The “true meaning of Christmas” is a phrase that began to appear in the mid-19th century when a shift toward a more secular culture resulted in a national backlash in the United States. Christians began to see the secularization of the celebration day of the birth of Christ as the shift toward Santa Claus and gift exchanging replaced the celebration of the advent of Christ and giving to the poor and needy without expectation of receiving anything in return. The poem A Visit from St. Nicholas (1822) helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts, and seasonal Christmas shopping began to assume economic importance. Harriet Beecher Stowe criticizes the commercialization in her story “Christmas; or, the Good Fairy.” An early expression of this sentiment using the phrase “the true meaning” is found in The American Magazine, vol. 28 (1889):
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