In days past and as history was being made, our country’ Presidents stated things about Christmas that reflected what they felt was going on with the state of our country, something funny or gave a peek into their own personal feelings.
President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill that made Christmas a national or a federal holiday in1870. Christmas was still celebrated before then, of course. Christmas was very much celebrated in a traditional way. For example, one of Thomas Jefferson’s letters he wrote in 1813 showed that Christmas was celebrated with family, friends and festivities.
He wrote, “I will take the liberty of sending for some barrels of apples, and if a basket of them can now be sent by the bearer they will be acceptable as accomodated to the season of mince pies.” Mince pie was a traditional holiday food that was eaten back then. Below are some of their other quotes.
Ronald Reagan
- “Christmas means so much because of one special child” and that many “of us believe in the divinity of the child born in Bethlehem, that he was and is the promised Prince of Peace.”
- “Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeer, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.”
- “It’s silly about how many years we will have to spend in the jungle of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home for Christmas.”
John F. Kennedy
- “It is the day when we remind ourselves that man can and must live in peace with his neighbors and that it is the peacemakers who are truly blessed.”
Calvin Coolidge
- “Christmas is not a time nor season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.”
Herbert Hoover
- “A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus.”
Thomas Jefferson
- “The greatest mirth and jollity.”
