Christmas, Related Resources

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How We Came to Celebrate Christmas as a National Holiday

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We Americans take our holidays for granted. We celebrate President's Day, Independence Day and a handful of other days each year, but we give little thought to the origin and history of these celebrations.

Of special importance is our celebration of Christmas - a day that has become preeminent on our yearly calendars. How did our celebration come about? The Hoover Presidential Library Museum tells the story in this online exhibit.

Christmas wasn't always celebrated the way it is today. In fact, the Puritans of Massachusetts banned any observance of Christmas, and anyone caught observing the holiday had to pay a fine. Connecticut had a law forbidding the celebration of Christmas and the baking of mincemeat pies! A few of the earliest settlers did celebrate Christmas, but it was far from a common holiday in the colonial era.

It is hard to pinpoint the first decorated Christmas trees in America. Some say the tradition began with the Moravians of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who decorated trees in the very early 1800s. Others say the first American Christmas tree was set up by Hessian soldiers at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1776. We do know that by the early 1800s there were numerous decorated trees throughout our country, but the term "Christmas tree" was not in common use until 1830.

The Christmas tree tradition was spread across America by German immigrants beginning in the early 1800s. The Germans baked fancy ornaments for their trees and then ate the ornaments when the trees came down. After Christmas, these frugal people would strip the needles and wrap the branches in cotton to extend the tree's life for several Christmases to come.

Before the Civil War, the....[MORE]