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Adolphe Duperly’s painting depicting the destruction of the Roehampton Estate in Jamaica during the Baptist War in January 1832.

For Enslaved People, the Holiday Season Was a Brief Window to Fight Back

The week between Christmas and the new year offered a rare opportunity for enslaved people to reclaim their humanity.
by Ana Lucia Araujo via The Conversation on December 18, 2024
Frank Sinatra singing into a microphone.

The Christmas Carol Canon That Could Have Been

Pheasants? 'Dickory dock'? Toyland? Here's how a narrow slice of American history changed the holidays forever.
by Addison Del Mastro via The Spectator on December 21, 2021
Plantation house in the snow.

The Grim History of Christmas for Slaves in the Deep South

"If you read enough sources, you run into cases of slaves spending a lot of time over Christmas crying."
by Olivia B. Waxman, Robert E. May via TIME on December 21, 2021
Toy santa mug shots

The War on Christmas

A brief history of the Yuletide in America.
by Charles Ludington via The American Scholar on December 28, 2020
Exhibit

Christmas Past

Histories of American Christmas songs, stories and rituals.
Drawing of pilgrims walking in a line in the snow.

Why the Puritans Cracked Down on Celebrating Christmas

It was less about their asceticism and more about rejecting the world they had fled.
by Peter C. Mancall via The Conversation on December 17, 2020

Baby, Christmas Songs Have Always Been Controversial

Long before “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” holiday songs played a part in the War on Christmas.
by Neil J. Young via The Atlantic on December 24, 2018
Intricately painted Easter eggs.

Why Easter Never Became a Big Secular Holiday like Christmas

Hint: the Puritans were involved.
by Tara Isabella Burton via Vox on March 29, 2018

No One Writes Great Christmas Songs Anymore

But maybe those midcentury classics weren't really Christmas songs at all.
by Addison Del Mastro via The American Conservative on December 21, 2017

Why The 'War On Christmas' Just Isn't What It Used To Be

The battle between "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas" goes way deeper than you think.
by Sophie Kleeman via Bustle on December 21, 2017
Santa in a rocket sleigh.

A Wonderful Life

How postwar Christmas embraced spaceships, nukes, and cellophane.
by Sarah Archer, Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on December 15, 2016

Christmas in the Space Age: Looking Back at the Wild Designs of Mid-20th-Century Holidays

There are two critical periods for Christmas. One is the Victorian era. The other is the 1960s.
by Sarah Archer, Todd Vanderwerff via Vox on November 25, 2016
Santa with sack of toys atop chimney
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Naughty & Nice: A History of the Holiday Season

Tracing the evolution of Christmas from a drunken carnival to the peaceful, family-oriented, consumeristic ritual we celebrate today.
via BackStory on December 26, 2014
Crowd of construction workers next to the first Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

The Rockefeller Christmas Tree Belongs to the Working Class

Construction workers pooled their wages to erect the first one. Their bosses co-opted the gesture, transforming it into today’s consumer spectacle.
by Ashley Bishop, Spencer Snyder via Jacobin on December 17, 2024
Shipwreck nicknamed the "Christmas Tree Boat," which disappeared beneath Lake Michigan waters in November 1912.

The ‘Christmas Tree Boat’ Shipwreck That Devastated 1912 Chicagoans

Marine archaeologists are beginning to understand what really happened to Captain Santa's ill-fated ship, nicknamed the Christmas Tree Boat.
by Jonathan Feakins via Atlas Obscura on December 13, 2023
Joel Roberts Poinsett (left). The poinsettia, which takes its name from Poinsett (right).

Poinsettia Day, the Monroe Doctrine, and U.S.-Mexican Relations

The troubled history of the famous poinsettia plant.
by Lindsay Schakenbach Regele via Origins on December 9, 2023
Charles Dickens as he appears when reading, Harper’s Weekly (December 7th, 1867).

A Christmas Carol In Nineteenth-Century America, 1844-1870

What were Americans' immediate responses to "A Christmas Carol," and how did Dickens' reading tours and eventual death reshape its meaning?
by Thomas Ruys Smith via Comparative American Studies on July 27, 2023
Christmas lights and decor
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Christmas Lights — Brought to You By a Jew From the Muslim World

Jews from the Ottoman Empire pioneered the Christmas lights market a century ago — but nativism, antisemitism and islamophobia obscured this history.
by Devin E. Naar via Made By History on December 21, 2022
Cup of eggnog with cinnamon

From Weddings to Riots, Everything to Know About Eggnog's History

People have been drinking eggnog for hundreds of years. Here's where it originated and how it became a traditional holiday drink.
by Marianne Dhenin via Wine Enthusiast on December 7, 2022
Washington entering New York.

Mythmaking In Manhattan

Stories of 1776 and Santa Claus.
by Benjamin L. Carp via Age of Revolutions on December 5, 2022
Charlie Brown and his friends at a store with a Christmas sale.

When Christmas Started Creeping

Christmas starts earlier every year — or does it?
by Bill Black via Contingent on November 8, 2022
Test launch of an ICBM, reminiscent of a star with a long tail in the night sky.

“Do You Hear What I Hear” Was Actually About the Cuban Missile Crisis

The holiday favorite is an allegorical prayer for peace.
by Reba A. Wissner via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on December 22, 2021
Fruitcake

The Magnificent History of the Maligned and Misunderstood Fruitcake

The polarizing dessert that people love to hate became a Christmas mainstay thanks, in part, to the U.S. Postal Service.
by Jeffrey Miller via The Conversation on December 17, 2021
Frame from the film with Jimmy Stewart's character George Bailey receiving hugs from his wife and children.

What 'It's a Wonderful Life' Teaches Us About American History

The Christmas classic, released 75 years ago, conveys many messages beyond having faith in one another.
by Christopher Wilson via Smithsonian on December 16, 2021

Why So Many Guns on Christmas Cards? Because Jesus was ‘Manly and Virile.’

Muscular Christianity — with scriptural interpretations that can favor “stand your ground” over “turn the other cheek” — has a long tradition in the U.S.
by Peter Manseau via Washington Post on December 14, 2021
Carolers walking and carrying sheet music
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The Forgotten Civil War History of Two of Our Favorite Christmas Carols

Over time, the historic roots of some holiday music have been forgotten.
by Christian McWhirter via Made By History on December 23, 2020
Lithograph of mansion, Stratford Hall, in Westmoreland County, VA

Oppression in the Kitchen, Delight in the Dining Room

The story of Caesar, an enslaved chef and chocolatier in colonial Virginia.
by Kelley Fanto Deetz via The Conversation on December 21, 2020

When Santa Claus Was Deplored in Wartime

The modern image of Santa Claus first appeared in a Civil War illustration, and it wasn’t the last time St. Nick was deployed in wartime.
by Christopher Klein via HISTORY on December 4, 2019

The Surprisingly Sad True Story Behind 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'

Copywriter Robert L. May dreamed up Rudolph during a particularly difficult time in his life.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on December 20, 2018

How Salvation Army’s Red Kettles Became a Christmas Tradition

The 140-year journey from the streets of London's East End to the parking lot of your nearest mall.
by Diane Winston via The Conversation on November 28, 2018

In World War II America, Female Santas Took the Reins

Rosie the Riveter wasn’t the only woman who pitched in on the homefront.
by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian on December 18, 2017
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