Christmas and the Civil War

Join us at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine on Sunday, December 14 at 3:00 p.m. as volunteer Brad Stone, portraying a Civil War Santa, discusses the history behind the celebration of Christmas during the Civil War. The Civil War shaped the way we celebrate the holiday season in the United States in surprising ways. One of the most surprising is the depiction of Santa Claus, as Civil War era illustrator Thomas Nast toyed with images of the jolly elf during the conflict that evolved into the Santa we know today in the United States.