Keep trying Alex........they'll eventually keep the courts open for you on December 25 so you can work. Or maybe they'll just keep your office open and let you work there. (I don't know if you are an independent lawyer or work for a firm.)
Seriously, most of our "holidays" have come to be "national" throughout time. Our founding father's had little to do with such trivial matters. It was only when the wars had been fought and politicians had little to do that they started deciding on these days for us. Christmas was celebrated even in the 1700's and early 1800's here in the US. And yes, some didn't like it even back then:
".....the Puritans of Massachusetts banned any observance of Christmas, and anyone caught observing the holiday had to pay a fine. Connecticut had a law forbidding the celebration of Christmas and the baking of mincemeat pies!"
While I think mincemeat pies ought to be banned, it has nothing to do with my disdain for the holiday season, just my distaste for mincemeat pies. Why did they want to ban the celebration? One word: Religion.
As time went on and more people settled in this country Christmas continued to be celebrated by more and more folks......in different, traditonal ways.
"Each ethnic group had their own distinct cultural traditions, but all shared a common reverence for the Christmas holiday."
By the time of the Civil War Christmas was the only day they could take a break......because of the respect they had for the season:
"The one respite (from the war) in an otherwise violent decade was Christmas. It was the one day that encompassed both Protestant and Catholic traditions. In fact, during the 1850s Christmas first began to emerge as our national holiday of religious and cultural celebration. Businesses closed to observe the day and decorated Christmas trees became a fashionable trend."
Even after the war, Christmas helped to heal:
"Christmas helped the American people -- both the North and South -- escape the realities of the war between the states. Although the nation was torn apart, the customs of Christmas during the 1860s focused on family togetherness and brotherly love."
And now with some major wars over, softening of religious ideals by the Puritans and with a group of politicians able to focus on a growing nation you get Christmas as a national holiday.
"By 1870, rigid puritanical attitudes towards Christmas had softened, and the vast majority of the American people embraced the holiday as a permanent cultural tradition in this country. On June 26, 1870, for the first time in its history, the United States Congress declared Christmas a federal holiday."
I have no problem with it. I don't think George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin or John Hancock or whoever existed back when this country was an infant would have a problem with it and I think that those nowadays who think they (our founding fathers) would have a problem with Christmas as a national holiday are quite misguided in what our founders wished to accomplish.
