The Real Stories Behind Our Cherished Christmas Traditions

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Visit eBay.com for terms. This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories and welcome to our very special Christmas episodes. And we love doing this at this time of year every year to remind everybody why we're celebrating this season. Here's Greg Hengler with the real story of our cherished Christmas holiday. Ah, Christmas. Up goes the tree and on go the lights. An exciting season of presents and parties only a Scrooge could hate. But where did all our traditions start?

Why do we bring huge evergreen trees into our homes? How did we get Santa and his eight tiny reindeer? We are about to pull back the curtain to unveil the hidden history of our cherished holiday.

These days cities and towns seem to be dressing up earlier and earlier for the Christmas season. And there are lights. Lots and lots of lights. Here's Ace Collins, author of Stories Behind the Best Loved Songs of Christmas and Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. Christmas trees would not be the same without Christmas lights. And yes, for hundreds of years, there were Christmas trees with no lights on them.

As a matter of fact, a man named Johnson who worked for Thomas Edison realized that there was another way to use the light bulb other than just illuminating a house. And he created a strand of multicolored lights that twinkled ironically enough and flashed and put them on his tree in the last 20 years of the 1800s. And people came by from everywhere to look at this magical picture in his window of this tree with these lights. And he was such an inventor, as a matter of fact, his tree actually turned as well. So they had many, many reasons to be impressed with it.

Journalists from all over the United States were sent east to report this story. What ultimately happened was people who were wealthy wanted lights. Well, it took a lot of money to buy lights. It would not be until the 1920s and 1930s when a couple of different American companies developed very cheap lights that you could put on trees for a dollar or two. And that is when it came from being a rich person's toy to a part of a standard American Christmas. And those lights on the tree, initially people would put seven lights on a tree.

Why seven? Because that's all there was on a strand. Then they made strands that you could hook into each other and they started growing to where now many people have thousands of lights on their tree. The Christmas story is one we all know.

After a rude refusal by a local innkeeper, Mary and Joseph bedded down in a barn in Bethlehem where they gave birth to a son, the Son of God. Those are the biblical origins of Christmas. But centuries before Jesus walked the earth, early Europeans were celebrating light and birth in the darkest days of winter.

Every December, on the shortest day in the year when the earth was tilted furthest from the sun, came the winter solstice. It marked the darkest day of the year, but also the time when the promise of longer days gave cause to celebrate. To honor the occasion, ancient Norse tribes held a 12-day festival.

Here's the director of Nordic studies at the University of Colorado, Dr. Jackson Crawford. Their holiday was called jól, which also survives in the form of an English word jól, which is cognate with the Norse word. We know that the festival contained a lot of feasting and drinking. Legally, that there was a minimum amount of alcohol that had to be consumed by each free man. And whereas measurements in the sagas are not always very clear or very strictly defined, this amount, as near as I can figure, would be about four gallons over the course of those three nights.

So a pretty considerable amount, leading to the only culture I'm aware of in which you might have been pulled over by the cops for drinking too little. Fathers and sons dragged home the biggest log they could find and set it on the fire. This jól log burned for all 12 days of the feast, and they brought evergreens, furs, and holly into their homes. Over the centuries, the concept grew and later it was co-opted into our modern Christmas tree custom. Today, picking out a tree is a family tradition. And in any given year, American farmers are growing 350 million trees on 15,000 Christmas tree farms. One San Antonian couple finds theirs at Pop and Noel's Christmas tree farm, which has been in business for over 40 years. Here's what they look for in a tree.

We look for the shape, you know, the fullness of the tree, and we try to stay around six, seven feet. To have the smell of the tree in the house, it just feels more Christmassy. So what does any of this have to do with the birth of Jesus 2,000 years ago? After all, the Nativity, derived from the Latin word natal, which means birth, is where the story of Christmas all begins. There are two different sources from the New Testament for the Nativity. There's the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. They tell us two different sets of things about Jesus' birth, and what we do is we put these two stories together to get the full picture which we call the Nativity. Here's Archbishop Fulton Sheen with the story. Mary and Joseph set out from the village of Nazareth for the village of Bethlehem.

Mary is now with child, awaiting birth. He searched for a place where he to whom heaven and earth belonged might be born. Certainly thought Joseph that there would be room in the village inn. The inn is the gathering place of public opinion, the rallying place of the popular and the successful, but there's no room in the place where the world gathers.

Stable. Ah, that is a place for outcasts, the ignored and the forgotten. Shepherds and wise men came to visit him. Shepherds, they who know, they know nothing.

Wise men, they who know, they do not know everything. And you're listening to the real reasons behind our Christmas season and to merely hear Fulton Sheen on the air. What a blessing for all of us. This was a voice that Americans heard across the country. When we come back, more of the real reasons behind our Christmas season here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country.

Stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to our American stories dot com and click the donate button.

Give a little give a lot. Go to our American stories dot com and give when the world gets in the way of your music. Try the new Bose QuietComfort earbuds to next gen earbuds uniquely tuned to the shape of your ears. They use exclusive Bose technology that personalizes the audio performance to fit you, delivering the world's best noise cancellation and powerfully immersive sound so you can hear and feel every detail of the music you love. Bose QuietComfort earbuds to sound shape to you.

To learn more, visit Bose dot com. Hey, there's a better way to fly. Instead of being stuck in endless lines and packed onto planes, try simplifying your travel with Surf Air. Save an average of two hours on every trip and avoid crowded airports with a new way to fly private. With Surf Air, you'll fly from smaller airports closer to your home. There are no lines, no waiting and no stress. Surf Air dot com, the best alternative to commercial air travel that makes flying easy. Get a free quote on your next flight at Surf Air dot com.

There's a better way to fly private. The holidays are a great time for storytelling. The pace slows down and you can let yourself get lost in once upon a time. Now Audible is introducing a special series for music lovers. It's called Origins, a brand new Audible Originals podcast with some of today's groundbreaking musicians sharing music and stories. Hear from Billie Eilish, Camilo, Doja Cat, King Princess, Flying Lotus, Coffee, Mickey Guyton and Tobi Wigwe as they candidly share moments from their past that have shaped them and fueled their work. Origins is an immersive listening experience, so you'll not only learn things you never knew about these artists, but each story is told in a unique way with sound design that draws you into their world. It's like nothing you've ever heard. So spend some of your holidays with Origins, your invitation to not just hear, but also feel what inspired these musicians.

Visit audible dot com slash origins and start listening now. And we continue with our American stories and we've been uncovering the reasons behind the Christmas season. Let's pick up where we last left off with the biblical origins of Christmas. Here's Greg Hengel. One of the few things that all scholars seem to agree on is that Jesus wasn't born in wintertime.

Now, I know that's a terrible thing to say, but let me explain. The early followers of Jesus Christ weren't concerned with marking his birthday, partially because they expected his imminent return. But this didn't prevent early Christian scholars and present day historians from trying to speculate when he was born. The one thing you will get from their estimates on Christ's birth is that they all occur in the springtime because one of the few details you'll find in the gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus Christ is that it was a time when the shepherds were with their flocks in the fields. That could not have been in December because what we do know about the traditions of ancient Judea is that at that time shepherds took their flocks indoors so they wouldn't get cold at night starting in November and they wouldn't bring them back out again until March. So how did Jesus end up with the birthday on December 25th? Long before Jesus was born, the Romans celebrated many pagan holidays, especially in December.

Here's scholar of religion, Andrew Henry. Saturnalia is probably the most famous Roman holiday, which may have something to do with its proximity to Christmas. But what is Saturnalia? Quick summary, Saturnalia was the Roman festival of the god Saturn. It began on December 17th with a mass public sacrifice at the temple of Saturn, followed by several days of feasting, gambling, drinking, and most notably, the role reversal between slaves and slave owners. A holiday when slaves were encouraged to dine with their slavers, talk back to them, and even make them serve the slaves. The second Roman party was New Year's.

It lasted five days and it was quite enjoyable as well. And in between Saturnalia and New Year's, there was a birthday for a Roman god, Mithras, on December 25th. So how do we get from Mithras to Santa? Here's Reverend Canon Jim Rosenthal, president and founder of the Saint Nicholas Society. The idea of Santa Claus, it comes from a long tradition and Santa Claus was a person, a real person. And he had a real name and his name was Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was born in a place called Patara, in what is now Turkey. At a very young age, his parents died. They happened to be very wealthy, so Nicholas was well cared for for the future financially. And because he had very few relatives, he was sent off to a monastery to live with his uncle who was a priest. His whole being would be transformed.

Why? Because he saw people coming to the clergy, to the monks for help. So he was ordained to the priesthood and he was a priest for a short time before he actually would be made a bishop. And there's a famous story of Nicholas helping three girls who would have been sold into prostitution because their father did not have enough money for dowries for them and Nicholas comes to the rescue. He hears about the story and there we have the legend of the climbing up on the chimney and dropping gold in three nights consecutively. One bag of gold for each girl as they sought to have dowries and to be married. The first night he gets away with it.

He does it. It drops into the stocking hanging by the chimney. The second night, the father and the girls are so surprised because now one girl was saved and now a second girl.

They wake up in the morning and there's another bag of gold. The father decides to stay up at night and see who this gift giver is. And sure enough, the third bag of gold goes into the stocking and the father runs out and he's confronted by a man in a cape and it's good old Saint Nicholas. And he falls on his knees and says, Nicholas, thank you, thank you, thank you.

And Nicholas says, don't thank me, thank God and don't tell anybody. He became by legend penniless because he gave everything away. He dies in 343 in office as a bishop. It is through him that we have many of the traditions that we love at Christmas time. One, the bishop's staff, the candy cane, something that reminds us of his role as a leader in the church. We have the gold coins, chocolate coins we get now, but in his day they were real gold coins and he gave them to people. He becomes the figure of someone known as Santa Claus or in certain parts of the world, Father Christmas.

After Christianity became Rome's official religion in the fourth century, leaders chose to absorb pagan traditions rather than outlaw them. But in a prelude to those who complain that it's such a shame we don't celebrate Christmas the way they used to, that Christmas has been commercialized. Well, 16 centuries ago, Archbishop Gregory of Constantinople urged that the Christmas celebration be conducted after a heavenly and not an earthly manner. And he warned his congregants against feasting to excess, dancing and crowning the doors.

Here again is Ace Collins. One of the most interesting traditions and I think maybe the most fascinating tradition I have found is mistletoe. The kissing plant, how did that become a part of Christmas? The early missionaries did something that I thought was so brilliant.

They took the culture that was already there and found a way to explain the gospel to heathen people. When they got to the Vikings and the Celts, they discovered that these people looked up in trees in the wintertime and they looked at the mistletoe plant and they thought it was this mysterious, wonderful sense of power. Here was this green plant growing out of what looked like a dead piece of wood.

Well, they were so enamored with mistletoe that they would not fight battles in force with mistletoe. It was known as the plant of peace. Well, the early missionaries looked at these plants that were green and in Europe had both white and red berries. And as they were sharing the gospel, they pointed to that tree and said, see that living sprig coming out of that dead piece of wood? That represents Christ on the cross.

He came down and he lived again. That green represents the everlasting life that you can receive from accepting Christ as your savior. The white berries represent the purity of his life.

The red berries represent the blood he shed for you. When these people became Christians, they thought so much of that imagery created by these missionaries, reinterpretation of mistletoe, that they would put it over babies' cribs to remind them of their faith. They would put it over their doors to signify that they were Christians. And they thought so much of it and they wanted their young people to remember the lessons of Christ's life and his faith so deeply that when couples got married, they got married underneath a mistletoe plant. Well, what is the last thing that happens in a marriage ceremony?

You kiss each other. Nowadays, we've lost the story and it's been replaced as the kissing plant at Christmas. The Church continued to absorb various ancient traditions and what emerged were two experiences of Christmas, one sacred and one secular. Each of these Christmases had their own music, just like we have today.

Here's historian Dr. James Palmer and Jim Rosenthal. We have stories from the 15th century about people singing carols in the backs of churches and being asked to leave by priests who thought that they were inappropriate. They are very important.

It's like stained glass. They tell a story and they do it in a non-judgmental way and so people enjoy them. They were started basically as drinking songs and as songs that people would sing in pubs and fairs and carnivals and many of the tunes come from those kind of traditions. But what do they say? Hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king. Charles Wesley, some of the greatest theologians of all time, give us the text of these carols and they're the kind of things that we keep with us for the rest of our life. We memorize them just by nature of hearing them all the time and they become so important to us. And you're listening to stories behind the stories of our Christmas traditions.

These stories continue in our special Christmas celebration here on Our American Stories. When the world gets in the way of your music, try the new Bose QuietComfort earbuds too. Next-gen earbuds uniquely tuned to the shape of your ears. They use exclusive Bose technology that personalizes the audio performance to fit you, delivering the world's best noise cancellation and powerfully immersive sound so you can hear and feel every detail of the music you love. Bose QuietComfort earbuds too, sound shape to you.

To learn more, visit Bose.com. Hey, there's a better way to fly. Instead of being stuck in endless lines and packed onto planes, try simplifying your travel with Surf Air. Save an average of two hours on every trip and avoid crowded airports with a new way to fly private. With Surf Air, you'll fly from smaller airports closer to your home. There are no lines, no waiting, and no stress. SurfAir.com, the best alternative to commercial air travel that makes flying easy. Get a free quote on your next flight at SurfAir.com.

There's a better way to fly private. The holidays are a great time for storytelling. The pace slows down, and you can let yourself get lost in once upon a time. Now, Audible is introducing a special series for music lovers. It's called Origins, a brand new Audible Originals podcast with some of today's groundbreaking musicians sharing music and stories. Hear from Billie Eilish, Camilo, Doja Cat, King Princess, Flying Lotus, Coffee, Mickey Guyton, and Tobi Wigwe as they candidly share moments from their past that have shaped them and fueled their work. Origins is an immersive listening experience, so you'll not only learn things you never knew about these artists, but each story is told in a unique way with sound design that draws you into their worlds.

It's like nothing you've ever heard. So spend some of your holidays with Origins, your invitation to not just hear, but also feel what inspired these musicians. Visit audible.com slash origins and start listening now. And we continue with our American stories and the real reasons behind our Christmas season.

Let's pick up where we last left off. Beginning in the 15th century, medieval Christmas carols were gaining popularity. The holiday was establishing roots in both the sacred and the secular traditions.

Let's continue with Greg Hengler. But medieval caroling was not just about caroling, it was about drinking. At every door revelers begged for a gulp from the household punch bowl, getting drunker with every note they sang. Besides singing, they could also dance or act a rude drama, mocking propriety and challenging the social order, which was a reflection of the Saturnalia holiday. But all of this celebration and merriment didn't sit well, particularly after the Protestant Reformation. One of the hallmarks of Martin Luther's message was to clear away from the entire church calendar all the feast days and saints days.

Saint Nicholas feast day was one of the most popular on the Catholic Church calendar, perhaps because it also involved gift giving. So what Martin Luther suggested was this. Instead of telling kids about Saint Nicholas bringing gifts, they would tell the kids that the gifts were brought by the Christ child himself. Now, how do you say Christ child in Luther's German language?

Christkindl. Well, Luther's attempts failed, but Christkindl got swallowed up by Christmas and got transformed into Kris Kringle, yet another endearing name for the big man in the red suit. So why did Luther declare a war on Saint Nick?

He did because it wasn't mentioned in the Bible. One of the messages of the Protestant or Protestant Reformation was go back to the Bible, don't add to it, don't subtract from it. A part of the logic behind that argument was expressed by an American Puritan of a later generation, Ezra Stiles, who was one of the first presidents of Yale College, who said this, Had it been the will of Christ that the anniversary of his nativity should have been celebrated, he would have at least let us know the day. By the 17th century, Christian reformers were losing patience with the rowdier Christmas traditions. In 1652, after overthrowing King Charles I, England's new Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, banned Christmas. Ministers who preached about the nativity on Christmas Day could be imprisoned.

Churches risked fines if they tried to decorate their buildings. The law said that shops must stay open on Christmas as if it were any other business day. But Christmas would have an equally hard time in New England during the early 17th century. The newly formed Puritan colony of Massachusetts wanted no part of the holiday. And in 1659, it banned Christmas too. And it stayed that way for over two decades.

Here again is Ace Collins. You know, you really do not want an old-fashioned Christmas. And the reason you don't want an old-fashioned Christmas in the United States and Great Britain is because if you go back before 1840, Christmas literally was Mardi Gras on steroids.

I mean, it is a combination of also a bit of Halloween mixed in. But the old song that everybody sings to this day, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, there's a line in that song that looks confusing. We won't leave until we get some. Well, back in England and the United States, there would be drunken bands of men in the 16th, 17th, and 1800s that on Christmas Eve would go to the wealthy sections of town. And they would sing that song and then they would put in there what they wanted.

Usually it was ale or money. And then the line came, We won't go until we got some. We won't go until we got some. We won't go until we got some.

So bring some out here. Therefore, in England and the United States, Christmas Eve was a time when you kept the women and children at home. You did not want them out on the streets. The city of New York and Boston, for instance, tried to have curfews and they put extra police on the street to protect people during Christmas. And unless you were a Lutheran or a Catholic, you ignored Christmas altogether. In the United States, Congress met on Christmas. The president's office was open on Christmas.

The Senate met on Christmas up until about 1840, 1850, and they did it because America ignored Christmas. Oh, bring us some figgy pudding. Oh, bring us some figgy pudding.

Oh, bring us some figgy pudding and bring it out here. During the Revolutionary War, America had still not yet embraced Christmas, which in one instance was a blessing. One of the key and most inspiring battles of the Revolution was the Battle of Trenton. This battle has been immortalized in the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware as he boldly stands at the front of the boat next to the American flag. Washington made that crossing on Christmas 1776.

One of the primary reasons that the Americans were able to prevail was because they surprised the Hessians, the German mercenaries who worked for the British at Trenton, New Jersey, because they were all drunk. They had been celebrating Christmas, but the Americans did not. In spite of the early success at outlawing Christmas in the New World, boatloads of immigrants soon overpowered the wishes of the Puritans.

The anti-Christmas laws may have remained on the books, but they were soon ignored. But as America matured, so did its Christmas customs, thanks to the efforts of two very gifted New Yorkers in the 1800s. Clement Clark Moore was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature, as well as divinity and biblical learning at the General Theological Seminary in New York City.

St. Peter's Episcopal Church was developed on land donated by Moore, land we now know as the Chelsea neighborhood. And in his spare time, Moore wrote poetry for pleasure. In 1822, Clement Clark Moore had an idea that would change Christmas forever. Moore wrote a 56-line poem for his four children he called A Visit from St. Nicholas.

Here's Ace Collins. We know what now is Twas the Night Before Christmas. That poem, which was just for his children, to give them a grasp of what Christmas was like in Germany and Austria ultimately was published in American newspapers. And here's one of the most interesting things about it. It was the businesses first that seized upon this. They thought, presents?

We can find a way to sell families gifts for children. And they jumped on it. Matter of fact, they put these various St. Nicks in stores starting in 1840s and 1850s to draw children in. By the way, the St. Nicks they put in stores looked nothing like the Santa Claus that we have today.

Most of them were tall and they wore green and they had weird little hats. And they didn't look anything like the Santa that we have that we can thank Coca-Cola for. What it amounts to as much as anything else is the churches also realized that once Christmas's focus was not on drunkenness and partying, but on children, they could open their doors in the United States for Christmas Eve services. The government eventually declared Christmas a holiday. And so literally speaking in the United States, it was Santa Claus that saved Christmas for Christians. Thanks to Moore's poem, one could say Santa had become America's national saint.

And you've been listening to the story of the real story. The real reasons behind our Christmas seasons. Christmas lights.

St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Santa Claus himself. These stories. Well, now we know a little more.

I know I'm learning more by the minute here. And by the way, we always welcome your stories here on our American stories. Send them to our American stories dot com. We love telling the stories of this country and we love telling the story of the traditions of this country. When we come back, more of this remarkable story, the unknown and untold story, the story of the real reasons behind our Christmas season here on our special Christmas episodes.

