Everyone thinks of Christmas as a Christian holiday. The story of the birth of Jesus Christ is recorded in the New Testament. It is the account that starts the documentation of His life. He, of course, is the central figure of Christianity. Unlike the biblical feasts of Israel, however, there is no biblical mandate for the birth of Jesus to be celebrated. Many of the traditions we now incorporate in our celebrations did not start until much later in history. Most of them are not even rooted in Christianity. Here are ten popular American Christmas traditions, how they came to be celebrated and whether they correlate to anything related to the Christian faith. ONE: The Christmas Tree The first identification of the Christmas tree as an American Christmas tradition was in 1832 when Harriet Martineau popularized it in New England [1] . It took until the 1850’s, after several waves of German immigration, for the Christmas tree to become a widespread tradition. The idea of the tree...

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 Unite...