Christmas in the United States

​Christmas was not always a celebrated holiday in the United States. In fact, it was once outlawed in some colonies. In 1659, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law called Penalty for Keeping Christmas, declaring such “superstitious” festivals a “great dishonor of God.” Anyone caught feasting or taking the day off could be fined five shillings. The law was repealed in 1681, but suspicion lingered. While colonists in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York observed the day freely, many New Englanders rejected it as frivolous. After the American Revolution, Christmas fell further out of favor, dismissed as an English custom. It would not become a national holiday until 1870, when President Ulysses S. Grant declared it a legal, unpaid holiday for federal employees in Washington, D.C.

Read More