{"id":7739,"date":"2009-12-24T13:00:51","date_gmt":"2009-12-24T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/?p=7739"},"modified":"2009-12-24T13:00:51","modified_gmt":"2009-12-24T18:00:51","slug":"christmas-in-the-1860s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/2009\/12\/24\/christmas-in-the-1860s\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in the 1860’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThomasNastCivilWarSanta\"<\/a>Christmas during the Civil War is a very different holiday from what we know.\u00a0 The holiday is not one of merriment and festivity in much of Britain and America.\u00a0 This is a time of sobriety and somberness.\u00a0 People attend church reflect on the birth of Christ and the blessings of God.\u00a0 A large family dinner with small gifts follows church in most households.<\/p>\n

Santa Claus is waiting for Thomas Nast to start drawing him and making him the popular figure we know.\u00a0 Those drawings are not going to appear for another 20 years.\u00a0 In place of Santa is St. Nicholas.\u00a0 He is a somewhat questionable figure in America with an association to \u201cPopish ceremonies\u201d in many American minds.\u00a0 \u201cTwas the Night Before Christmas\u201d, written in 1823, is titled \u201cA Visit From St. Nicholas\u201d.<\/p>\n

Do not look for Christmas trees in many homes.\u00a0 This is a \u201cDutch\u201d custom and many German communities have a single tree.\u00a0 Christmas trees are becoming popular but not fully accepted.\u00a0 In 1846, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, are illustrated in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree.\u00a0 The English are starting to follow the German custom.\u00a0 They are modifying the decorations and hanging small toys the branches.\u00a0 In most homes, with a tree, the gifts are on the table near the tree.<\/p>\n

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens first appeared in 1843 and is widely read.\u00a0 This little book is making a change in the Christmas holiday with its\u2019 emphasis on joy, family and merriment.<\/p>\n

One of the best views of Christmas, in New England, is by Theodore Parker, Minister of the 28th Congregational Society of Boston.\u00a0\u00a0 His \u201cTale of Two Christmases\u201d looks at some of the new celebrations taking hold in America.\u00a0 Some think it “queer,” and wonder, “what our pious fathers would think of keeping Christmas in New England.” A few have “religious scruples,” and want nothing to do with the changes.\u00a0 The head of the Know-nothing lodge said it was “a Furrin custom, and I want none o’ them things; but Ameriky must be ruled by ‘Mericans; and we’ll have no Disserlutions of the Union, and no Popish ceremonies like a Christmas Tree. If you begin so, you’ll have the Pope here next, and the fulfilment of the seventeenth chapter of Revelations.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas during the Civil War is a very different holiday from what we know.\u00a0 The holiday is not one of merriment and festivity in much of Britain and America.\u00a0 This is a time of sobriety and somberness.\u00a0 People attend church reflect on the birth of Christ and the blessings of God.\u00a0 A large family dinner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2604,2605,2606],"class_list":["post-7739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-christmas","tag-santa-claus","tag-thomas-nast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brettschulte.net\/CWBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}