On June 26, 1870 Christmas is declared a federal holiday with most workers receiving paid time off.
English colonists arrived in America fleeing religious persecution with an orthodox Puritan contingent banning Christmas in Boston while a more lenient group shared eggnog during Christmas in Jamestown, Virginia.
After dutifully attending church services on Christmas Day, all heck breaks loose with displays of public drunkenness, revelry and rabble-rousing.
With the help of astronomers and mathematicians, Sextus Julius Africanus, a 1st Millenium historian, calculates the date of Jesus’ birth as December 25.