Why The Cratchits Needed Businesses Open On Christmas Day
Some pie-related history ...
I had a pumpkin pie emergency on Thanksgiving Day that required a quick trip to the store. Fortunately, the Whole Foods not far from me was open that morning. I appreciated this, even if I prefer sweet potato pie. People have argued that all businesses should remain closed on national holidays. This has even extended to the day after Thanksgiving, which is only a holiday for retail therapy.
Growing up, I had clear memories of family members working on Thanksgiving Day. Someone was usually arriving for their plate after leaving work or taking off for work later in the day after finishing their plate. Grocery stores were packed on Wednesday but there was still last-minute shopping taking place on Thursday morning.
Someone recently declared online that all businesses should be closed on Thanksgiving or any major holiday: “Restaurants, Grocery stores, Shops everything. If you’re not a emergency service you should be closed.”
They went on: “Closing professional and government buildings so they can visit lower income jobs/places fuels a ideology that they matter more then other people and encourages them they don’t have to plan and can just buy thanksgiving stuff they forgot when they need to.”
That extreme position might make sense for my own pie emergency, as I work a flexible schedule and can easily shop on non-holidays. However, I think this argument misses the obvious fact that the “lower income” people they claim to defend might have no other time to shop but on holidays.
There is a key detail in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that readers often miss. When the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Ebenezer Scrooge on a stroll through the city on Christmas morning, there is a bustle of activity, as the grocers and bakers are still open. (Watch below.)
During Dickens’ time, religious groups wanted all businesses closed on Christmas and other “holy days,” including the Sabbath. Prior to A Christmas Carol’s publication, legislation had been proposed multiple times that would’ve mandated businesses closed entirely on Sundays and Christmas. This was an issue for actual poor people whose working hours varied and the only time they could gather with their family for a meal was on Sunday or Christmas. Dickens expresses his own sentiments on the matter in an exchange between Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present.
“Spirit,” said Scrooge, after a moment’s thought, “I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people’s opportunities of innocent enjoyment.”
“I!” cried the Spirit.
“You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all,” said Scrooge. “Wouldn’t you?”
“I!” cried the Spirit.
“You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day?” said Scrooge. “And it comes to the same thing.”
“I seek!” exclaimed the Spirit.
“Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family,” said Scrooge.
“There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the Spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”
The Ghost of Christmas Present quickly corrects Scrooge when he suggests that the pious are acting on his behalf or for any truly saintly purpose. In the mid 19th Century, when A Christmas Carol was written, few people had ready access to cooking facilities in their own home. Although the Cratchits could boil potatoes or roast chestnuts in a pot over the hearth fire, there was no oven for them to cook their small goose. Even Mrs. Cratchit’s famed Christmas pudding was boiled in a tightly wrapped floured cloth submerged in the wash house copper, where water was heated for laundry day. (Dickens observes that the pudding smells like “a washing day,” but once the “ignited brandy” was added, I’m sure it was fine.)
Apparently, it was illegal to bake bread on Sundays and presumably Christmas, but a loophole enabled bakers to cook meat in their ovens. Religious laws are weird. It was common practice for families like the Cratchits to meat prepared in commercial establishments and brought home. In the passage below, a couple of the Cratchits’ gazillion children exclaim that they’d smelled their own goose outside the local baker’s.
And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker’s they had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not proud, although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out and peeled.
Of course, if all commercial businesses were closed on Christmas and Sundays, then the Cratchits could not enjoy their tiny goose, stretched out with mashed potatoes and stuffing. That was true of many similar families. Now, did this make Bob Cratchit a hypocrite because he enjoyed Christmas Day off from work while the baker had to open on Christmas morning to cook his dinner? Not really, as the baker provides a necessary service, and Dickens notes that the bakers and grocers close up in time for them to return home to their own families.
I also don’t consider myself a hypocrite, as I’ve worked my share of holidays in the past. I often looked forward to my Thanksgiving shifts front of house at Peter Pan or whatever holiday show was playing. It was good money that helped make the season merrier.
Unfortunately, there is no federal law requiring premium pay on holidays, but most private companies do offer “time and a half” or “double time” as a benefit for employees willing to work on major holidays. As long as it’s voluntary, I prefer that to simply shutting everything down like the spoilsports Dickens criticized. Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island are the only states that prohibit stores from opening on Thanksgiving and Christmas. This includes retail and non-retail establishments. All pie-related emergencies go unresolved. I’m a capitalist who prefers freedom of choice — don’t require people to work but make it worth their while. Besides, it seems wrong to prevent Jews, atheists, or frankly anyone who enjoys some extra cash from working on Christmas.
Wow. It's almost like some people are unaware of the "Jewish Christmas Day" tradition in the United States - lunch at a Chinese restaurant and a movie. My tradition used to be Xmas Day at Powell's spending my gift card (which was always jammed with Xmas Orphans and heathens merrily buying books) until someone got the stupid idea that Powell's employees needed the day off - which even as a paid holiday was still cheaper than paying everyone time and a half, I guess.
Gotta say that I was most grateful that my favorite grocery was open on Thanksgiving so that we were able to replace the deboned turkey breast I neglected to freeze and kept in the fridge too long. The store closes at 2 to allow their staff to get home for family. Whereas the Safeway is open 24/7. No rest for the weary there.