Celebrating the season here on our American stories. When the world gets in the way of your music, try the new Bose QuietComfort earbuds to next gen earbuds uniquely tuned to the shape of your ears. They use exclusive Bose technology that personalizes the audio performance to fit you, delivering the world's best noise cancellation and powerfully immersive sound so you can hear and feel every detail of the music you love. Bose QuietComfort earbuds to sound shape to you.

To learn more, visit Bose dot com. Imagine air travel that's simple, hassle-free and fast. That's Surf Air. Save hours on every trip. Avoid busy, crowded terminals and fly from airports closer to your home.

No crowds, no long lines, no stress. With Surf Air's private flights, you're in control of your travel day, not the other way around. Surf Air dot com. The most convenient way to fly. Get a free quote on your next flight at Surf Air dot com.

There's a better way to fly private. The holidays are a great time for storytelling. The pace slows down and you can let yourself get lost in once upon a time. Now, Audible is introducing a special series for music lovers. It's called Origins, a brand new Audible Originals podcast with some of today's groundbreaking musicians sharing music and stories. Hear from Billie Eilish, Camilo, Doja Cat, King Princess, Flying Lotus, Coffee, Mickey Guyton and Tobi Wigwe as they candidly share moments from their past that have shaped them and fueled their work. Origins is an immersive listening experience, so you'll not only learn things you never knew about these artists, but each story is told in a unique way with sound design that draws you into their worlds.

It's like nothing you've ever heard. So spend some of your holidays with Origins, your invitation to not just hear, but also feel what inspired these musicians. Visit audible dot com slash origins and start listening now. And we continue with our American stories and our special Christmas season episodes, and we hope you're enjoying them as much as we enjoyed making them. Let's pick up where we last left off with Clement Clark Moore's revolutionary poem we now know as The Night Before Christmas.

Here's Greg Hengler. Moore's inspiration were two legendary Christmas figures of the old world. One was Saint Nicholas, the fourth century bishop renowned for gift giving, legendary for leaving presents in stockings. And the other was Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. Sinterklaas had merged a bit with Odin, the Norse pagan god of Yule, who flew through the sky on an eight legged horse.

Both old world legends were rich in details, many of which Moore chose to leave out. One omission was a bizarre, dark, devil-like sidekick of Saint Nicholas named Krampus. Krampus brought a switch to punish naughty children, or worse. Oh, hello there, Krampus.

There are two naughty children in the house down the block. Why don't you pay them a little visit? Sure thing, Sinter. That's what I'm here for.

Maybe later we can meet at Superior Garden. Ho, ho, ho. Go get them, Krampus. Here's historian of folklore, Mario Cristo. The half-goat, half-demon figure has often been described as the anti-Saint Nicholas. It is believed that Krampus accompanies Saint Nicholas during Christmas, punishing those children who have misbehaved, in contrast to Saint Nicholas who rewards the well-behaved children. Krampus has been feared and celebrated in folklore for hundreds of years, and his appearance is that of nightmares.

With large, barren horns, dark hair, sharp fangs and a long, pointed tongue. He carries around chains which are thought to be symbolic of the Christian church binding the devil. As well as these chains, Krampus carries a bundle of birch sticks used to swat misbehaving children. Saint Nicholas would reward the well-behaved children with gifts and presents, and he would leave the misbehaving children with a lump of coal. This would signal to Krampus which children were to be whipped and beaten.

On occasion, Krampus would throw misbehaving children into his sack or basket and take them down to his lair in the underworld. But Clement Clark Moore's Saint Nick embodied only good. Moore introduced several new characteristics for Santa. He dressed him in American fur, gave him a pipe, a huge belt, and portrayed him not as a priest but a jolly, dimpled elf with a twinkle in his eye. On his back he toted a sack full of toys and Moore also gave him a sleigh that he flew through the sky. Led not by a horse, but by eight tiny reindeer. But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. Each with its own name. Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer and Vixen.

On Comet, on Cupid, on Donder and Blitzen. Moore's poem, which has become the most famous poem in the English language, enthralled 19th century Americans. It created a new kind of Christmas, neither rowdy nor religious, but centered on home and family. In the decades that followed, artists would expand on Moore's imagery, but his would be the vision that would endure. As iconic as Clement Clark Moore's Santa was, he still wasn't the fully formed Kris Kringle we know today. This credit goes to another New Yorker, illustrator Thomas Nast. He took Moore's Santa and produced the definitive version for generations to come. Here's political cartoonist Steve Brodner. He's most famous for inventing the Republican elephant.

