Updated: December 30, 2025
Christmas Beyond Washington’s Crossing
This post isn’t just about dramatic Christmas moments from the American Revolution, like Washington crossing the Delaware River, nor is it a light look at decorations, caroling, or festive foods. Instead, it explores the evolution of how we Americans have observed and celebrated Christmas, which, in many ways, is revealing of our nation’s cultural and political transformation since the Colonial Era.
Here’s how I’ve structured the post:
- Part I:
- Importance of Revolutionary Christmas
- Christmas across the colonies
- Christmas highlights of the Revolution
- Part II (this post):
- Backdrop to Christmas in America – my take on this history
- Part III:
- Christmas and U.S. presidents: video and edited transcript of my in-depth interview with Dr. Carey Rober
The featured image is titled Washington Crossing the Delaware. Its Revolutionary history is detailed later in the post.
Christmas in the Revolutionary Era: Why It Matters
When we think of Christmas during the American Revolution, most of us picture Washington crossing the Delaware River for a surprise attack on the Hessians. That is an iconic and transformative event of the Revolution and should be remembered – hence it’s the featured image of this post. Still, it should not overshadow the many different Christmas traditions of the Revolutionary Era. Why? Because the evolution of Christmas in America mirrors and impacts the evolution of American culture and history.
In this post, you will note the diversity of how American colonists and later Americans observed and celebrated Christmas, if at all! This diversity stems from regional, religious, and ethnic differences. It also reflects the transformation of our federal government into a large national administration (think FDR, which we discuss below) as well as the explosive growth of commercial industries and our consumer culture.
To a great extent, the evolution of Christmas traditions from colonial America to Revolutionary America, and then to the United States and our modern superpower, reflects the transformation of our country from separate colonies — and later separate states — into a nation that stretches from sea to shining sea, and later influences events around the world.
If I were to sum it up, evolution of the American Christmas is part and parcel of our nation-building project. And that’s why it interests me.
In short, the evolution of the American Christmas is inseparable from our nation-building story — and that’s what makes it so compelling to me.
Christmas in America: A Personal Interpretation
I was recently speaking to a relative of mine, and he reminded me of how commercial Christmas has become. I thought about it, and remembered that during my own teenage years (1980s) and well into my 20s (1990s), stores were mostly closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But nowadays, many grocery stores are open until 3 to 4pm on Christmas Day, which feels strange compared to decades past and traditional observance
For the record. I love Christmas – just ask my family, whom I tend to annoy from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day with Christmas music and decorations galore
But regardless of how you and I may feel about Christmas, Christmas hasn’t really enjoyed a smooth history. In fact, questions, disagreements and controversies have been part of the Christmas story, since the very beginning.
Origins of Christmas In Western Culture
Regardless of what day we celebrate Christmas, whether it’s on December 25th, or on January 6th or 7th, as many Orthodox Christians do, it’s important to remember that Christmas became really big in Western culture after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor on Christmas Day in the year 800.
Later, William the Conqueror was crowned King of England on Christmas Day in 1066 – about two and a half months after the Battle of Hastings.
But for centuries after that celebrating and even observing Christmas wasn’t really what we think of Christmas today. As stated above, it wasn’t family time – not at all. Below, Dr. Carey Roberts will tell us his take on how Christmas finally became a family affair.
In the old days in Europe, Christmas celebrations included dancing, gambling, promiscuity, masques, pageants, street parties and bonfires. But that changed after the Protestant Reformation. For example, Scotland officially abolished Christmas in 1640. And in 1647, Puritans banned Christmas in England.
To give the above dates some perspective, I’ll take you across the ocean to America.
The English Pilgrims of our Thanksgiving tradition came to America (Plymouth) some 20 years before these anti-Christmas laws were enacted in England and Scotland.
Origins of Christmas In America
So how did Christmas become a family tradition? There are many explanations for this.
I’ll share two of them here with you. These are two that I am familiar with.
“Queen Charlotte in Robes of State”, by Joshua Reynolds, 1779 (oil on canvas, public domain). Painted in Reynolds’s London studio, this three-quarter-length portrait shows Queen Charlotte seated and turned slightly to the left, gazing toward the viewer. She wears an ermine-trimmed gown, lace sleeves, and a jeweled choker, with powdered hair adorned with pearls and a small crown. The red drapery is drawn back to reveal a fluted stone column behind her.
Queen Charlotte’s Christmas Story for America
The first story is that of Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), the German-born wife of King George III.
She introduced the Christmas tree to Britain. And even though we revolted against the rule of King George III, that didn’t stop us Americans from adopting Queen Charlotte’s Christmas.
