The history of Christmas in the USA is closely connected to the heritage of Puritan sects that represented the earliest form of authentic Christian (and also English-speaking) community. English Puritans saw Christmas as an abomination, a frivolous pagan ceremony that lacked firm scriptural basis and the Christmas celebration was banned in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Earlier Christmas celebrations in England were pretty rowdy in character, with elaborate feast, drinking and many carnival customs typical of early modern popular observances of religious festivities while puritan ethics celebrated contemplation, hard toil and moderation. Even though settlers from Central Europe celebrated Christmas in their own way, making Christmas Eve a primary holiday, complete with midnight masses and fasting, the Puritan New England narratives of Christmas were most enduring and most "mainstream" part of US folklore regarding Nativity celebrations. This American disregard for Christmas is also apparent in the fact that George Washington attacked Hessian mercenaries in Trenton on Christmas 1776, thus using Hessian custom of celebrating Christmas against them. Reluctance of Americans to celebrate Christmas kept well into 19th century, and when Ulysses S. Grant finally made Christmas a federal holiday in 1870 he accentuated the new American character of Christmas as a holiday made to bridge the chasm between the North and the South giving it distinct American character free from European continuities.

Further reading:

Barnett, James Harwood (1984). The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 0-405-07671-1.

Daniels, Bruce C. (1995). Puritans at play: Leisure and Recreation in New England