Legend has it that one of America’s first Christmas trees appeared in 1777, set up by a Hessian soldier far from home. While earlier German communities in Pennsylvania used evergreen-covered “pyramids,” the Hessian accounts remain the most famous early examples of the tradition taking root on American soil—a small, glowing symbol of home during the Revolutionary War.

Every December, the tiny town of Santa Claus, Indiana, lives up to its name — but Christmas Day remains its quiet crown. As the town’s attractions rest, the legacy of the season endures in the thousands of letters answered by Santa’s Elves and mailed from the world’s only Santa Claus Post Office. Each December letter receives a unique, hand-stamped postmark — a small promise that in this little corner of America, the magic of Christmas truly arrives.

Image via Alamy

“How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, his precepts! O! ’tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.“

– Benjamin Franklin

Warner Baxter and Edmund Lowe in In Old Arizona, which premiered on December 25, 1928, in Los Angeles. Though earlier filmmakers had experimented with recording sound outdoors, this became the first feature‑length “outdoor talkie” to successfully capture synchronized dialogue on location. Its breakthrough reshaped the Western and earned Baxter the Academy Award for Best Actor.

The earliest written reference to Christmas being celebrated on December 25th appears in Rome in the year 336. This makes sense since it was a year before the death of Constantine the Great (left) who was the first Christian Emperor of Rome.

When Constantine was younger his father asked him to fight with him in Briton. It was in the area of Eboracum (present day
North Yorkshire, England) where Constantine became Emperor after his father died of illness in the year 306.

Fast forward more than 1,300 years and the person on the right (Edmund Andros) married his first wife, Mary, who coincidentally was from the same town, North Yorkshire, England where Constantine became Emperor.

So what does Edmund Andros have to do with Christmas and December 25th and American history?

Well Andros eventually became a Colonial Governor in America and in 1681 he lifted the Puritanical ban of celebrating Christmas on December 25th in New England.

Images via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

President Wilson and General Pershing in Langres, France on December 25, 1918

On December 25, 1903,
Alexander Graham Bell, with his wife Mabel, arrived in Genoa, Italy for the purpose of exhuming the body of the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, James Smithson, and bringing those remains to the United States.

Bell, who was a regent of the Smithsonian, found out that a quarry was going to be dug near the grave of the famous British benefactor. A month later at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Bell said “And now… my mission is ended and I deliver into your hands … the remains of this great benefactor of the United States.”

via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Washington and his Army began their crossing of the Delaware on the evening of December 25, 1776.

They arrived on the other side of the Delaware River in New Jersey in the early morning hours of December 26, 1776.

Image: Washington Crossing the Delaware by American artist George Caleb Bingham

La Santa María, flagship of Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, came to an abrupt end on December 25, 1492 when it ran aground off Hispaniola. Columbus used the ship’s timbers to build the fort of La Navidad, left some crew members to occupy it, and then departed aboard La Niña. Shown is an 1892 replica.

Image from LOC via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

Two girls under a Christmas tree with their dolls in Tacoma, Washington

December 25, 1899

via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Clara Barton was born on December 25, 1821. Founder of the American Red Cross, she was called ‘Angel of the Battlefield’ for tending to the wounded of both sides during the Civil War. After the war she ran the Missing Soldiers Office to assist families with loved ones missing in action.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Rod Serling, WW2 paratrooper, writer, and
television pioneer was born on December 25, 1924.
He’s best known for his television anthology series
“The Twilight Zone”

Image via Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright

On December 25, 1943, the American film “The Song of Bernadette” was released.

Image of the movie poster by Norman Rockwell via Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright

A lieutenant hands out gifts as “Santa Claus” aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise during operations in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

December 25, 1943

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On December 25, 1868, President Andrew Johnson
proclaimed and declared full amnesty to all those who directly or indirectly, participated in the late insurrection or rebellion against the United States.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright

Humphrey Bogart was born at the tail-end of the 19th century with a December 25, 1899 birthday. Despite rumors he was NOT the model for the Gerber Baby but did ok later in life with an acting career. ‘Here’s looking at you, kid” actually is a line in ‘Casablanca’, but ‘Play it again, Sam’ is not.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Civil War artist Edwin Forbes titled this drawing “Christmas Dinner – A Scene on the outer picket line.” Shown are front line soldiers alternating between keeping watch for the enemy and cooking their humble fare as they warm themselves.

Image from LOC via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

USS Brooklyn (CL 40), galley scene on Christmas morning while at Malta harbor, December 25, 1943. Shown: CCS C. Brown discussing turkey situation with Sergeant A.E. LoDuca, USMC. U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

President John F. Kennedy celebrates Christmas with his family at the residence of C. Michael Paul in Palm Beach, Florida.

December 25, 1962

via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US.

Christmas Day, 1863

A month after the “Battle Above the Clouds,” officers from General John W. Geary’s staff climbed back to the summit of Lookout Mountain — not as soldiers in combat, but as men revisiting the heights they had fought so hard to take. Their winter quarters lay down in Chattanooga now, but the mountain still called to them: a place of memory, of triumph, and of things their commander could not leave behind.
Geary himself was absent this day. The man who would one day become Governor of Pennsylvania was spending this Christmas in private grief, mourning a son lost at Wauhatchie only weeks earlier. Yet his staff gathered here on the rocks above the Tennessee Valley, sharing a simple holiday meal in the thin mountain air — holding a space of remembrance for the cost of the campaign and the fragile, short‑lived peace of a war only halfway through.

“For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6

From all of us at Heartfelt History…we wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!
Thank you for all of your support, your patriotism and your love.

Image: The Nativity by American born artist John Singleton Copley c. 1776
via Wikimedia Commons, public domain