I always like to ask this question. How many of you have been here before . Show of hands . All right. Everybody. Great. Welcome back to the museum. Always like to make a shoutout when i see mr. Richard lions in the audience. The reason we are here in this space is because mr. Lyons made an incredible discover in the 90s that saved the building from being torn down. Always like a round of applause for mr. Lyons for his discovery. This Evenings Program is a pay what you please event. Meaning that at the conclusion of the program we encourage you to leave a donation based on what you thought the program and the museum is worth to you. And for an evening of Civil War History the donation bin is at the bom of the stairs at the front of the Visitor Center on the first floor. As you head out this evening if you would just drop something in there, all proceeds go to support the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office museum. The museum is member supported as well. If you are interested in learning more about membership or about becoming a member and supporter of the museum, please let myself or other Staff Members ken down at the front desk know. We will be happy to assist you. But tonights program we are excited about. Were exploring how the civil war shaped the celebration of christmas in the United States. Tonights presenter is brad stone, a longtime docent at the National Museum of civil war medicine and a dear friend of mine. Here is a bit about brad. He has had a long career with the federal government as a senior Public Relations executive dealing with a wide innovator of Public Health issues. In experience included leading public operations of the u. S. Food and Drugs Administration and the u. S. Substance abuse and Mental Health services administration. He currently combines interests in the civil war and medical history by volunteers as a docent on a regular basis at the National Museum of civil war medicine and also aboard the uss constellation in baltimore, harbor. Please join me in welcome brad stone, our civil war santa. Thank you. Thank you, jake. And again, thank you all very very much for coming out tonight. I hope that since its christmas time, the presentation im going to be giving is not the typical boring history talk. Instead, i intend it to make a boring history talk in which you can win some exciting prizes during the talk. Ill be giving some challenges that fit into the discussion about how the civil war really shaped the Christmas Holiday we all know and enjoy today. So to start out with injury its important to see how christmas was celebrated from the inception of our country to today and how, again, the civil war really shaped modern holiday. To begin with we should go back to colonial times. I think a lot of americans assume that the holiday that we celebrate today was really brought to us by our pilgrim forefathers. Well, thats definitely not the case. In fact, our pilgrim forefathers, the pilgrims and puritans did not particularly care for the holiday at all. In fact sthey shunned it. They viewed it it as associatewood things like the church of england which they had to flee or catholicism which they didnt like. So in new england, the holiday was not celebrated at all. In fact for quite a period of time in places like boston it was illegal to celebrate the holiday. And if you were caught doing so you would be severely fined. Now, other colonies had a far different approach to the holiday. In places like jamestown they did celebrate christmas. But they dont celebrate it or didnt celebrate it in the way we do today in a refer inks day it was for the more of a partying holiday. In his diary captain james smith of the Jamestown Colony recorded he had lots of eggnog that day and full of spirit but not necessarily religious spirit. Again, from our colonial times, the holiday is perceived in different ways by americans. Now well go to revolutionary times. Again, different colonies look at it different ways. And people within the colonies look at it in different ways. Many of the patriots are actually somewhat suspicious of the holiday. Again, they associate it with britain. And at that point they really dont want much to do with britain. So they avoid celebrating it. But others like George Washington do celebrate it. But, again, he celebrates it in a different way that most of us would do today. It isnt really to him and many others a major religious holiday. Indeed, he doesnt consider it that. And thats one of the reasons why he chooses it in 1776 to launch one of his most decisive attacks of the war, against the heshen barracks in trenen, new jersey. Its a very successful attack one of his most successful victories. In large part its due to the fact that the heshen who were german mercenaries fighting for the british do observe the holiday. They night of Christmas Eve setting up decorations eating special foods and drinking. Now, contrary to popular misconception, they dont drink themselves into a drunken stupor. Thats not why they are defeated the following morning. But a large part of the defeat is due to the fact that they are observing the Christmas Holiday. And the americans are not. So, again, in revolutionary times, christmas is not the holiday we think of today. So in looking why christmas in america is not sore of universally reveered. We have to look at what americans are thinking of when they think of christmas around the end of 18th century and early 19th century. And they are looking at the traditions of europe. At that time america is almost entirely a nation of immigrants. So theyre looking at the traditions of europe and other places. And when you look at those traditions a lot of them rrnt very reverent and a lot have weird aspects to them. One of the big practices in england and other parts of europe is the practice of mumerring. Thats one of the major ways you celebrate the christmas season. What is mumerring . Today we may think of mumerrors as people marching in the parade in philadelphia. But mumers at the time of you know, the late 18th century early 19th century are groups of people, usually Wearing Masks and disguises. And they a lot of them come from sort of the lower socioeconomic spectrum. And theyre going to houses of more well off families and what they do is they basically entertain them in exchange for entertainment they expect stuff. Its either food, or its presents. Or very often is alcohol. This is apparent when you look at the traditional songs we sing today. One of them is we wish you a Merry Christmas. Well that sounds pretty wholesome. About you if look at the lyrics carefully you see things like for we all like some figury pudding. We all like some figury pudding. Bring it right here. We wont go until we get some. To me that sounds more like extortion threat than cigaretting. So its understandable americans have skepticism about the holiday. Another favorite. Here we come awasling whats that about. Again the bands of masked people coming to your home saying we want alcohol. The wasle is a traditional punch bowl you provide alcoholic beverages from. In some cases this is the halloween from hell. Indeed in newfoundland they outlaw mumerring because people have been murdered in the homes by gangs of mumers. So in the early 19th century its understandable a lot of americans are wary of celebrating christmas. Now, thats going to change for a couple of big reasons. Oops. Well i dont have the slide so ill talk about it instead. Two of the big things that are going to influence how the holiday is celebrated occur at the very outset of the 19th century. The first is the second great awakening. This is an enormous religious Survival Movement that sweeps across the nation, and makes americans far more religious than theyve ever been before. And it affects almost every aspect of their lives. And the major aspect of it is how they are going to look at tradition christian holidays like christmas. Christmas becomes far more of a time for reveerens. And looking at the birth of christ and that affects how americans look at the holiday. The other major occurrence at the turn of the century is the Industrial Revolution is kicking off in places like england and the United States particularly in the north. What that is doing is basically creating more availability of goods and affordable prices. And what does that allow you to do . Well that allows you to manifest a spirit of giving and sharing at christmas by exchanging gifts. So, again, that is also a very important aspect and why americans start to warm up to the Christmas Holiday. Now one of the other problems that americans face is even if you want to celebrate christmas, what tradition do you draw upon . All the nations of europe basically had different forms of christmas and different images of the spirit of christmas, or the santa claus type figure. Now one basic problem is when do you celebrate the holiday . That ranges all over the calendar. For example, if you are from holland you sbrit in early december. But if you are from eastern europe, youll celebrate it in early january. And most other european nations have dates somewhere, you know, around the time we celebrate it but not exactly. So thats one question you have to answer. The other one is, again, who is the spirit of christmas going to center around . You have all these different figures, father christmas from england, peir knowle from france. Santa claus from holland and belgium and st. Nicholas from german. And they have things in common. They can be members of zz top, the beard thing going. But they have wildly different approaches. Some are wildly spiritual, some not. Some are focused on children and gifts to children. Some are more oriented to adult, you know, recreation. So different images and different approaches. So someone is going to decide how we celebrate the holiday and when we celebrate the holiday. So in looking at the Christmas Holiday oops. Im sorry. So, there is the slide. Okay. In looking at the holiday, we see that these forces that are driving america toward accepting christmas are starting to seep into our culture by the early 19th century. And you start to see in in the literature that becomes more and more abundant as the century rolls on. It starts in america in 1819 with washington irving, one of americas most faumz writers, writing something, a series of essays called the sketch book of geoffrey crayon gentleman. Basically laying out how a proper family should celebrate the holiday. You move away from drunken revelry to a more genteel, wholesome celebration of the holiday. Shortly there after followed up in 1822 by reverend clement collar moore what he calls a visit from st. Nicholas. What we call was twas the night before christmas. And thats laying out what christmas should be about, its about the family, oriented to the children. And he is doing things important to laying out the foundation for what santa should all be about. Santa is a jolly guy. Santa is there to provide presents to the boys and girls. He is a very benevolent figure. And he also establishes mode of transportation. How does santa get about . Well its in the poem, through flying reindeer. A lot of the things we think about christmas are established through this poem. Now there are a few things that need to be tweaked. He refers to santa as a right jolly old elf. You can see a a little bit big to be an