Originally the celebrations were for the solstice and Saturnalia which had nothing to do with Christianity. It wasn’t until 400 CE (A.D) that the Catholic church ordain the celebration of the nativity on December 25 primarily co-opting existing pagan celebrations. The Roman Saturnalia holiday had lights, drinking and feasting that coincided with the winder solstice. The Puritans believed that Christmas was a pagan custom the Catholics took over and was without any biblical basis.
The manner in which the British celebrated Christmas was atrocious and against everything the church taught. People watched theatrical plays, gambled, sang and danced in the street, feasted, drank in large quantities
Philip Stubbes – Anatomie of Abuses – 1583
In 1642 Parliament decreed that to stop the the ungodly behavior of celebrating Christmas, things such as Christmas plays were banned by law; the law required people to fast and do penance on that day instead. Two years later, parliamentary law had officially banned all celebration of Christmas declaring it had “no biblical justification”.
British soldiers stormed a Christmas service at a London church in 1657 and arrested the entire congregation for celebrating this horrible holiday.
The Puritans in Boston also passed law against celebrating Christmas making it illegal from 1659 until 1681.
For preventing disorders arising in several places within this jurisdiction, by reason of some still observing such festivals, as were superstitiously kept in other countries, to the great dishonor of God and offense to others: It is therefore ordered by this Court and the authority thereof, that whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing labour, feasting, or any other way upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending, shall pay five shillings as a fine to the country.
General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony – 1659
The U.S. Congress was in session and working as normal on December 25, 1788. It didn’t seem that Christmas had enough significance to prevent them from going to work normally like any other day.
When you hear ‘I wish we celebrated Christmas the way it always used to be’, one wonders if they mean making Christmas celebrations illegal since they were pagan and superstitious events or more like drunken parties. You know, the traditional way they were celebrated for thousands of years.