Christmas, as we know it today, was a very different holiday in the early days of the U.S. In fact, in the 1800s, it was not celebrated nationally, but was left to the individual states to decide. By the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, only 29 of the 34 states, had made Christmas a legal holiday.
Join historian Brad Stone to look at the customs, celebrations, and icons of Christmas as they evolved. Stone, a retired senior public relations executive, specialized in medical and public health issues with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Substances Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). He currently serves as a docent at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD and also serves aboard the USS Constellation in Baltimore, where he portrays a Navy surgeon.
In this presentation, Stone reviews the evolution of our Christmas symbols and customs, which were turned to propaganda tools during the Civil War-a dramatic change he names the “weaponization of Christmas.”