Getting Ready For Christmas

Early 19th century American Christmases consisted of decorating the house with greenery including sticking holly in the windows with beeswax. This is a time before Christmas trees were a norm in the Americas however some German immigrants brought their traditions with them. Slowly over the decades this tradition spread.
Christmas was not the biggest holiday in the 1820 calendar. Instead the 4th of July was the most anticipated holiday of the year. Christmas was still seen as a Pagan holiday by several Christian groups at the time. Still, houses would have been decorated in a festive way to add color during the winter months.