When did Americans start celebrating Christmas?

Answer 1

Technically, *some* Americans have been keeping Christmas for as long as there's been an America, and even before. In fact, Columbus named the first settlement he founded in Cuba "Navidad" becasue they landed on Christmas Day. Some of the first Americans, the Puritans (like the Thanksgiving Pilgrims) did *not* celebrate Christmas. They thought it was improper, and not appropriately Christian. It was not the "Christ's birth" part they had a problem with, but the revelry and feasting. But other newly settled Americans were less prudish ... Really, though, Christmas became the big deal it is today in the 1800s, due mostly to the efforts of a few people in England and America, including Clement C. Moore (author of A Visit from St. Nicholas ). It first became popular in New York, where they tried to declare St. Nicholas the patron saint of the city; from there it spread, helped along by, amongst others, the Irish and the Germans. It was finally declared a national holiday in the 1870s. For a fascinating history of the growth of the American Christmas, read The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum.