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Christmas day was not always so merry. It was such a despised holiday that most Christians refused to celebrate Christmas until the last two hundred years. Christmas seemed to be especially bad in England. Christmas was not celebrated as a day of worship or a time of reflection about what Christ has done for us. Instead, Christmas was a day to sing, get drink in excess and riot in the streets.

Christmas was indeed a strange holiday. People wore bizarre costumes and many times mobs roamed the streets. The wealthy became targets with demands for fine food and drink. If the mobs were not satisfied, they would ransack the home until they found what they wanted. Christmas was a day of the strange combinations. It had the party atmosphere of Mardi Gras with the costumes of a Halloween celebration. Christmas Day was nothing more than an excuse to drink and behave uncontrollably.

The drinking and rioting of Christmas Day were traditions that stemmed from the pagan practices of celebrating the winter solstice. The church leaders did not have a day that celebrated the birth of Christ until the late third century. The day of December 25th was selected not because it was the day Christ was born but because the church could easily celebrate without fear of persecution. December 25th was the end of the Roman celebration Saturnalia and could easily hide the Christian celebrations. However, a major problem developed that church leaders did not expect. Christians began to celebrate Christmas with the same practices as those of Saturnalia. The Christian practices seemed to be lost among the chaos of common pagan practice. These practices became prevalent in England.

When the Puritans settled in America in 1620 there was no celebration of Christmas. The same Pilgrims that celebrated Thanksgiving would not celebrate Christmas. The Puritans believed that Christmas was an unholy holiday that encouraged sinful behaviors. Anyone caught celebrating Christmas would be arrested. Churches did not hold worship services and government leaders forced businesses to remain open. The ban on Christmas would eventually fall away due to the massive immigration that came from Europe. The European immigrants brought with them the wild practices of their Christmas celebrations.

There were European countries that had different celebrations of Christmas that were more like what we know today. Germany held Christmas as a day for family, food, and faith. The Germans celebrated Christmas with homemade treats

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