And Why That’s Important No, this is not a “War on Christmas” diatribe. This is a reminder that Christmas is a National Holiday in the United States and many other nations. President Grant made it so the same year (1870) Thanksgiving and Washington’s Birthday became federal holidays. It was seen as a means of healing a nation. Many U.S. states set Christmas as a holiday and so the Grant administration–only five years after accepting the South’s surrender at Appomattox–made an effort at unification by taking national recognition of dates important to the nation as a… Read Article →