American Christmas In The 1800s

Americans did not always celebrate Christmas. In the 1800s the Christmas was not considered a holiday in America. Americans wanted to distance themselves from Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore are considered the founders of the modern American Christmas. Through their literature Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore popularized Christmas and shape many of our Christmas traditions today.
First, Washington Irving brought European Christmas traditions to America and helped shape St. Nicolas as a character. His first story that featured St. Nicolas was published in his book of short stories A History of New York which came out in 1809. In the story a Dutch man named Olaf Van Cortland arrives at the mouth of the Hudson river after a long and stormy journey across the Atlantic. He soon fell asleep and he had a vison of St. Nicholas flying over trees in a wagon while making his yearly journey to bring presents to children. He told Olaf to settle where New York is today. Giving St. Nicolas credit for founding New York City. He claimed that the story was an old Dutch legend. This was his first
On December 23, 1823 he anonymously published “The Night Before Christmas” in the Troy Sentinel newspaper. The poem continues to appeared in newspapers every December. Moore published the poem in a Book of his own 20 years after its first publication. In the poem he said his slay was pulled by eight reindeer which is still used today. Moore said he had based the poem on a Dutch neighbor. Moore said he wrote the poem for his children and he recited it to them on Christmas Eve in 1822 the year before it was published. Sense Moore did not claim that he wrote the poem till 20 years after it was first published it has been questioned if he actually wrote it. Moore was a very serious professor and most of his writing was serious. It is still contested if he wrote it or