Quote:
Originally Posted by aegsm76
Google does not back up this assertion that it was illegal until 1836.
It was not a holiday until 1836 when Alabama made it a state holiday.
And it was not a federal holiday until 1870.
However, it was not illegal in all parts of the US before 1836.
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Your google results differ from mine.
"This ban on Christmas, becoming law in many places, lasted until the apparently progressive state of Alabama was the first US state to legalise Christmas in 1836, meaning there was almost 200 years during which it was criminal to celebrate Christmas in the US. Oklahoma became the very last state to make Christmas legal again in 1907 despite the US making it a federal holiday in 1870."
https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/judit...b_2350974.html
Numerous other results provide more insight to the fact that Christmas in America was largely unknown to most of the population as any kind of celebratory day until after the War (1860s). Northern marketing combined with Reconstruction propaganda spread "Christmas cheer" across the nation as an intended means of helping solidify a sense of national unity.
See here:
https://www.historytoday.com/penne-r...entury-america