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Most Americans assume Abraham Lincoln must have said something memorable about Christmas — a line of comfort, a reflection on the season, a moment of warmth in the middle of the Civil War. But the truth is more surprising.
Lincoln left no Christmas quotes, no Christmas speeches, and no Christmas reflections. Not a single one.²
🕯️ Christmas in Lincoln’s America
In Lincoln’s lifetime, Christmas wasn’t yet the national celebration we know today. It wasn’t a federal holiday until 1870 — five years after his death.¹ In most of the country it passed like any other winter day. Government offices stayed open. Congress met. Soldiers drilled. The war didn’t pause.
Lincoln himself:
issued no Christmas proclamations
hosted no Christmas events
wrote no Christmas letters
and left no personal reflections on the holiday²
This wasn’t neglect. It was simply the world he lived in.
🎁 The One “Christmas Moment” We Do Have
On December 22, 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman sent Lincoln a telegram after capturing Savannah:
“I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah…”³
It’s the closest thing we have to a Lincoln Christmas story — and even then, Lincoln’s reply focused on gratitude and military success, not the holiday itself.⁴
🌟 Lincoln’s Life and the Virtues of Christmas
Even though Lincoln never wrote about Christmas, his life offers countless examples of the virtues we associate with the season. These moments are not legend or supposition — they are documented in letters, eyewitness accounts, and Lincoln’s own writings.
🎁 Generosity
Lincoln quietly gave money to widows, soldiers, and strangers throughout his life — often slipping bills into hands or envelopes without signing his name. Herndon and Lamon both recorded this habit.⁵
❤️ Compassion
His pardons for soldiers — especially young soldiers who fell asleep on guard duty — are among the best‑documented aspects of his presidency. Lincoln said he could not “refuse mercy where mercy is possible.”⁶
🕊️ Peace
In the final weeks of the Civil War, Lincoln insisted on a peace policy “with malice toward none, with charity for all.” His instructions to Grant emphasized reunion without humiliation.⁷
🤝 Goodwill
Lincoln visited hospitals constantly, shaking hands with wounded soldiers, listening to their stories, and writing letters home for those too weak to hold a pen. Nurses described him as moving “like a father among his suffering children.” ⁸
✨ Hope
From the darkest days of the war, Lincoln kept returning to the idea that the nation could survive to have “a new birth of freedom.” His speeches and private letters show a stubborn, deliberate hope.⁹
🙏 Gratitude
Lincoln frequently expressed gratitude to ordinary Americans — soldiers, mothers, farmers, laborers — for sustaining the Union. His 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation remains one of the most sweeping expressions of national gratitude ever written.¹⁰
🎄 Joy
For all his melancholy, Lincoln loved simple joys: reading Shakespeare aloud, telling stories that made entire rooms collapse in laughter, and watching Tad’s antics. Staffers and friends recorded these moments vividly.¹¹
👨👩👧👦 Family & Togetherness
Lincoln’s devotion to his sons was unmistakable. Even under the weight of war and the demands of the presidency, he made time to play with Tad, read to Willie, pull them in a wagon, and welcome their visits throughout the day. He indulged their imaginations and protected their joy. For Lincoln, leadership never eclipsed love — it was shaped by it.
Lincoln lived the Christmas virtues — even if he never hung a stocking.
✨ A Christmas Wish
Even though Abraham Lincoln never wrote about Christmas and did not celebrate it in the way we know it today, his life story radiates the very virtues we associate with the season — generosity, compassion, peace, goodwill, faith, hope, family, gratitude, and joy.
We are reminded that the heart of Christmas is not found in the gifts we receive or in the trappings of the season, but in the way we choose to treat one another — with mercy, with courage, with kindness, and with hope — not just in December, but all year long.
Just like Lincoln.
Some thoughts for this holiday season and the new year ahead from the archives of Abraham Lincoln, Storyteller.
Mac
📚 Works Cited
U.S. Statutes at Large, Act of June 28, 1870 (establishing Christmas as a federal holiday).
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler (no Christmas references in speeches, letters, or writings).
William T. Sherman, telegram to President Lincoln, December 22, 1864, War Department Archives.
Abraham Lincoln, reply to General Sherman, December 26, 1864, War Department Archives.
William Herndon, Herndon’s Lincoln; Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln.
National Archives, Presidential Pardons; Cabinet recollections in Nicolay & Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History.
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address; instructions to Ulysses S. Grant, March–April 1865.
Accounts from nurses and hospital staff in Washington, D.C., 1862–1865 (various memoirs and letters).
Gettysburg Address; Annual Messages to Congress; private letters in Basler’s Collected Works.
Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863.
Accounts from John Hay, John Nicolay, and White House staff; Tad Lincoln anecdotes widely documented.
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