Imagine a December without Christmas trees glistening in windows. Impossible, isn’t it? Yet, this annual tradition didn’t always exist in our country. In fact, for many decades Americans had never even heard about the holiday custom.
How did it go from a novel concept to an essential element of the Yuletide season? The credit belongs to a dynamo of a woman whom you’ve probably never heard about.
Monthly magazines became popular in the early 1800s. Advances in printing made mass production possible. As our young country grew, the postal system expanded with it, paving the way for widespread circulation. Soon Americans craved the news and information that popped up at their post office each month.
In 1830, a Philadelphia man named Louis Godey began printing Godey’s Lady’s Book. Each edition was filled with poetry, short stories, and ho-hum engravings. It was ok, but nothing to brag about.
Then Sarah Josepha Hale caught Godey’s attention.
A small woman from New Hampshire, she quietly made a name for herself in literature. She wrote novels and penned the classic children’s poem, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” She also found time to successfully rally public support for completing Boston’s Bunker Hill Monument, created the Seaman’s Aid Society to support the families of New England sailors who died at sea, and lobbied five presidents to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday (which Lincoln finally did in 1863).
During that time, Hale was also editor of the Lady’s Magazine (she preferred to be called “editoress”). She electrified its pages with helpful information and encouraged women to use the publication for their personal education.
Hale had the drive and creative energy Godey needed to bring his stagnant magazine alive. So she was hired as its editor (or editoress, if you will), and swiftly set about recreating it in her own image.
Godey’s Lady’s Book set the tone for mid-Victorian American family life. Hale introduced women to the newest fashions, instructed them on the proper ways to keep house, feed their family, raise their children, and entertain with sparkling grace. She made the magazine the social arbiter of its day. If it appeared in Godey’s, it was good as gospel to American women.
When Hale took the magazine’s helm in 1837, circulation stood at 10,000 copies. It jumped to 40,000 in two years. By 1860, paid subscriptions topped 150,000. It was the most popular magazine in America.
Hale admired one person above all others: Britain’s Queen Victoria. She worshipped the young, trend-setting monarch with a devotion that bordered on obsession. Whatever Victoria did was wonderful in Hale’s eyes. For example, when the queen shocked European royalty by getting married in a white wedding gown, Hale blessed it with her editorial seal of approval – and thus started the custom of American brides walking the aisle in snowy white.
But Victoria, and Hale through her, made the biggest impact on the holiday season.
Victoria’s husband, her cousin Prince Albert, brought the German tradition of the Christmas tree with him to England. In 1848, the Illustrated London News published a cover drawing showing the young royal family gathered around their Christmas tree. Britons instantly embraced the Christmas tree and a new tradition was born.
Hale was wildly supportive, of course, and the following year published a copy of the drawing in Godey’s (although she removed Victoria’s tiara and Albert’s royal sash to give the family democratic appeal). Just as had happened on the other side of the pond, Americans went Christmas tree crazy.
By 1860, large pine, spruce, and fir trees were harvested in Minnesota, floated down the Mississippi River on flatboats, and sold to eager Christmas tree customers in New Orleans and other Deep South cities.
Hale continued editing Godey’s Lady’s Book until retiring in 1877. She died two years later at age 90. That same year, Thomas Edison recited “Mary Had a Little Lamb” into his new phonograph, making them the first human words ever recorded.
And Hale’s greatest legacy of all, the American Christmas tree, remains a cherished holiday tradition to this day.
J. Mark Powell (@JMarkPowell) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a former broadcast journalist and government communicator. His weekly offbeat look at our forgotten past, “Holy Cow! History,” can be read at jmarkpowell.com.
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