From Wiebke Müller
In his article on gift-giving, Robert Rowland Smith states that the tradition is based on the Christian nativity story describing the gifts given to the baby Jesus by the three wise men (19 December 2009, p 34).
Customs vary from place to place, but originally gifts were often given on 6 December, St Nicholas’s day. After the Reformation, Protestant areas found it unacceptable to give gifts in honour of a saint, so shifted the custom to Christmas day.
In many parts of the world, the gifts are attributed to the Christ child himself; the three wise men were invoked later and only locally. As the wise men are supposed to have taken some time to reach Bethlehem, their arrival is often considered to be 6 January. If gift-giving were based on their story, it should happen on that date.
The history of Christmas customs is often at least as interesting and complicated as the psychological dimensions discussed by Smith.
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From Dean Conrad
Robert Rowland Smith’s charming essay on the social and economic vicissitudes of gift-giving omits to mention the emotional value of home-made or hard-to-find, yet cheap, personal gifts.
However, I am grateful to Smith for inspiring my presents for next Christmas: a framed copy of this essay on the perils of giving.
Hessle, East Yorkshire, UK
Jülich, Germany
