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...