"In America, Our Oldest Christmas Tradition Is, in Fact, the War on Christmas"

"As the Massachusetts minister Increase Mather explained in 1687, Christmas was observed on Dec. 25 not because 'Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian' ones. So naturally, official suppression of Christmas was foundational to the godly colonies in New England.

"On their first Christmas in the New World, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony celebrated the holiday not at all. Instead they worked in the fields. One year, the colony’s governor, William Bradford, yelled at visitors to the colony who, unaware that Christmas was celebrated more in the absence than in the commemoration, were taking the day off. He found them 'in the streete at play, openly; some pitching the barr, and some at stoole-ball, and shuch like sports.' After that incident, no one again tried to take off work for Christmas in the colony."

Rachel N. Schnepper in The New York Times discusses Puritan opposition to celebrating Christmas.

As does Abby Ohlheiser at The Atlantic.