Show I r Christmas At Marked e V In n Early Colonies w By Jollity o it Feasting east i g gS S Early American colonies along the thep p l Atlantic Kr seaboard could have been n 1 located on differ different nt continents so J l far as their Christmas celebrations L al were vere concerned le e Many of the customs of England t were ere followed by the th southern colo- colo 17 flies nies of Georgia Carolina Maryland and Virginia Here the Christmas u season on was a holiday in the true i F sense of the word Feasting and ut merrymaking were common but reZ religious religious re- re Z worship and prayer were not In sharp contrast to this happy st h celebration was the manner in which 5 Christmas was marked in New England Puritan leaders did their t g best to create a different concepc conception conception concep- concep c tion of the day Celebrations were declared pagan in origin and it was believed such rites were out of keeping keeping keep- keep ing g with with th the true spirit of the d. d day Y t c Their efforts were overcome after alter la a number of years and New EngI England Eng- Eng I land d yuletides gradually assumed a as s character more like those of old England Christmas in the middle colonies n of New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Penn- Penn sylvania and Delaware was celebrated celebrated cele- cele in the manner that the coli colonists col- col i followed in their countries of I origin In addition to England these colonies were populated by people from Germany Holland and Swe- Swe den The Germans for example brought to America the custom of fusing using the Christmas tree but the Quakers of Philadelphia limited their observance to religious cere- cere f monies 1 s Family reunions marked the seas season season sea- sea son in both the middle and southern colonies Houses were crowded with i welcome guests who were treated to the best of fowls wines and sweetmeats x Along the frontier Christmas was wasa fa a season of active merrymaking which in places verged on rowdy- rowdy ism As time went on Christmas in inthe inthe I Ithe the various sections of the colonies I II became fused until there is today I Fa a considerable similarity of practices practices I tices throughout the United States |