People looked toward recent immigrants and Catholic and Episcopalian churches to see how the day should be celebrated. In the next 100 years, Americans built a Christmas tradition all their own that included pieces of many other customs, including decorating trees, sending holiday cards and gift-giving. In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated.
Christmas has at times been the subject of controversy and attacks from various sources. Historically it was prohibited by Puritans when they briefly held power in England (1647–1660), and in Colonial America where the Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas in 1659. The Parliament of Scotland, which was dominated by Presbyterians, passed a series of acts outlawing the observance of Christmas between 1637 and 1690; Christmas Day did not become a public holiday in Scotland until 1958. Christmas celebrations have also been prohibited by atheist states such as the Soviet Union and more recently majority Muslim states such as Somalia, Tajikistan and Brunei. The Christmas music in the U.S. was influenced by community and church music, as well as radio, television, and recordings.
In the United States, it has been calculated that a quarter of all personal spending takes place during the Christmas/holiday shopping season. Census Bureau reveal that expenditure in department stores nationwide rose from $20.8 billion in November 2004 to $31.9 billion in December 2004, an increase of 54 percent. In other sectors, the pre-Christmas increase in spending was even greater, there being a November–December buying surge of 100 percent in bookstores and 170 percent in jewelry stores. In the same year employment in American retail stores rose from 1.6 million to 1.8 million in the two months leading up to Christmas. Industries completely dependent on Christmas include Christmas cards, of which 1.9 billion are sent in the United States each year, and live Christmas Trees, of which 20.8 million were cut in the U.S. in 2002.
The celebration of Christmas started in Rome about 336, but it did not become a major Christian festival until the 9th century. The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world. Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter.
“Noel” (or “Nowel”) entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël, itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis (diēs) meaning “birth “. Start shopping for all the hottest toys, beauty items, holiday decor and more during QVC’s Christmas in July sale. One NICU staff went above and beyond this holiday season by decorating ‘My First Christmas Stockings’ for their preemie patients. Traditionally, Christians claim Christmas as the day on which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born. And although many of our Christmas Day rituals and traditions evolved from that singular moment, that’s not the whole story. Although there are myths and truths about Christmas, let’s unpack what we do know.