Christmas 1863

 


Cover of Harper's Weekly Jan. 3, 1864

     In the spirit of the Christmas season 2021, I'm taking a short break posting blog entries.  
    A few things to notice about the depiction of Santa Claus and the soldiers in the drawing above: Santa wears a Stars and Stripes outfit; the reindeer are not tiny; the two drummer boys at the bottom of the illustration have received a jack-in-the-box; in fact even referring to him as Santa Claus is somewhat new. Previously, he would have been referred to as St. Nicolas. 
    Christmas was viewed as more of a season rather than focused on one particular date. December 25, 1863 would have been ten days in the past by the time the January 3, 1864 issue appeared. 





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