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 Christmas decorations were comparatively limited in the 1860s,
and most residents waited until Christmas Eve to display evergreens,
holly, mistletoe and garland. Similar to today, businessmen in that
era found great sales potential with the holiday season, marking
their shops with bows and greenery, and marketing their goods as
necessities for the enjoyment of life.
Hustle and bustle increased on city streets leading up to Christmas,
and then on Christmas Day itself, social activity reached a fever
pitch. Much Christmas purchasing occurred on Christmas Day itself.
It was a religious observance, but December 25 was considered a
normal work day for many.
When Abraham Lincoln was an Illinois state representative in 1834,
the legislature voted whether elected officials should take off on
Christmas Day. Lincoln voted with the majority in favor of keeping
the day a workday because he felt they would be wasting taxpayers’
money to take the day off.
 It was not until 1870, when then President Ulysses S. Grant signed
into law an act to make Christmas Day a national holiday, that the
day was actually considered a day off from labor.
Many families did at least take part of the day to come together.
Christmas dinner had already taken root as perhaps the single most
important gathering the entire year for a family.
As far as festiveness outside the family sphere, New Year’s Day
eclipsed Christmas. An Illinois newspaper reported in the late 1850s
that the first day of the year consisted of an “interchange of
visiting” where everyone was “expected to make it to a holiday and
nobody is compelled to work.” Refreshments at every house included
an abundance of eggnog and other choice spirits to keep the
joviality alive.
When Lincoln assumed the presidency in March 1861, the threat of a
civil war hung heavy, and in a few short weeks, the nation would
become embroiled in the four-year conflict. Christmas Day for the
duration of his presidency was devoted to a full day’s work with
little attention to gaiety, but President and Mrs. Lincoln did gain
a little reprieve to host Christmas dinners for invited guests and
friends from Kentucky or Illinois.
There was no White House Christmas tree yet, as it would be
President Benjamin Harrison who in 1889 brought the first such tree
on display in the Oval Room. As with most homes in America, the
White House was adorned simply with red bows, fresh greens and dried
fruit.
 Turkey was a favorite mainstay for Christmas dinners, and in 1863,
ten year-old Tad pleaded with his father to not have a turkey named
Jack killed for Christmas dinner because Tad considered Jack his
pet. The President wrote a formal pardon, saving the life of the
turkey.
As president, Lincoln continued a New Year’s Day White House
tradition instituted ever since Thomas Jefferson in 1801: that of
opening the president’s house and personally greeting visitors.
Everyone from foreign ministers, congressional members, Supreme
Court, officers of the Army and Navy, to the general public, all
swarmed the Executive Mansion awaiting their chance to gaze upon the
tall president and his wife in the Blue Room, and to observe the new
furnishings which Mrs. Lincoln purchased that year. The event drew
thousands.
A newspaper on one New Year’s Day reported, “The President received
all with the greatest cordiality, and took each individual by the
hand. . . . In order to prevent the handsome carpets . . . from
being soiled by the mud and dirt . . . canvas was spread over them.
. . . many pressed so determinedly to gain admittance that several
ladies and children were nearly suffocated, and in some instances
ladies and children were raised above the crowd . . . to shield them
from the pressure."
It was on New Year’s Day 1863 after several hours of shaking hands
in which Lincoln slipped upstairs to his office to sign the
Emancipation Proclamation. Perhaps equally significant: the 1865 New
Year’s White House reception witnessed the first time Black
Americans were allowed to attend any social event in the White
House.
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President Lincoln did take the holiday time as an opportunity to
recognize the wounded troops. On several Christmas days through the
war, President and Mrs. Lincoln devoted afternoons to visiting
Washington DC hospitals to deliver food, care for the wounded, and
to lift the morale of the despondent sick and wounded soldiers who
experienced little if any joy, and no sympathetic bedside visits.
Tad accompanied his parents on at least one occasion. Lincoln was so
moved by the experience that once back at the White House, he
arranged to have Christmas gifts, including books and clothes, sent
to the soldiers in hospitals with the signature, “From Tad Lincoln.”
As with soldiers stuck in the hospitals, young men in uniform away
at camp shared an equally gloomy outlook. With the holidays, the
soldiers felt nostalgic for what they were missing at home, as many
were apart from family at Christmas for the very first time. One
Union private wrote home, “My health is good with the exception of
homesickness, a disease, I am thinking will never be cured.” Soldier
Henry Hawes wrote home in 1862 to family in Logan County, Illinois,
that Christmas “was a lonesome day.”
Families across the miles also felt the painful parting from their
sons, but comprehended the duty to their country which precluded any
thoughts of holiday reunion. From Atlanta, Illinois, the Hawes
family wrote to Henry at war, “I know it is all well enough for some
to say it is best for you not to come home but I cannot say that I
think it is because I think it would be very pleasant to have you to
take Christmas with us but I do not want you to do any thing that
your better judgment tells you not.”
The cartoonist Thomas Nast provided what might be one of the war’s
biggest morale boosters. Nast would solidify his career as a
newspaper cartoon illustrator attacking government corruption. He
also gave us the elephant as the Republican Party symbol and
popularized the donkey for the Democratic Party. But his certain
image of a holiday staple might be his biggest contribution.
Nast witnessed the low morale of boys many miles away from loved
ones in the holidays during the war, and decided to use his pen to
lift spirits in the yuletide season. Gift giving inspired by the
famed St. Nicholas was already en vogue and part of the Christmas
tradition.
Nast took the then little-known poem by Clement Moore, “A Visit from
St. Nicholas” and gave the fabled St. Nicholas a new look. First
depicting Santa Claus in a suit of stars and stripes handing
presents to children and grateful soldiers, Nast then drew for the
January 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly the image of Santa that we
recognize, complete with the red suit, full white beard, jolly face,
round belly, with a bag on his back. It caught on.
Nast hoped with his image of Santa Claus that despite the lack of
cause to celebrate, Americans might still find something in the
spirit of the season to rejoice. Testament to the power of hope and
joy in dark times, it is remarkable that one of the greatest and
most enduring symbols of holiday cheer was produced in the middle of
one of the unhappy times in our nation’s history.
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Ron J. Keller is associate professor of history and political
science at Lincoln College, and managing director of the Abraham
Lincoln Center for Character Development, which is housed at the
Lincoln Heritage Museum.
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