While Christmastime celebrations may seem to offer temporary respite from the divisive politics that have roiled American life for the past decades, Christmas traditions have long been political fodder. Indeed, “Lost Cause” accounts of enslaved Christmas experiences still have political consequences today—including for the MAGA movement and Donald Trump’s presidency. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The “Lost Cause” was a political project waged by white Southerners after the Civil War to venerate Confederate generals and the bravery of Confederate soldiers, while downplaying their treasonous effort to preserve and expand slavery in America by destroying the Union. What is often overlooked, however, is that the “Lost Cause” has also been a tool to excuse and even glorify the Black slave labor system that the Confederacy fought to perpetuate, and that Christmas customs in the South before the Civil War have been consistently featured in that propaganda.