Surviving Christmas

Most Americans were finally beginning to embrace the idea of celebrating the Christmas holiday by 1851. It was, after all, an excuse to lavish gifts and attention on their children, without appearing to spoil them!

It was customary in those days to treat one's children as if they were merely small adults. This was the perfect family holiday!

New York made Victorian Christmas history when it opened its first Christmas tree market in 1851. It did not take long for the idea to spread, and before the end of the decade, several major cities boasted their own Christmas tree markets each year.

By 1860, 14 states had included Christmas in their list of official state holidays.

Macy's flagship store in New York City hosted the first ever in-store Santa in 1862. In 1864, they unveiled the first of their famous annual Christmas window displays. It was also the first in the country. Macy's is noted for being the first to start several traditions in Christmas history.

By the first year of the Civil War (1861), 31 of the then 36 states had declared Christmas to be an official holiday. Though these were sad years, Victorian Christmas history was made several times.

Retailers, of course, helped this along, with the first Christmas wish books, and magazine articles described once again the methods of making many useful and practical Christmas gifts.

People needed a respite from the ravages of a war which tore the fiber out of both sides, and a Victorian Christmas provided not only that respite, but also a perfect occasion for hosting fund-raisers for the armies.

After the Civil War, Victorian Christmas history begins its spiral into becoming a secular holiday, and major economic force in the United States.

Children's books were a vital force in bringing about the commercialization of Christmas. Beginning shortly after Thanksgiving (now an official Federal holiday), the children's books and magazines began to feature stories about Christmas, and pictures of decorated Christmas trees.

They told of presents being delivered by Santa, and even had simple crafts in them so that the children could make their own Christmas presents.


Women's magazines were not only becoming larger, but also more plentiful by the time the war ended. The "Cult of the Home" was being promoted heavily, and Christmas figured prominently into the idea of the Ideal Home.

It was the women's responsibility to make the home as perfect and inviting as possible, and to do this 'right' she must decorate and host lavishly at Christmas time!

Of course, just as today, we can blame the media for the commercialization of Christmas history!

Sunday schools even got into the promotion of Christmas. Of course, their primary focus was the Nativity of Christ and the Biblical stories surrounding his birth.

With even the sanction of the church, Congress had to act. In 1870, Christmas became a federally recognized holiday, and, of course, the politicians and their families were especially happy, because that meant that no longer would Congress be in session at Christmas!

Thomas Nast published his first cartoon of Santa in the year 1863, for Harper's Weekly. In 1881 his famous Santa caricature was published - also in Harper's. In 1890, he published "Thomas Nast's Christmas Drawings for the Human Race".

This German immigrant and political satirist/cartoonist probably did more than any other single human being to develop the Santa we all know and love to this very day!

The last major Victorian Christmas history milestone of the 19th century came, not from New York, but from Chicago. This was the first year that the Marshall Field flagship store on State Street hosted its annual Christmas window displays. Over the years, they became as well-known as those of Macy's, and equally as popular.

Many Blessings
GrannySue