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Why is Christmas a Federal Holiday?


Christmas is a holiday rooted in the Christian tradition, so why is it a federal holiday?

Ulysses S. Grant won the 1868 presidential election. He was inaugurated in 1869. The country was recovering from the Civil War. The president had a large challenge to reunite the nation. One tool that looked promising was to institute some federal holidays that everyone could celebrate together. Until this time, states designated their own holidays but it took an 1870 bill from Illinois Congressman Burton Chauncey Cook to name four new federal holidays. They were New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. President Grant signed the bill into law on June 28, 1870, four days after it had passed the Senate.

This law only applied to federal employees and financial institutions within the District of Columbia. Fifteen years later, the paid holidays were extended to federal employees throughout the country[1]. By 1916, the Christmas holiday was given to employees of the United States Postal Service.

According to Grant’s biographer, Ron White, “Grant’s commitment to making Christmas a legal holiday needs to be understood as part of his drive to unite the North and the South after the war.”[2] People across the country were already celebrating Christmas, of course, but this law recognized the day as having national significance. The only activities mandated were for the banks to close and federal employees had the day off.

Interestingly, Grant was from Ohio, Illinois and Missouri but Kentucky has a small claim to his early preparation for greatness. He attended the Maysville Academy for a year when his family farmed in nearby Ohio.

by Lesley Barker c. 2020


[1]Steven W. Stathis. Federal Holidays – Evolution and Application. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. 1999. ONLINE at https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc820825/m2/1/high_res_d/98-301_1999Feb08.pdf. ACCESSED 12/15/2020.

[2] Ron White. “Remember it was a President, Ulysses S. Grant, who made Christmas a national holiday”. New York Daily News. December 23, 2017.

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