<P> In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas). The poem helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts, and seasonal Christmas shopping began to assume economic importance . This also started the cultural conflict between the holiday's spiritual significance and its associated commercialism that some see as corrupting the holiday . In her 1850 book The First Christmas in New England, Harriet Beecher Stowe includes a character who complains that the true meaning of Christmas was lost in a shopping spree . </P> <P> While the celebration of Christmas was not yet customary in some regions in the U.S., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow detected "a transition state about Christmas here in New England" in 1856 . "The old puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so ." In Reading, Pennsylvania, a newspaper remarked in 1861, "Even our presbyterian friends who have hitherto steadfastly ignored Christmas--threw open their church doors and assembled in force to celebrate the anniversary of the Savior's birth ." </P> <P> The First Congregational Church of Rockford, Illinois, "although of genuine Puritan stock", was' preparing for a grand Christmas jubilee', a news correspondent reported in 1864 . By 1860, fourteen states including several from New England had adopted Christmas as a legal holiday . In 1875, Louis Prang introduced the Christmas card to Americans . He has been called the "father of the American Christmas card". On June 28, 1870, Christmas was formally declared a United States federal holiday . </P> <P> Up to the 1950s, in the UK, many Christmas customs were restricted to the upper classes and better - off families . The mass of the population had not adopted many of the Christmas rituals that later became general . The Christmas tree was rare . Christmas dinner might be beef--certainly not turkey . In their stockings children might get an apple, orange and sweets . Full celebration of a family Christmas with all the trimmings only became widespread with increased prosperity from the 1950s . National papers were published on Christmas Day until 1912 . Post was still delivered on Christmas Day until 1961 . League football matches continued in Scotland until the 1970s while in England they ceased at the end of the 1950s . </P>

When did christmas become an official us holiday