Antiques.

The generality of Christmas-keepers observe that festival after such a manner as is highly dishonourable to the name of Christ. How few are there comparatively that spend those holidays (as they are called) after an holy manner But they are consumed in Compotations, in Interludes, in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in mad Mirth.

Increase Mather, A Testimony against Several Prophane and Superstitious Customs, Now Practiced by Some in New-England, 1687

Christmas was systematically suppressed by New England Puritans during the colonial period and largely ignored by their descendants for two centuries. However, a festival with such ancient and deep roots in English culture could not be entirely erased by fiat, and when it did surface it was in ways that confirmed the Puritans' worst nightmares of excess, disorder, and a carnival atmosphere.

In 1713 the Reverend Cotton Mather of Boston denounced Christmas in a treatise entitled Advice from the Watch-Tower, which contained "a Black List of some Evil Customes which begin to appear among us. In addition to Christmas, Mather condemned gambling with cards and dice, partying on Sunday evenings, running horse races on such solemn occasions as funerals and public lectures, turning weddings into drunken revels, and holding cornhuskings that were little more than excuses to riot.

With the turn of the nineteenth century and the growth of American cities, rowdy public displays of excess at Christmastime became even more threatening as they turned into street violence and even riots. Only in the middle of the century was Christmas recognized as an official public holiday in New England. In December 1850 Godey's Lady's Book printed a picture of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and five of their children around a Christmas tree at Windsor Castle. In 1860, with the Civil War imminent, the magazine reprinted the picture, and ...