Christmas became a federal holiday in the United States in 1870 when President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill creating four new holidays for federal workers: January 1, Thanksgiving Day, July 4, and December 25. Interestingly, the official language of the bill did not refer to the holiday as “Christmas,” but simply as “December 25th … commonly called Christmas Day.” This careful wording was meant to respect the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which prohibits the government from endorsing or favoring any one religion.
