Christmas in 1860's

[corn-fed-erate]

In what ways did they celebrate Christmas differently than today? What did kids think about or believe about the holiday?

 

[MRB1863]

I can't imagine it was anywhere near as commercialized as Christmas is today. Rather celebrated as the true meaning of Christmas with family and friends. Gifts were not as bountiful as today and many were practical vs. lavish.

 

[Stony]

 

[James B White]

Like a lot of stuff, there's going to be a north-south split on this, broadly speaking, with northerners being more restrained in celebration, and southern plantations going all out for a week of generosity and celebrating, following the pre-war tradition if they were able.

The following search put into google's search bar (not an url, but a search string; ignore the hyperlink that shows up and paste the whole thing into google's search bar):

site:www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/ christmas -godey's

will bring up lots of wartime newspaper articles about Christmas, mostly southern. Some are descriptions of celebrations, while others are ads for Christmas gifts, or there's the notice in the Leavenworth Kansas Daily Times of Dec. 10, 1861:

"The Messrs. Deckelman will receive their stock of jewelry and Christmas toys, to-day.These goods were supposed to have been taken by the rebels in Platte county, but fortunately for the Messrs. Deckelman, they have turned up all right."

 

[diane]

Many, many moons ago an elderly friend of my parents passed away and we got a box of Christmas decorations. In there were decorations from around the mid to late 19th century - we have them carefully put away! There was a long string of small tin plates, like cupcake holders. You put candles in there and then everybody got around the tree and sang carols while lighting the candles. Robert E Lee talked about a houseful of family members - good thing he had a BIG house! - and having dinner then a special punch his daughter made up. I can't recall much in the way of gift giving at that time.

The war didn't take much of a Christmas break. Forrest set off on his West Tennessee raid in 1862 on Dec 11 and spent Christmas week ripping up the railroads around Jackson. That was one of his masterpieces and he did have some good Union loot that, rumor has it, was distributed to distressed residents of the area around abouts.