Puritan Christmas
Karen K | Saturday, December 17, 2011 When I tried to discover how my New England colonial ancestors would have celebrated Christmas, I found that they really didn't.
Yes, I know that the Puritans of the 1600's brought their cadaverous version of Christianity with them, and that they not only frowned on celebrating Christmas, but actually made any observance of the Incarnation and birth of Jesus Christ illegal.
What I didn't fully realize was that this attitude lasted until the mid-19th century (and beyond in some cases-- as late as 1870, Boston schools were open on Christmas Day and children who stayed home were punished).
This is why we have such a strong association in our collective psyche of Christmas with the Victorians: because they invented it. Or rather, they gave us practically all of the cultural traditions we have, even if they did borrow some from other cultures (the German tradition of the Christmas tree, brought to Britain by Queen Victoria and her German-born husband Prince Albert).
I think it would be interesting to take a look at how my Irish ancestors celebrated Christmas; I'm guessing that their Nativity jubilations involved Mass-going and much Guinness.