The Christmas the Founders Gave Us

There is a Christmas manufactured for display windows and marketing campaigns, bright, hurried, and quickly forgotten. There is the Christmas our Founders knew, quiet, severe, inward, and bound to something far older and more demanding than comfort. They did not inherit a nation wrapped in ribbon. They brought one into being through cold hands, empty stomachs, and resolute faith. When George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night, there were no speeches to stir the heart and no crowds to bear witness. There was no certainty of success. There was only an obligation. The men who followed him were unpaid,...