# Christmas a National Holiday? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 15, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902 "2019-12-15T19:59:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/1 "2019-12-15T19:59:40Z")
Why is Christmas a national holiday in the USA? I mean what is the logic? No other Christian holiday is a federal holiday. Easter Monday is a holiday in Canada. But not here. The Feast of St. John the Baptist? St. Swithin’s Day? And what about other religions FTM? Passover? Ramadan? The Hindu Festival of Lights? And since this is GD, I also have to ask. _Should_ it be a national holiday? :):):):)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/2 "2019-12-15T20:12:44Z")
It’s a holiday in the United States because so many people celebrate it and would want a day off anyway. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/3 "2019-12-15T20:24:18Z")
It’s a national holiday in India too. Go figure. As for how it _should_ be dealt with… there are many possible religious holidays; one proposal is not to make any of them compulsory, instead to let each individual pick their own, up to a certain maximum, that way offices should be able to stay open most of the time if there are enough diverse personnel. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/4 "2019-12-15T20:28:02Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Why is Christmas a national holiday in the USA? I mean what is the logic? No other Christian holiday is a federal holiday. Easter Monday is a holiday in Canada. But not here. The Feast of St. John the Baptist? St. Swithin’s Day? > > And what about other religions FTM? Passover? Ramadan? The Hindu Festival of Lights? > > And since this is GD, I also have to ask. _Should_ it be a national holiday? > > :):):):)🙂 It’s a relatively recent change as well - for a long time, Christmas was not an official holiday at all in Massachusetts for example (that changed in 1856) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/5 "2019-12-15T20:33:10Z")
It is of course not a national holiday in Thailand. But when I worked at the _Bangkok Post_, but the were so many Western staff that the newspaper treated it as a paid holiday if it fell during the week. That was a nice gesture. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/6 "2019-12-15T20:35:16Z")
1856 is not a date most of us would consider relatively recent. Well what are the legal consequences of something being a National Holiday? What does it legally affect other than federal employees? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/7 "2019-12-15T20:37:05Z")
It’s one of the two days the worldwide futures markets are almost completely closed as well. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/8 "2019-12-15T20:45:44Z")
Some facts, courtesy of the Wikipedia article on [Federal holidays in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_holidays_in_the_United_States): > [@](#): > > Congress has authority to create holidays only for federal institutions (including federally owned properties) and employees, and for the District of Columbia. However, as a general rule other institutions, including banks, post offices, and schools, may be closed on those days. > [@](#): > > Although many states recognize most or all federal holidays as state holidays, the Federal government cannot enact laws to compel them to do so. Furthermore, states can recognize other days as state holidays that are not federal holidays. > [@](#): > > Private employers also cannot be required to observe federal or state holidays, the key exception being federally chartered banks. > [@](#): > > In December 1999, the Western Division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, in the case _Ganulin vs. United States_, denied the charge that Christmas Day’s federal status violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, ruling that “the Christmas holiday has become largely secularized”, and that “by giving federal employees a paid vacation day on Christmas, the government is doing no more than recognizing the cultural significance of the holiday”. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/9 "2019-12-15T20:47:46Z")
It’s so popular that most non-Christians I know celebrate it in one form or another. My high school was about 60% Jewish, and Yom Kippur and Rosh Hoshanah were always official school days off. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/10 "2019-12-15T22:11:08Z")
Pretty much every culture has a holiday around the winter solstice time. The Romans had Saturnalia, ancient Egypt had Birth of Heru (Horus), ancient Greeks had the Great Dionysia Festival, Jews had Hanukkah, Druids had the Winter Festival, the Celtic tribes had Yuletide, etc. And many new religions just carried on the holidays, renaming them or re-defining them to honor the latest god they were celebrating. Christianity just kind of did the same; Christ was not actually born at Christmas time, for example, it is just celebrated then. (Rather like the British Empire has a Queen’s Birthday celebration in June, months away from Queen Elizabeth’s actual birthday.) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/11 "2019-12-15T22:19:51Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > And since this is GD, I also have to ask. _Should_ it be a national holiday? I like Christmas. I don’t worship the Baby Jesus (or any other mythical creature), but the secular Christmas spirit is a nice thing to have around once a year. Besides, we don’t have enough holidays, and shopping is always better afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/12 "2019-12-15T23:27:33Z")
If voters want it to be a holiday, it should be a holiday. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/13 "2019-12-16T01:09:46Z")
Just to add Thanksgiving has been established nationally to give thanks to our Heavenly Father. So Christmas is not the only national holiday directly that has to do with God. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/14 "2019-12-16T01:16:20Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > 1856 is not a date most of us would consider relatively recent. It’s surprisingly recent for people who imagine that Christmas was a governmentally sanctioned holiday back to the colonial days (and I suspect there are a lot of those). In 1856, my great-grandfather was alive, so it’s not that far away for me, either. At any rate, I have no objection to Christmas being a national holiday - people aren’t going to show up to work anyway (I grew up in Pennsylvania, where the first day of deer season was a school holiday for much the same reason). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/15 "2019-12-16T01:35:46Z")
There are exactly zero national holidays in the United States. Congress can create federal holidays—days that federal government offices are closed. But that means nothing for private employers or state government offices. They can choose whether to give their employees the same days off or not. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/16 "2019-12-16T01:38:43Z")
Don’t be such a Grinch OP. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/17 "2019-12-16T01:45:05Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Why is Christmas a national holiday in the USA? I mean what is the logic? No other Christian holiday is a federal holiday. I live in Canada and assure you Easter Monday is not a holiday here. Good Friday is. Christmas is usually a holiday because historically everyone wanted it to be and now everyone expects it to be. It’s no more complicated than that. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/18 "2019-12-16T02:30:08Z")
Nothing is so sacred in Australia as the sanctity of a holiday long weekend and so we have Good Friday and Easter Monday as gazetted public holidays in all states. I am very surprised to learn that Easter isn’t celebrated in the US given it’s arguably a more significant day in the Christian calendar than Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/19 "2019-12-16T02:33:08Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > I am very surprised to learn that Easter isn’t celebrated in the US given it’s arguably a more significant day in the Christian calendar than Christmas. It is (by Christians), it’s just not a federal holiday. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902/20 "2019-12-16T03:12:37Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > I am very surprised to learn that Easter isn’t celebrated in the US given it’s arguably a more significant day in the Christian calendar than Christmas. It’s on a Sunday, which is already a day off. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-a-national-holiday/844902.md?page=2)