If you read anything about the more modern history of Christmas, you'll soon discover that the current traditions are a relative recent invention.

As little as 400 years ago, the church was attempting to eradicate the drunken, Saturnalian celebrations. In Colonial America, the Puritans of New England disapproved of Christmas. Celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681. Christmas fell out of favor in the United States after the American Revolution, when it was considered an English custom.

It was the German immigrants to the US and the 1843 publication of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" that are primarily responsible for the revival of Christmas and the traditions we have today.

There wasn't a Christmas tree at the White House until the late 1800's.