162 BC Jews victorious over King
Antiochus
320 Dec. 25 set as the birthday
of Christ by Pope Julius I
490 Advent established as a period
of fasting
1561 Christmas trees mentioned for
the first time in a printed document
1659 Massachusetts makes
Christmas illegal
1681 Massachusetts legalizes Christmas
1838 Louisiana is the first state to make Christmas a legal holiday
1843 First Christmas card designed
by Englishman J.C. Horsley; Charles Dickens writes A Christmas Carol
1844 Thomas Smith invents
Christmas crackers, small cardboard tubes with toys or candy inside that
burst open when pulled from both
ends, in Great Britain
1
857 J. Pierpont writes "Jingle Bells"
1870 US Congress declares Christmas
a national holiday
1946 Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed star in It's a Wonderful Life
1949 Gene Autry records "Rudolph
the Red-Nosed Reindeer"