​On the night of February 3, 1943, the U.S. Army transport Dorchester was crossing the North Atlantic when it was struck by a German torpedo. The ship sank in less than thirty minutes, killing 672 of the 902 people aboard. Amid the chaos and freezing darkness, four U.S. Army chaplains chose to remain on deck, helping others reach safety. They were Rev. George L. Fox (Methodist), Rabbi Alexander D. Goode (Reform Judaism), Rev. Clark V. Poling (Dutch Reformed), and Father John P. Washington (Roman Catholic).

​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 The law was repealed in 1681, but suspicion lingered.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.