He's most famous for developing the Democratic donkey, which had been there before, but he made the donkey a jackass. Uncle Sam is developed by Thomas Nast. Uncle Sam existed before in cartoons, but Nast really turns him into his own character.

Nast also transforms Moore's jolly old elf into someone taller and grander. In the middle of the Civil War in 1862, one of America's major magazines, Harper's Weekly, commissioned Nast to draw its Christmas illustrations. Nast gave Santa the full flowing white beard, the red coat with the white trim and black boots, the buckled belt and a pipe. Nast also gave Santa his own workshop, the naughty and nice list, and plants him on the North Pole.

Here again is Christmas historian Ace Collins. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was so impressed with this new Santa that a man named Nast had drawn in Harper's Weekly. Of this elf visiting with federal troops around a battlefield campfire on Christmas Eve, the president wanted children on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line to know that Santa Claus stood for the preservation of the Union.

It is said that Nast's drawing had a dramatic effect on morale in the North during that long, cold, and bloody winter. We owe the look of Santa today to Hayden Sunblum, who was an artist in the 1920s and 30s and 40s for Coca-Cola. Hayden Sunblum's drawings became so attached to Father Christmas that literally all across the globe, Santa looks like those old Coca-Cola advertisements. By the mid-19th century, the Christmas tree, a variation of the ancient Norse custom, became the centerpiece to the family-oriented American Christmas, all because of one picture. On December 23, 1848, the London Illustrated News published an image entitled, Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle. The illustration depicted the young Queen Victoria and her husband, the German-born Prince Albert, and their five children gathered around a Christmas tree illuminated by candles and topped by an angel, and this was all part of Albert's German tradition.

England fell in love with it immediately. This illustration of the Victorian Christmas tree received a second life in America in December 1850 when an altered version of it appeared in an influential American magazine. These alterations were made in order to give it a distinctly American twist.

Gone were Victoria's tiara and Albert's sash and mustache. The caption simply read, The Christmas Tree. The royal yuletide had been transformed into an all-American Christmas.

Just six years later in 1856, President Franklin Pierce was putting one up in the White House. For as long as we can remember, we bring in our greens and turn on the lights. We hang our stockings and sing our carols in church and in the streets, amidst the chaos. We even find time to rejoice at the birth of a child 2,000 years ago. Let's end this story with these words from Ace Collins, author of Stories Behind the Best Loved Songs of Christmas and Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. Christmas is a time machine.

Christmas is the only thing that we have that's a part of our culture that comes back and visits us for a month or more each year. Therefore, every song and every tradition that is a part of our lives, when we hear that song or we see that Christmas ornament, we are transported back to a time when we were much younger. It brings out the child in us. We smell smells.

We see sights. We hear things we have otherwise would have been lost forever without the tradition and the sounds of Christmas. Grandparents come alive.

The smells of their kitchens come alive. Getting your first Christmas present comes alive. All of those songs and traditions become that time machine that transports us back to a moment when we were loved and we were cherished and something magical happened. And thank goodness we celebrated each and every year for five or six weeks so that magic can once again embrace us to realize that family is still there in our hearts and our minds and our memories. That's what makes Christmas different than any other holiday that we will ever experience or have ever had. For Our American Stories, I'm Greg Hengler wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas. And great job as always to Greg and a special thanks to all the contributors who play their part in this remarkable story. And it's an ongoing story, but we hear all the story of every tradition we know from Christmas lights.

What a story just by itself. I mean, when there was no electricity, there were no Christmas lights. So Edison plays a role.

Tesla plays a role. And we've told stories about both. And the interconnectedness of all of this is remarkable. But it is unimaginable to tell the story of America without telling the story of Christmas and how it's come to be from where it was. I mean, the idea that we didn't celebrate Christmas.

I didn't know that. And by the way, we are always looking for your stories here on Our American Stories. And around this time of the year, we love to hear special Christmas stories for our next season. Send them to OurAmericanStories.com.

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