1837
Honolulu Harbor was dotted with sailing vessels at anchor. There were more than twenty businesses under way in the city and its population had grown to many thousands. Kamehameha III was on the throne, a sugar plantation had been laid out on Maui, and an English language press had been printing for over a year. Seven groups of missionaries had followed the Thaddeus by 1837 and had settled into the work of preaching and teaching. The work had gone well. Schools, churches and a written Hawaiian language had long been established and the first written laws had been adopted. Christmas had been observed when it fell on the Sabbath and just twice there had been Christmas services in the meeting house on weekdays. Otherwise, in this Christian kingdom, the days passed without notice. The offices of the king's government remained open, business was transacted and the day's work was done. Now, in Christmas week, 1837, missionary wives made quiet shopping trips to town and in the evenings at home, talked about what they should cook and who they should invite to the coming holiday dinner. When they met, the men passed a word of holiday wishes.
It was a festive, warm-spirited season and it had nothing to do with Christmas. There were no celebrations necessary for being a Christian but there were two that proudly went with being an American. One was Independence Day; its date was fixed on the Fourth of July. The other was Thanksgiving. It was as old, almost, as their reformed religion. Hawaiian converts and Puritans celebrated it with gifts, social calls and feasting, on New year's Day!
But the sailing ships that lay at anchor in the harbor were not all from New England and not all had Puritan captains. Roman Catholics living in their district at Waianae followed their tradition by attending Mass on Christmas day, and there were merchants and mechanics from Europe and America who celebrated the holiday as they had at home. On December 30, 1837, late and apologetic, the English newspaper recognized both them and their holiday. "With all good wishes for the welfare of our patrons, and of every member of the community, we wish them a 'merry Christmas' and a 'very happy new year'." It was the first time the phrase appeared in print.
The Chief's Children's School was strict, even for a future king. Alexander Liholiho was ready for a holiday. When the cake arrived, it almost seemed to make it official. It was a Christmas cake, without any doubt, and it was delivered to the missionary master on Christmas Eve. It came with no card but none was necessary for nine-year-old Alex, his two brothers, little Emma Rooke or the other eleven students. A Merry Christmas was implied and they fulfilled the anonymous wishes by taking the day off from lessons.
1843
The Christmas celebration, happiest children's day of the year, was thus appropriately carried into the lives of the missionaries and the schoolmaster noted its presence in his dairy for 1843. "The children," he wrote, "thought it would be doing God's service to devote this day to merriment".
Three years of coping with youthful energy relaxes the most rigid of rules and princely pressures took their toll at the school. When Christmas cake came again to the dining hall, it came from the hands of the students. The newspaper, The Polynesian, had wished "gentle readers, all, a merry Christmas to you; may you never wake to a less pleasant morn". Alexander and his brothers took the paper at its word. The girls mixed the cakes and the boys made candy in the best tradition. In another three years, there was another tradition. Alex and his brothers were in England but their classmates carried on with the celebration. "This evening," the schoolmaster's diary read, "all are making ready presents for Christmas."
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