The nazi Plot To steal Christmas
Hitler hijacked the holiday, removing Christian references
In Nazi Germany, Christmas was celebrated by decorating trees with swastikas and children were given gifts such as toy tanks and SS soldier action figures. This much we might expect from the Nazi propaganda machine, but what might baffle some is that these boys and girls were given their gifts by the Nordic god Odin.
This was in part because Nazis ideologues saw organised religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, so sought to de-emphasise — if not eliminate altogether — Christianity from the holiday. Christmas carols were rewritten to reflect the party’s views; the most popular carol, ‘Exalted Night of the
Clear Stars’, continued to be sung even after 1945. Families were encouraged to make homemade decorations in the shape of ‘Odin’s Sun Wheel’ and bake treats in the shape of Nordic fertility symbols. Official celebrations might mention a supreme being but they more prominently featured ‘light’ rituals. To this end, lighting candles on your Christmas tree was encouraged over putting up a Star of Bethlehem.
Resurrecting the old Germanic gods was also supposed to be about celebrating the Aryan race’s supposed heritage, normalising the Nazi ideologies of racial purity. Christmas cards invariably featured blonde-haired, blue-eyed German families gathered around Christmas trees. Germans were also encouraged to ‘buy Aryan’ and boycott Jewish department stores.
There were those who objected to Christ being taken out of Christmas — particularly members of the clergy. However, many seemed to embrace the neo-pagan festival’s brightly coloured pageantry. The secret police reported that complaints about official policies dissolved in an overall “Christmas mood.”