Christmas in the American Civil War Christmas in the American Civil War ( 1861 – 1865 ) was celebrated in both the United States and the Confederate States of America although the day did not become an official holiday until five years after the war ended . The war continued to rage on Christmas and skirmishes occurred throughout the countryside . Celebrations for both troops and civilians saw significant alteration . Propagandists , such as Thomas Nast , used wartime Christmases to reflect their beliefs . In 1870 , Christmas became an official Federal holiday when President Ulysses S . Grant made it so in an attempt to unite north and south . War activities . On the first Christmas Day during the war , Lincoln hosted a Christmas party during the evening ; earlier that day , he spent many hours trying to legitimize the capture of Confederate representatives to Great Britain and France , John Slidell and James Murray Mason ( the Trent Affair ) . In 1862 , the Lincolns visited injured soldiers at the various hospitals . Many Union soldiers in 1863 received gifts " From Tad Lincoln " , as Tad had been deeply moved by the plight of Union soldiers when he was taken by his father to see them . The gifts were mostly books and clothing . The most famous Christmas gift Lincoln ever received came on December 22 when William Tecumseh Sherman announced the capture of Savannah , Georgia . Military exercises also took place on December 25 . In 1861 , a blockade runner was caught by the Union navy , and there were two skirmishes in Virginia and Maryland . In 1862 , there were several skirmishes , and Confederate general John Hunt Morgan engaged in his famous Christmas Raid in Kentucky ; on that single day , Morgan ' s men destroyed everything he possibly could of the improvements that the Louisville & Nashville Railroad had made along 35 miles of track from Bacon Creek to Lebanon Junction . There was also a military execution for desertion that the soldiers were forced to witness . In 1863 , Union forces destroyed Confederate salt works at Bear Inlet , North Carolina ; there were also several skirmishes between Confederate artillery and the Union navy on the Stono River and near Charleston in South Carolina . In 1864 , the Confederates fiercely repelled the Federal assault of sixty warships on Fort Fisher , while in the western theater of the war there were several skirmishes fought . Celebrating . Soldiers not actively campaigning celebrated Christmas in several ways . Union soldiers would use salt pork and hardtack to decorate Christmas tree s . Others were treated to special meals ; a captain from Massachusetts treated his soldiers to foods such as turkey , oysters , pies , and apples . However , many soldiers received no special treats or privileges . In one incident on December 25 , 1864 , 90 Union soldiers from Michigan , led by their captain , dispensed " food and supplies " to poor Georgians , with the mules pulling the carts decorated to resemble reindeer by having tree branches tied to their heads . In some units , celebrating Christmas was not allowed . On December 25 , 1862 , soldiers of one unit were punished for celebratory gunfire for the holiday , when actually the gunfire was for a funeral salute . Carols , hymns , and seasonal songs were sung during the period , with some , such as " Deck the Halls " , " Oh Come All Ye Faithful " , and Mendelssohn ' s " Hark , the Herald Angels Sing " ( 1840 ) , still sung today . American musical contributions to the season include " It Came Upon a Midnight Clear " ( 1850 ) , " Jingle Bells " ( 1857 ) , " We Three Kings of Orient Are " ( 1857 ) and " Up on the Housetop " ( 1860 ) . Although popular in Europe at the time , Christmas card s were scarce in the United States , and would not enjoy widespread use until the 1870s . Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his pacifist poem , " Christmas Bells " on Christmas Day 1864 at the news of his son Lieutenant Charles Appleton Longfellow having suffered severe wounds in November during the Mine Run Campaign . The poem was set to the tune " Waltham " by John Baptiste Calkin sometime after 1872 and has since been received into the established library of Christmas carols . The carol does not include two stanzas from the original poem that focused on the war . For children , Christmas was altered during the war . Presents were fewer , especially in the devastated South . In " We Were Marching on Christmas Day " , author Kevin Rawlings notes that some southern children worried about the Union blockade , and one little girl , Sallie Brock Putnam , plotted the course Santa Claus would have to take to avoid it . Sometimes fathers on both sides were allowed furlough , and children were said to react to their fathers as if seeing " near strangers " . Excuses for a lack of Santa included Yankees having shot him . Nast cartoons and other propaganda . Thomas Nast , who used his editorial cartoons to issue Union propaganda , made several illustrations reflecting the war . The one for Christmas Eve 1862 , which ran in the January 1863 issue of Harper ' s Weekly shows a wife on one side praying though a window in one circle , and in another circle shows her husband on the battlefield , also in prayer . The same issue ' s cover started how Santa Claus would be perceived by future Americans , as a white - bearded Santa hands such gifts as socks to Union soldiers , while also holding a Jefferson Davis dancing puppet with a rope tied around its neck to perfectly insinuate a lynching . The Christmas 1863 issue showed the couple back together . The Nast Christmas cartoon for 1864 was more conciliatory print , showing Lincoln inviting Confederate soldiers into a warm lodge hall full of merriment . Lincoln called Nast ' s use of Santa Claus " the best recruiting sergeant the North ever had " . Nast was not the only one to use Christmas as a propaganda tool . On the Union side , " The New York Herald " also engaged in propaganda . One illustration published in the paper included Santa Claus fuming that he could not reach southern children , due to the northern blockade . On the Confederate side , " The Richmond Examiner " described Santa to its young readers as " a Dutch toy monger " who was a New York / New England " scrub " and Hottentot that had nothing to do with traditional Virginian celebrations of Christmas . Even through the war was over , Nast had a drawing in the Christmas 1865 issue of Harper ' s Weekly depicting the heads of several Confederate generals at Ulysses S . Grant ' s feet in an image that centered around Santa . After the war Nast purposely made the North Pole the home of Saint Nick so that no one else could use him for nationalistic propaganda like Nast himself did .