Bah Humbug Rev. Sheldon?
Topeka’s Rev. Charles Sheldon was perhaps most famous for his book In His Steps, which inspired the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?” - he is less well known for how he applied that philosophy to Christmas. If that were to get out, children might think him more of a Scrooge or Grinch, because the Rev. Sheldon didn’t like giving presents.
He made his feeling very clear in his December 24, entry of his devotional Year Book:
“Celebrating the birth of Christ! No, I should say you have no right to buy Christmas gifts if you cannot afford it, or if other people who have need of the money are going to suffer from your foolish extravagance. It is wicked to celebrate Christmas that way. A good deal of the mad rush in the stores at Christmas-time is as pagan as if Christ had never come into the world at all.”
Just in case his thoughts weren’t made clear enough on the 24th, the Rev. Sheldon reiterated his point with an illustration in his Christmas Day entry:
“I was in a Boston store one day just before Christmas, and among the crowd of shoppers I saw one nicely dressed woman who had her arms full of bundles.She was smiling and chatting with another woman who had just come in. ‘Ah you have your hands full,’ said the new-comer. ‘Yes, I had to buy at least ten dollars worth of presents for people I don’t really care about. Great nuisance, isn’t it?’ She went away laughing, and the other woman said to a companion: ‘Do you know, to my positive knowledge, that woman owes her dressmaker ten dollars, and her poor sewing-girl has been repeatedly to her house and cannot get the money. And yet she thinks she is celebrating the birth of Christ by getting those people she doesn’t care for ten dollars worth of presents while the dressmaker probably needs the money to buy food and fuel.’”
Those words were published 110 years ago, so they may seem dramatic in the 21st century, however, Sheldon’s intent was more likely a message to avoid excess and consider priorities, than an attack on Christmas. The early generations of Kansans had been through some lean years after all. Sheldon better communicated his opinion in this account of how his own family celebrated Christmas:
"Christmas with us is always a family home day. At the breakfast table we read the story of Christ's birth as told in my own 'Everyday Bible.' Dinner is a family custom often with some invited guests who are alone or without friends near. We have the usual things to eat including homemade mince pie made by Mother. After dinner I usually read a Christmas story, and have one of my own to read this time. We spend the day quietly looking over Christmas cards and talking about the friends who have sent them. We have stopped giving things to the grown ups and don't expect any from others. But if we can find a college girl or boy who is having hard sledding we try to do something for them. We thus save all the worry that so many people have over Christmas gifts."
Sheldon was more in favor of well-placed generosity, than excessive materialism. This is perhaps because Sheldon had first hand knowledge of how excessive gifts can be. In 1903, the State of Kansas gifted Sheldon the Capitol Dome.
The May 12, 1903 issue of the Topeka State Journal noted that “At the closing [of the legislative session] it is always customary to celebrate the occasion by giving away things.” The State of Kansas must have felt exceptionally generous in 1903. That year marked the completion of the capitol building, which is notable, because it had taken 37 years to construct. To celebrate, the legislature proceeded to give it away in parts:
“In the Senate one Allen of Doniphan presented a resolution to give the door keepers the doors, the superintendents of ventilation the windows and ventilators, and the clerks and other employees anything they could tear out of the debris.The effusion wound up with this: ‘Be it further resolved, that on account of the efficient work of our most excellent secretary, Hon. C. M. Sheldon, that the dome of the capitol is here presented to him and it is the wish and desire of this legislature that he remove the same at once and take it to his place of abode, there to be placed as a monument for the services rendered to Kansas and her people.’”
The Topeka State Journal attested that the resolution, “idiotic as it is, and which was only meant for a joke,” indeed passed. In recent decades other newspapers have attempted to verify this event as more than legend, but have not been able to locate an entry in state records. The reason for the omission, according to the Topeka State Journal, was that the resolution was stolen by an overzealous reporter to “save the state the trouble of building a new capitol.”
Because of that, we have no official record of Sheldon accepting or declining the gift. We might assume he asked himself “What would Jesus do?” and perhaps the Rev. Sheldon found it to be “foolish extravagance.” The dome is, after all, still atop the Capitol.