It seems appropriate at this time to take a look back at Christmases past in Bucks County. It may surprise some to learn that Christmas as we know it was not really celebrated widely in America until just before the Civil War. Earlier, Calvinist Puritans and Protestants believed the entire observance to be linked with pagan rituals and railed against them until colonial governments in more of New England actually outlawed Christmas celebrations. Even in Philadelphia, the Quakers completely dismissed any recognition of a Christmas holiday in 1749, though two years earlier the first recorded Christmas tree in America appeared in Bethlehem, just to the northwest.

The Christmas tree tradition in the United States began to bloom in earnest with the influx of German immigrants into Pennsylvania in the 1820s. They brought their already three-centuries-old tradition with them when they left their poor and strife-torn homeland to take advantage of the jobs opening up with the birth of the Industrial Revolution. However, these very jobs, unbounded by working hour restrictions, left laborers precious little free time to spend with their families in celebration or otherwise.

It wasn't until the 1843 publication of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” during the height of the Victorian era that facets of the celebration as we know them came into vogue. Across the sea from London, traditional carols such as “Joy To The World,” “The Holly and the Ivy,” and, of course, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” rode a wave of revival. That same year saw the publication and sale of the very first Christmas and New Year greeting card, starting a custom that today is an industry worth millions.

Here in Bucks County, a short story titled “The Christmas Tree” appeared on the front page of the Bucks County Intelligencer on Christmas Day in 1848. A treacly love story in full Victorian dramatic fashion, it was the only real indicator of anything special in that day’s paper. A paper in the collections of the Bucks County Historical Society by Henry Chapman Mercer reveals their record that Doylestown's first Christmas tree was brought into an Anglo-Saxon house in 1856, while German families in surrounding areas had probably already been doing so for some time.

The issue from Dec. 26, 1899, reported that Doylestown spent the last Christmas of the century with “a spirit of good cheer and happiness…which was more than necessary…promenading and driving formed principle pastimes of the day.”

Here’s wishing all our readers a happy and healthy holiday of their own, with thanks for your support throughout the year.