A YANKEE DOODLE CHRISTMAS some triva about american christmas celebrations

1. Celebration of Christmas was banned in the colony of Massachusetts from 1659 - 1681. The puritans saw it as a pagan celebration. Businesses were open and churches shut. Exchanging gifts or singing Christmas Carols or missing school would result in a fine
2. Hessians, German soldiers hired by the British to help fight the Revolution abandoned their posts on Christmas of 1776 to celebrate around a candle-lit tree. Their celebration enabled George Washington and his army to cross the Delaware River undetected and defeat them at the Battle of Trenton - a turnign point in the American Revolution.
3. Congress was in session on December 25,1789, our country's first Christmas under the new constitution. Christmas wasn't declared a federal holiday in the US until 1870.
4. In an early example of psychological warfare, Abraham Lincoln asked illustrator Thomas Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some Union Soldiers. The image was to show Santa's support of the Union and thus demoralize the Confederate forces.
5. In 1889, the first White House Christmas tree was displayed by President Harrison. In 1895, President Cleveland added the innovation of electric lights to the tree. 
6. The tradition of the lighting of the National Christmas Tree began in 1923 when President Coolidge lit the tree erected on the Ellipse south of the White House. 
7. The tradition of the National Christmas Tree lighting has continued until today with a few exceptions. During World War 2, the lights were not lit as a security precaution. In 1963, the tree was not lit until December 22 because of a national 30-day period of mourning following the assassination of President Kennedy. In 1979 President Carter ordered only the star atop the tree be lit to remember the hostages being held in Iran. 
8. President Eisenhower was the first president to send out an official White House Christmas card. The tradition began in 1953 when Ike allowed one of his own paintings - of Abe Lincoln - to be printed on a card and sent out offically from the White House. 
9. President Theodore Roosevelt was an early conservationist. In 1902, he refused to have a Christmastree in the White House out of concern for the planet. His son Archie, however, had a small tree smuggled into his room and put up in his closet. Needless to say, when the word got out about the tree, the president was not pleased. 
10. The Salavation Army has been sending their iron kettles into the streets since 1890s when they began collecting to feed the poor at Christmas in San Francisco. 
11. The tradition of standing a Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in NY City began in 1931 -- by construction workers building the well-known site. It was decorated with "strings of canberries, garland of paper, and even a few tin cans". The first time the tree waslit by electric lights wasn't until 1956.