Nods to NightWing.

Even though I think Proffessor Nissenbaum plays up the child abuse angle a bit too much (which may, itself, be a symptom of our current worry about it -- we tend to see it in many more places than it actually exists), it is true that Christmas, and its gift-givers, was much more rowdy and pollitically incorrect.

I wouldn't be surprised if the former belsnickler I quoted above "persueded" the wealthy families to share their goodies by means of a few carefully aimed stones, and a few carefully chosen epithets.

The whole "Christmas is a time to stay secure in the bossom of your darling family" thing was an invention of the late-Victorian revival (that revival thanks, almost single-handedly, to Dickens' A Christmas Carol). Far better to have the Scrooges of the world give to charity out of the goodness of their hearts than to have the Bob Cratchets of the world take to the streets demanding their fair share.

Oh, no! That wouldn't be good for business, at all!