elf. He talks about tinny reindeer. I dont know if you you have seen any reindeer lately. I think they lose a few pounds. But he gets the elements correct. So much so here is the first challenge. Can anyone name the 8 reindeer in the poem . Dasher prancer and vixen, and. C. Pid. Donner, blitzen. Yeah, you got them all. So, for doing that, im going to bestow on i guess you can share these. These are reindeer nuggets. Made by the reindeer. I wont tell you how they are made. But please pass them along and enjoy. There you go. Congratulations to you all. There you go. The challenges get worse by the way. No just kidding. Where was moore from. Moore was from the United States. Okay. But speaking of the other great literary influence of this era, charles dickens. He is from england. He will write the very famous and very influential a christmas carol. Thats really going to establish a lot of aspects to the modern christmas as well, the idea of christian charity, the idea of it again being a familycentric holiday, and particularly the idea of children being at the forefront of it. And he does that to the figure of tiny tim. Now its very important that he is writing this at the time of Queen Victoria or the victorian age. And the reason being is during that period both in the United States and in england, everybody is following the lead of Queen Victorias court. So his work is a blockbuster, not only in england but also in the United States. And we will talk about this more. But, again, what is happening in victorian england will happen in the United States during this period. So were starting to get to the point where everybody likes the Christmas Holiday. Everybody wants to celebrate it. But the question is, whose tradition are you going to follow . As i mentioned before, there were all the european traditions. So who is going to be the dominant one . Is it going to be the british tradition . Is it going to be the scotch or irish tradition . The answer is no, its actually going to be the german tradition. So those heshens lost the battle of tradition win the war of how we celebrate christmas. So the influence from germany is coming from two directions. One external and one internally. Lets see who is doing it outside the United States. Its this guy. Prince albert of kohlberg pmt he will become the Margaret Stewart of christmas in both victorian england and the United States. And as Martha Stewart would say, thats a good thing. He is influence because the he is the husband of Queen Victoria. When he comes to their court, he introduces a lot of the native traditions of germany. One of the biggest is the Christmas Tree. And he will introduce that along with the idea that it should be decorated with lots of ornaments. He also stresses the importance of giving gifts, which many people trace back to the influence of martin luther. He thought that was a way of really observing the birth of christ. And he also makes it thinks its a good idea to especially wrap the gifts in special christmas wrapping paper. So he introduces all these things into the court. And very quickly the leading british publications of the time publish these illustrations of what the holiday looks like in her home, Queen Victorias home. And almost immediately every proper british family has a Christmas Tree. And when these images cross the pond to the United States the same thing happens. Almost immediately every proper American Home wants to have a Christmas Tree decorated with ornaments. Now, speaking of these ornaments, at about the same time these traditions are catching on both in england and the United States, germany is developing a whole industry in creating glass ornaments. Indeed, in industry will become so pervasive that germany will remain the leading provider of christmas ornaments to the United States all the way up until world war ii. Now this tradition of decorating the tree establishes two important things. Generally speaking, its a time when families get together and they enjoy each Others Company by decorating the tree. Its kind of a bonding experience. Now, my home it establishes a different tradition, that is my wife yelling at me for columnsly dropping the ornaments and breaking them. But its a very important part of the Christmas Holiday. Now, where is the other part of the german influence coming from . Well its coming from a wave of german immigrants coming into the country in the 20 years leading up to the civil war. About 1. 4 million germans come into this country. Its comparable in size to the wave of irish immigrants also coming into this country. But the german immigrants have a little bit more influence than other immigrant groups for a couple of reasons. One they tend to be better educated. Two, they tend to be more skilled. And the other thing is there is already a sizable germanamerican population here in the country established. So when they come, again they bring a lot of the traditions. They bring the Christmas Trees. They are bringing, you know, this idea that you should give gifts and that it should be centered around the children. So leading into the decades just before the civil war, christmas is really taking off. And indeed, its not only becoming part of the culture, its becoming a significant part of our economy. You start to see industries developed around things like christmas cards, christmas wrapping paper, christmas decorations, and things like toys. And another things thats happening is christmas advertising really starts in earnest during this period and will be part of the publishing industry. All of these things are gelling and creating a holiday we can rate relate to more. But thats not to say there arent some out liars. Out th