On this episode of Our American Stories, long before Christmas settled into the shape we know, the holiday moved through centuries of reinvention. Early Europeans marked the dark stretch of winter with fire and evergreens, while later religious debates pushed the season in new and sometimes unexpected directions. By the time America embraced Christmas as a public holiday, it had gathered customs from many cultures and carried stories far older than the Nativity itself. Here's the story of how Christmas as we know it came to be.

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