Ace Collins

We wish you a Merry Christmas.

And they would plug in whatever they wanted in the verse.

It wasn't figgy pudding.

It would be ale or money or whatever.

And it was kind of like trick or treat.

If you didn't give it to them, they would do damage to your home.

Uh, and so New York police, Boston police and others actually had extra forces out at that time to protect people.

What happened?

Well, in the United States, a man wrote a wonderful poem for his children celebrating the Eastern European family Christmases.

And that poem he called A Visit from St.

Nick, and it was published in newspapers locally first and then around the country.

And it turned the focus on children in the United States, and in particular St.

Nick visiting children.

We know that poem now as Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Within 10 years, department stores had caught on the fact that, hey, we can make money by advertising Christmas gifts for children, encouraging people to give gifts to children at Christmas.

What did that lead to?

It led to churches, which usually stayed closed on Christmas Day, opening up their doors and having Christmas celebrations because the violence was gone, the drunken revelry was gone.

And the other thing it did that I think was absolutely fascinating was

Congress quit meeting on Christmas Day, and the government started to shut down on Christmas Day.

So it was in the 1840s in the United States when we finally had that old-fashioned Christmas that everyone longs for today.