Christmas In The Olden Days

There's an awful lot about Christmas past that I dearly miss.

BUT, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed Christmas in Boston between 1659 and 1681. Christmas was illegal. No decorations, no mince pies or pudding and town criers walked through the city all day calling out, "No Christmas! No Christmas!"

In Puritan England in 1644, the following were illegal at Christmas time: dancing, plays, games, singing carols, cheerful celebrations and drinking.

Plymouth Colony made celebrating Christmas a criminal offence.

Rather, the Big Day was to be spent in sober contemplation of your sins. I don't know about you, but I usually reserve that activity for New Year's Day.....after I get up....about 2 p.m.
 
Wonderful SeaBreeze, those are the kind of videos that really put me in the Christmas mood. Notice how through the years the Christmas trees all look the same? My Dad sold Christmas trees on the nursery he managed his whole life and personally went with a small crew of men to Vermont weeks before and cut them. Today they are trimmed and manicured into the perfect tree. Back then they had character.
 
My Christmas trees as a kid had character Ruth, they were close to a Charlie Brown tree, my dad would buy it the day before Christmas and hide it from me. After I was asleep my parents and older siblings put it up, decorated it with bubble lights and hanging tinsel, etc. and put the presents under there. Christmas morning was amazing, someone would get up before I did and put on the lights for me, it was wonderful. :sentimental:
 
Back in the 60's we here, in Rochester NY, had Midtown Plaza. Midtown had the distinction of being one of the first indoor shopping malls in the country. What a concept. Anyway, Midtown did up Christmas well. There was the Giant snow mountain, where Santa was. There was also what they called the monorail..a child sized tram that took the kids on a ride around the plaza. And the big tree, of course.

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Christmas tree in the home of Wilbur and Orville Wright in Dayton, Ohio, three years before their famous flight. December, 1900

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Rockefeller Center, Christmas Eve, 1931

"During the height of The Great Depression (called the 'Clutch Plague'), workers at the Rockefeller Center construction site decided to pool their money to buy a Christmas tree, a 20-foot balsam fir that they decorated with handmade garlands from their families. The men lined up at the tree to receive their paychecks."

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"Two years later in 1933, Rockefeller Center decided to make the tree an annual tradition."

https://www.6sqft.com/the-history-of-the-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-a-nyc-holiday-tradition/
 
I wrote this a long time ago when our newspaper had a blog. It was as I remember Christmas, as a child, in my hometown. All the stores were decorated and lots of folks shopping. This was long before the big box stores were there.


Gosh, we have driven up and down the Broad Streets and cannot find a place to park. Oh wait, there is one on the park across from the old Eagle Hotel. Grandma wants to go to the Fair Store so I will stop at Pringles Cigar Store and get some new comics. After meeting up again, we cross the street to the J.C.Penney catalog store. I tell Grandma I would like to stop at Dean Phipps and check out some fishing stuff.

It's about time for lunch, so we stop at the Norwich Grill for a drink and sandwich. We still have a few stops to make. Sonne Bros., W.T. Grant, M.H. Fishman,Wilcox and Littlefair, McNeils, Nash and Spencers and Winan's Men Shop.

This will take most of the day and we cannot carry one more thing. Gram calls Smith Taxi to take us back on the hill How beautiful Norwich looked with its lights and decorations and hundreds of people on the streets. Ah, yes. It was a great time.

Posted by: pappy on December 13th at 2:57 pm | 30 Comments |

Going to the movies.....1950
This got copied too. A little bonus for all.

Well, we have taken back enough bottles to pay our way into Smalleys theater. It will cost us 14 cents for a great double feature. The main show is "Frontier Pony Express" starring Roy Rogers and the second show is an Abbott and Costello movie Called Africa Screams. If we wanted we could sit through a second showing, but the popcorn and candy was pretty well gone by then. I can remember coming out of the theater and being blinded by the sunlight. On the way home we would discuss what we had just seen and tried to imitate the actors. Ah yes, good times...simple times.....
 
fmdog44 said:
I think it sucks that some businesses are open on Christmas day eve if only for a half day.
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I used to feel the same way about businesses that are open on holidays.

I changed my mind when I started thinking about all of the people that really need the additional income.

I'm fine with it if the business attempts to accommodate the wishes/needs of employees that are not interested in working on holidays.

The good news is that most holidays last for at least 24 hours and most people should be able to find the time to be with the people that they care about for a few hours.
 
jujube said:
There's an awful lot about Christmas past that I dearly miss.

BUT, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed Christmas in Boston between 1659 and 1681. Christmas was illegal. No decorations, no mince pies or pudding and town criers walked through the city all day calling out, "No Christmas! No Christmas!"

In Puritan England in 1644, the following were illegal at Christmas time: dancing, plays, games, singing carols, cheerful celebrations and drinking.

Plymouth Colony made celebrating Christmas a criminal offence.

Rather, the Big Day was to be spent in sober contemplation of your sins. I don't know about you, but I usually reserve that activity for New Year's Day.....after I get up....about 2 p.m.
Click to expand...
Wow, I was never aware of this.
 

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