By the 17th century Christmas had fallen out of favor among the faithful. In 1659, Massachusetts Puritans declared celebrating Christmas to be a criminal offense. In England, Cromwell’s Parliament had banned Christmas in 1644 and threw offenders in jail on the charge of heresy. New-world Baptists and Presbyterians, likewise, voiced opposition to the day because of the pagan origins of most of the Christmas festivities.

By the beginning of the 19th century Christmas was hardly celebrated. Many businesses did not even consider it a holiday. But that was all about to change.

Many attribute that change to Queen Victoria and her marriage to the German-born Prince Albert, which introduced some of the most prominent aspects of Christmas as we observe it today. In 1848 the "Illustrated London News" published a drawing of the royal family celebrating around a decorated Christmas tree festooned with small presents, a tradition reminiscent of Prince Albert's childhood in Germany.

The Victorian age, the 63 years of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 until her death in 1901, was a time of great power and wealth for Britain as it expanded its empire across the globe. The era gave rise to the idea of Christmas as a celebration centered around family. The preparation of the feast, elaborate dining, holiday decorations, exchanging gifts, entertainments and parlor games—all were essential to a festival shared by the whole family.

Gift-giving, traditionally done at New Year, moved as Christmas became more important to the Victorians. The gifts were modest at first—fruit, nuts, sweets and small handmade trinkets, usually hung on the Christmas tree. However, as gift-giving became more central to the holiday, the gifts became bigger and shop-bought. And they moved to under the tree.

Even the roast turkey as a centerpiece of the Christmas dinner had its beginnings, strangely, in Victorian England. It was adopted first by the more wealthy of the community. But coming in sizes more practical for middle class family gatherings, turkey became the dominant holiday dish by the beginning of the 20th century.

Charles Dickens did not so much invent the Victorian Christmas in his book A Christmas Carol, but did do much to popularize the Victorian notions of a holiday emphasizing family gatherings, festive dining, charitable acts, peace and goodwill throughout the English-speaking world.

The History Channel has a web page that spotlights 25 Christmas traditions, and their origins, that help make our holiday not just merry and bright but memorable. Most are familiar even if their history may not be. A few are as odd and forgotten as ghost stories around the old Yule log fire. Herewith a sample. (For the full story, click here)

Christmas Trees
Decorated trees date back to Germany in the Middle Ages. German and other European settlers popularized Christmas trees in America by the early 19th century. A New York woodsman named Mark Carr, living in the Catskill Mountains, is credited with opening the first U.S. Christmas tree lot in New York City in 1851. It doesn’t appear that Carr even celebrated Christmas, but he'd certainly heard tales of families driving upstate and chopping down evergreen trees to drag back home to midtown Manhattan. Carr decided he’d bring the forest to the city. He became the "Vanderbilt of the Christmas tree," and his sons were still selling trees in the city as late as 1898. An old edition of "House Beautiful" magazine once observed, “Mark Carr’s little sidewalk stand now rents for several hundred times what he paid for it.” A 2019 survey estimated that 81% of Christmas trees sold in modern times are artificial.

Christmas Pickle Ornaments
Pickle ornaments first appeared in the late 1800's. Their origin is murky but likely grew from a Woolworth's marketing gimmick after the retailer received imported German ornaments shaped like a pickle and needed a sales pitch to move them. The idea was to hide the green pickle somewhere on the tree, and the first child to find it would get to open the first present Christmas morning or win an extra present. The pickle endures. The tradition for the most part does not.

Gingerbread Houses
Queen Elizabeth I gets credit for the early decorating of gingerbread cookies, but it’s the Germans who lay claim to starting the gingerbread house tradition. When the German Brothers Grimm wrote “Hansel and Gretel” a new holiday tradition was born.

Cookies and Milk for Santa
Leaving a snack for Santa and his reindeer dates back to ancient Norse mythology, Americans began to sweeten up to the tradition during the Great Depression in the 1930s, as a way of showing gratitude during a time of struggle.

Door Wreaths
Wreaths have been around since ancient Greek and Roman times. The evergreen Christmas wreath, often adorned with boughs of holly, eventually took on a Christian meaning, with the circular shape representing eternal life and the holly leaves and berries symbolic of Christ’s crown of thorns and blood, according to the New York Times. Today’s wreaths, which come in all varieties, from flowers and fruit to glass balls and ribbon to artificial and themed, are most often seen as a secular winter tradition.

Christmas Cards
The first official Christmas card debuted in 1843 in England. It bore the simple message, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” The idea of a mailed winter holiday greeting gradually caught on in both Britain and the U.S., with the Kansas City-based Hall Brothers (now Hallmark) creating a folded card sold with an envelope in 1915. Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, more than 1.6 billion holiday cards are sold annually.

Candy Canes
Candy canes date back to 1670 Germany. The red and white peppermint sticks arrived stateside in 1847, when a German-Swedish immigrant in Wooster, Ohio placed them on a tree. Whether consumed as a treat or hung as decoration, they are the No. 1-selling non-chocolate candy during the month of December,

Eggnog
This yuletide cocktail stems from "posset," a drink made with hot curdled milk and ale or wine, from medieval England, American colonists get credit for adding rum. It is said that George Washington had his own special, and rather potent, recipe, although according to Mount Vernon’s librarians no eggnog recipe has been definitively linked to Washington. Here's the story and the recipe behind it: The Homemade Eggnog Recipe from Mount Vernon. Shades of Martha Stewart. Skol, y'all.