Christmas Joy

4 Responses to “How did people celebrate Christmas before the advent of shopping malls and electric lights?”

1. bumblebee
   October 14th, 2008 at 3:55 am

   

   Homemade gifts….real candles on the tree

2. anumber1cooks2000
   October 14th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

   

   Depends where you are speaking about.The Christmas tree has been around in northern Europe since before Christianity.It was part of the pagan holiday “Yule”,the shortest day of the year.The Yule Log comes from that same tradition as well as mistletoe and decorating with holly.
   Most festivities in previous centuries were not too different than you would see today.When the western world converted to Christianity from “Gothic”(Germanic) and Classical pagan-isms the people still needed a feast day to cut loose in the middle of the cold weather so Christmas seemed to suit the situation.Feasting could take many forms from somber reflection on the birth of Christ to all out drunken hilarity. English “Merry Making” at Christmas had gotten so ou of hand by the 17th century that the Puritans outlawed Christmas parties in the Bay Colony for some time.

3. Paul W
   October 17th, 2008 at 8:03 pm

   

   They celebrated it with festivals of the winter solstice according to thier local religions. Modern Christmas just piggy-backed on this date because it was already a festive time.

4. wmbjbard
   October 20th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

   

   The people would go to the local groceries or clothing stores where they had catelogs like Sears and Roebuck, Walter Fields, J C Penneys & etc and order things that wasn’t in the local stores. Decorations was made out of crepe paper, old newspapers, pretty colored materials and bow ribbons. Gifts was wrapped in newspaper, cloth such as sheets, blankets / quilts or kept in the same box it came in. Candlelights or lamplights was the lightings.