Christmas Trees

• The popularity of Christmas trees increased during the 1850s. Illustrators encouraged the practice of putting up a decorated tree when their drawings portrayed decorated table-top Christmas trees for national weekly publications. Small trees became the Christmas centerpiece for Civil War era homes. Decorations for the trees included strings of dried fruit, popcorn, pine cones, colored paper and silver foil. Union soldiers camped along the Potomac River described decorating a small Christmas tree with hard tack and pork.
  
  

Christmas Carols

• Soldiers and their loved ones at home sang Christmas carols. Popular songs included "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger," "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and "Deck the Halls." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" around 1862. Three of Wadsworth's original stanzas reflected his pro-Yankee beliefs and did not appear when music was added to the poem.
  
  

Santa Claus

• Thomas Nast worked as a writer and illustrator for Harper's Weekly. A German immigrant, Nast recalled his childhood experiences in Germany when asked to provide an illustration for Clement Clark Moore's poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Nast depicted Santa Claus delivering Harper's Weekly to Union soldiers, dressed in stars and stripes and riding in a carriage pulled by reindeer. Santa brought homemade gifts to the children. These included carved toys, cakes and fruits. Southern mothers explained to their children that even Santa Claus could not penetrate the Union blockade of the Southern coasts in 1863.
  
  

Gift-Giving

• The practice of giving Christmas gifts gained acceptance with America's enthusiastic acceptance of Santa Claus. For example, illustrators Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer drew pictures of the new custom of sending Christmas boxes containing hand-sewn clothes and food to soldiers at the front. The Christmas cover of Harper's Weekly depicted soldiers who were happy to receive gift packages from home. General Sherman's soldiers strapped branch "antlers" to mules' heads and loaded several wagons with food and supplies. The soldiers distributed the items to the impoverished families residing in the Georgia countryside on Christmas Day.