Later, another British monarch, Queen Victoria, married yet another German – her first cousin Prince Albert. They published an image of their family around a Christmas tree, which became a sensation in England. This was in the 1840s, which brings me to my second story.
Charles Dickens’ Christmas Story for America
The second story is about a storyteller – Charles Dickens (1812-70).
Dickens’ famous novella, A Christmas Carol, was published in London in 1843.
It became an instant success and helped shape Christmas into a holiday about family, goodwill and compassion. And the story of A Christmas Carol is now inseparable from our Christmas tradition here in America.
Over the years, A Christmas Carol has enjoyed
- 42 Theatre and stage productions,
- 37 Film, animated film and movie productions,
- 42 TV adaptations, included animated productions,
- 40 radio and other recording productions and get this,
- 7 operas, and
- 4 ballet productions (I have a hard time picturing Ebenezer Scrooge in ballet tights).
By the way, the story of A Christmas Carol wasn’t always popular in the United States.
Of course, Charles Dickens was a celebrity in America, even before A Christmas Carol, for his other words such as Oliver Twist. But his celebrity status diminished after his visit to America in 1842. This is because he openly criticized America.
He criticized
• The American Press,
• The unsanitary conditions of American cities,
• The fact that Americans chewed tobacco and spit them out in public (for the record, many U.S. government buildings spittoons until the 1940s), and
• The institution of slavery.
He was also none too happy that bootleg copies of his works were freely available in the U.S., which meant that his work did not enjoy copyright protection in America.
And finally, he thought Americans were gloomy, a depressing bunch really. He confided to a friend that he would never live in America.
Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. With Illustrations by John Leech. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. First edition. Title page. Public Domain image.
I should place this comment in the perspective of 1842 America. When Dickens came here then, the United States was experiencing its first great depression – some 90 years before the 1930s Great Depression that we all know from our history. For the story of the of the 1840s great depression, I recommend America’s First Great Depression: Economic Crisis and Political Disorder After the Panic of 1837 by Alasdair Roberts.
As you can see from the totality of the above, it’s no wonder Americans weren’t embracing Dickens work. It took another 20 years and a New York Times publication in 1863 to bring Dickens’ popularity back to America.
By the way, the Dickens’ criticism of America didn’t die with history. It’s still with us today. What do I mean by that?
Next time you read A Christmas Carol, pay attention to this line by Scrooge “a mere United States’ security”. Basically, Charles Dickens was saying America’s debt is worthless. With these words, Dickens took a jab at America’s financial crisis, during which many English investors lost money in America, as US states and municipalities defaulted on their British loans.
Discover more about America’s Christmas traditions in Parts I and III:
About the Featured Image
The featured image is Washington Crossing the Delaware by German-American artist Emanuel Leutze. Painted in 1851, it depicts George Washington leading the Continental Army across the Delaware River on the night of December 25–26, 1776.
The original painting was destroyed during World War II. One version is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, while another was later sold at auction in 2022 for $45 million.
So You Think You Know The American Revolution?
Test your Revolutionary knowledge bona fides against others in our YouTube Community.
Question:
Which event on Christmas 1773 demonstrated open colonial defiance against British policies?
Options:
A) Boston Tea Party
B) Ship Polly turned away from Philadelphia
C) Battle of Bunker Hill
D) Declaration of Independence
About This Program
Analyzing American Revolution (AAR) is a special series podcast production of the History Behind News program. In this series, 33 professors (and counting) analyze the American Revolution from 33 different angles through in-depth interviews with host Adel Aali.
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Visual Index of the American Revolution
Explore the backstories and artist bios behind images of our Founding—before and after the American Revolution. These visuals shape how we remember—and reimagine—the Revolutionary Era.
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The History Behind News program (HbN) is committed to making in-depth history researched and written by scholars enjoyable and accessible to everyone. Our motto is bridging scholarly works to everyday news.
The histories we’ve uncovered encompass an impressively wide range of subjects from ancient history to U.S. politics and economy to race, women’s rights, immigration, climate, science, military, war, China, Europe, Middle East, Russia & Ukraine, Africa and the Americas to many other issues in the news. We also receive advanced copies of scholarly books and discuss them in our program (in the context of current news).
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They include Pulitzer Prize winners, renowned documentary producers, former White House advisors and other high-ranking government officials, and current and former senior reporters at The Wall Street Journal and New York Times Magazine. Many have testified in Congressional hearings and others frequently contribute to major media outlets and widely read publications, ranging from the BBC, NPR, PBS and MSNBC to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Think You Know the American Revolution?
