Boston’s Christmas Priest,” Father Francis X. Weiser, who was popularly known as such for his extensive research regarding Christmas customs throughout the centuries. Father Weiser had penned 24 books, including "Feast of the Christian Year" and "The Christmas Book", by the time this photo was snapped in 1961.
Weiser was photographed lighting a "Christmas Pyramid-Tree" of candles, which he explained is the 16th century prototype of the popular Christmas tree. Called "Weihnachtspyramide" in German, the Christmas pyramids have their roots in the Erzgebirge — a silver ore mining region in the eastern part of the country that was active beginning in the 12th century.
By the 16th century, however, the precious metals were running low. When the mines began to close, those who wanted to remain in the area had to improvise in order to continue supporting their families. Rather than move their families elsewhere, the miners instead turned to woodworking, and began manufacturing wooden toys, for which the area is now renowned. The German town of Seiffen is referred to more frequently as "Toyland" because its production levels are so high.
German Christmas pyramids are the result of this transition from mining to woodworking. The wooden handicrafts and moving wooden artworks are used to teach Bible stories — the artisans create figurines that depict each part of the story and arrange them in a specific order on the tiers of the pyramid. Typically the pyramids are created in commemoration of the Nativity, and include angels blowing their trumpets, magi laden with gifts, and baby Jesus in his manger. They often have spinning parts and a plethora of lights and candles glowing with warmth. The pyramid shape is essential to the design of these decorations, in order for the heat from candles placed on the bottom tiers to rise to the top without catching the entire contraption on fire. Today, these pyramids serve a more decorative purpose, with most being table-top sized in order to be used in the home. You'll have to take a trip to Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country if you'd like to see a bigger one — theirs is 26 feet tall!
From here on out, the images that follow are unique to this article — an Advent gift separate from PHS’s 12 days of archives. We hope they get your Christmas spirit glowing, as only a week remains until the holiday!
In an effort to encourage laypeople to pick up the Bible for daily reading, the Philadelphia Council of Churches, the American Bible Society, and the Philadelphia YMCA co-sponsored a radio broadcast program during the holiday season of 1949. Beginning on Thanksgiving and continuing through Christmas, each day a political or cultural figure could be heard over the air, reading a passage from the scriptures. "Prominent Philadelphia laymen from many professions and businesses" were featured on the program, "including a labor leader and an Eagle Scout," the caption shares.
The program launched with the voice of Governor James Henderson Duff of Pennsylvania, who read the 23rd Psalm, and concluded with the dulcet tones of Marian Anderson, renowned concert and operatic singer. Anderson, an American contralto who performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals, read from Luke 2 on Christmas night, sharing the story of Jesus's birth with listeners across Philadelphia who sat at home beneath their sparkling trees.
Just 10 years earlier, in 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Anderson perform in front of an integrated audience in Washington, D.C. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt caught wind of the DAR's refusal, and, with the aid of her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, welcomed Anderson to perform an open-air concert on Easter Sunday that year, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The event drew a crowd of over 75,000 and propelled Anderson into the spotlight. Years later, on January 7, 1955, Anderson became the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. At the time, she was also working as a delegate to the UN Human Rights Committee, as well as a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.S. Department of State, performing concerts all over the globe. Anderson participated in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, performing at the March on Washington in 1963, the same year she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In June 2024, the main concert hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts underwent a rededication. Newly titled Marian Anderson Hall commemorates the life and legacy of Anderson, who was born in South Philadelphia in 1897. Though a recording of Ms. Anderson's reading of Luke could not be located, there is a vocal snippet of her from 1952 available in Pearl. In late May of that year, during the gathering of the 164th General Assembly at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, Anderson received a citation award that read: “The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. has the honor to present to Miss Anderson its recognition of the beauty of her spirit, the glory of her matchless art, the fidelity of her dedication to freedom’s cause, for she has sung unto the Lord a new song, a song of our common brotherhood in Christ.”
Hard at work on the streets of Copenhagen, this young Danish man was caught unawares while clocked in for his Christmas-break side-hustle. The caption shares that university students in Denmark "earn a little extra money every year at Christmas time by selling Christmas trees." The photograph above was taken in December 1945, seven months after the liberation of Denmark from a five-year-long German occupation. The sign reads "The students' Christmas trees," "juletræ" being the Danish word for Christmas tree.
Have you set up your Douglas- fir yet? If you live in the Pennsylvania countryside, you can venture to a farm and chop down a tree yourself! But if you live in an urban city-scape, you're sure to see a few Christmas tree stands like this Danish one dotted on street-corners.
This next image was also taken on a streetcorner in Copenhagen. Like the image above, this photo was captured in 1945. It features a man with a tree and represents an old Christmas custom. This tradition isn't for decoration, though— it's for the birds. The handwritten caption on the reverse of the photo reads: "Not only in the gardens of private houses a Christmas sheaf is put up for the birds, also the municipality of Copenhagen has adopted this beautiful custom."
It is a Scandinavian tradition to leave a "julenek" (Swedish) or "julkarve" (Norwegian) out for the birds on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. A "julenek" is a sheaf of grain that is tucked into the crevice of a tree or attached to a pole as a gift for avian friends when hard, icy snow covers the ground and makes it hard for them to find food. This was also done for the sake of efficiency, in the sense that Swedes would set aside the last sheaves from the harvest to hang for the birds in the hopes that this offering would be enough to keep the feathered friends out of the barn, where the rest of the grain was stored.
The tradition of hanging a Christmas sheaf is called many things, including "The Remembrance of Birds." It is believed that in feeding the birds, whether through the placement of a "julenek" or the scattering of birdseed outside your door, you will have good luck in the new year. On many Scandinavian homesteads, this custom was not limited to the birds — farmers would give their cattle and other animals extra food at Christmas, in remembrance of the animals present at Jesus' birth.
As we near Christmas Day and the New Year that follows, let us reflect and remember. Reflect upon the year that has passed, the lessons learned and the memories kept; remember that hope awaits us in 2026. And, if you're eager for an extra boost of luck in the New Year, take a note from the Scandinavians and remember the birds.
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.
