Caroline Kennedy's new book includes essays, letters, RUN DMC lyrics and some of her own traditions in "A Family Christmas"- In 1659, the Puritans of Massachusetts banned the celebration of Christmas, "which had become known for public drunkenness, licentious sex and gambling."
- The American vision of Santa Claus was created by Clement Clarke Moore in his 1822 poem that starts " 'Twas the night before Christmas" and was later exported to the world largely via Coca-Cola ads.
- Department stores, invented in America, "contributed greatly to the economic growth of Christmas." Macy's began decorating its windows in the 1870s and launched its Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created for Chicago's Montgomery Ward stores in 1939.
- "The first electric Christmas-tree lights, 80 hand-blown red, white, and blue glass bulbs, festooned the 1882 tree of Edward Johnson, an executive in the Edison Illuminating Co."
It's always been about the consumer buying crap. Please don't look so surprised.
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