In 1659, the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay banned Christmas:

whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas, or the like, either by forbearing labor, feasting, or any other way upon such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall pay for each offense five shillings as a fine to the country.

No feasting!

However, no one was ever prosecuted for this as far as I know; the law was repealed in 1681.

More details about banning Christmas in this nice article from the American Antiquarian Society. (Spoilers: Wassailing was harassment!)

After the First Crusade captured Jerusalem, there was some confusion about what to do with it. Should one of the leaders of the crusade rule it? If so, who? And what would he be called? And if not, should it be governed directly by the pope? The crusade was initiated by the pope so should Jerusalem be ruled by the church?

Jerusalem was captured in July 1099 and the crusaders defeated the Fatimid relief army in August. By that point the most popular leader of the crusade was Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lower Lorraine. He was elected to govern Jerusalem as...something. Not "king" exactly, since he claimed that he didn't want to be crowned in the city where Jesus wore a crown of thorns. The only evidence for any title that he actually used is "advocate of the Holy Sepulchre."

In his home territory in the Holy Roman Emperor that would have meant something specific - an "advocate" was the secular representative on land that belonged to the church. Is that what he meant in Jerusalem? Meanwhile the religious leaders of the crusade set up a church hierarchy. Eventually the papal legate, Daimbert of Pisa, was elected as Patriarch of Jerusalem. Daimbert also seems to have wanted to make Jerusalem a fief of the church, so if Godfrey had survived, that might have been what happened. But Godfrey died only a year after the conquest in July 1100.

Before Daimbert could position himself as some sort of patriarch-king, Godfrey's brother Baldwin was summoned from the north, where he had remained behind as the first count of Edessa. Baldwin had no hesitation about calling himself a king and wearing a crown and there wasn't much Daimbert could do about it.

However, Daimbert wouldn't let him be crowned in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, so instead, Baldwin's coronation took place on December 25, 1100, in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) has a companion named Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) who helps him hand out gifts. He is a controversial figure because he is usually portrayed by Netherlanders in blackface. The earliest known illustration of the character comes from an 1850 book by Amsterdam schoolteacher Jan Schenkman in which he was depicted as a black Moor from Spain.

In Scotland it used to be common to give presents and eat a large meal on new years, rather than Christmas, because presbyterians disapproved of making Christmas a celebration thst distracted from the religious element. While gift giving is now mostly on Christmas this can be seen in Hogmanay celebrations that continue to this day.

This is the time of year when all manner of conspiracy theories about Christmas come out of the woodwork. On national radio on Saturday I heard an interview with someone who believes Santa is based on Siberian shamans and therefore has something to do with hallucinogenic mushrooms.

There was zero historical context to his belief. For example, he was shocked when informed on air about Dutch traditions about Sint Nikolaas. There's plenty more that didn't come up on air that he was also unaware of -- for example, he was under the mistaken impression that Siberian shamans typically wear red fur, and that the flying reindeer derive from a mystic symbol in Eurasian tradition. Most Santa theories end up revolving around the reindeer in some way, I find.

For the record: the reindeer, the flying, the sleigh, and the big tummy were all invented in 1820s New York.

There's nothing Eurasian about them. Prior to that the American version of St Nicholas (really, Dutch-American) rode a horse-drawn wagon (the Dutch version just has the horse), which zipped either along the ground or on rooftops (not flying in mid-air), and he had a nondescript body form.

In 25 Dec 820, Eastern Roman Emperor Leo V was murdered while attending church ceremony. The conspirators freed Leo's opponent, Michael the Amorian, from prison and put him on the throne the next morning, still wearing chain on his legs.

Historians! Who has your vote for the best (or worst!) Christmas present of all time?

This is pretty late, but I wanted to link 3 of my all time favorite AskHistorians holiday answers. I go back to these 3 every year like clockwork as part of my annual reading.

/u/CatieO had an answer to the deep inconvenience of Scrooge gifting a giant turkey!

/u/mimicofmodes had a write up I send to family every year in How far did Bob Cratchit's 15 shilling per week wage get him? Did Scrooge pay a high or low wage for his time?

and finally /u/sunagainstgold talks about one of my all time favorite movies in In the infamous "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham calls to "cancel Christmas." What would Christmas have meant to the average person living in Plantagenet England?.

So thank you to all the fantastic writers who contribute to AskHistorians! So many of you I go back to years later just to enjoy posts again.

How accurate would you say Huey Freeman's take on Christmas is? Is he right or exaggerating a little bit?

EDIT: Specifically to any biblical historians/scholars: Would Jesus hate you for celebrating Christmas as we know it?