Christmas Day 1870 was a bit unusual, in that it could be celebrated on either one of two days (or both, according to individual whim). That year December 25th fell on a Sunday, the Christian Sabbath which, some considered, outranked Christmas Day in sacredness; therefore, Monday the 26th, by common consent, was declared to be the official holiday. Banks, and many businesses, would be closed.
Several newspapers throughout California, including Marysville’s Daily Appeal, publishing as usual on Sunday the 25th, advised their readers they would be closed on Monday, with no paper issued until Tuesday, so that their employees could spend Christmas Day with their families. San Francisco’s Daily Alta California likewise published on Sunday, but filled its pages with Christmas stories written by “the best” local authors.
Otherwise, holiday activities and entertainments proceeded in accordance with traditional customs. Despite the California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences half-joking remark that these were “Dull Times” compared to the tumultuous gold rush era, its editors also opined they had never seen a public more cheerful, more active, or out shopping for gifts so early. Toy stores were thronged; jewelers, confectioners and grocers were filled with patrons. Purveyors of household goods were busy selling fine table linens, piano covers and hearth rugs to resolute hostesses, ornamented market stalls filled with fruits and flowers vied with each other in representing the “California way of doing business;” and on December 20, 100,000 Christmas trees of all sizes and prices went on sale in San Francisco.
All in all, holiday expenditures at Christmas 1870 in California were perhaps more lavish than usual, and good cheer more prevalent, among a populace that was still largely composed of transplants from elsewhere … now far removed from their native homes and families.
Also, 1870 was the first year Christmas was a national holiday, having been created as such by the United States Congress on June 28, 1870.
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