In America, since colonial days, we have celebrated Christmas with a feast, evergreens and fruit. The kissing ball was a common colonial festive decoration. Wide scale Christmas decorations were slow to start in England and North America where even in the mid-1800s, only a few American homes had Christmas trees. Franklin Pierce was the first president to have a Christmas tree in the White House, that was 1853. 

Christmas trees and decorating for Christmas are still an important symbol of the holiday. Real candles on trees were replaced by electric lights in the early 1900s.  Little villages, initially glittered cardboard candy boxes shaped like little houses, surrounded our Christmas trees. Ornaments, in all types of materials, were made in the home, imported from Germany and later from Japan. Join John Cilio for a 50-minute time travel to an earlier era of family celebration in Christmases past.