Christmas Comes to Dorchester in the 1840's

I have no record of how the Ball Hughes' family celebrated Christmas in Dorchester, but I can imagine that Ball Hughes, being the innovator that he was, may have been one of the first to have a Christmas tree in his neighborhood.


From the Dorchester Reporter, December 6, 2001:

It Happened Here

Just Another Day

For Dorchester's First Two

Centuries, Christmas Was

No Holiday

In the 1840s, as the Victorian Era hit New England full-bore, Christmas in Dorchester began to change. A social historian notes: "But with the beginning of the nineteenth century, the need for a festival to have some commemorative time made the Americans embrace Christmas as a perfect family holiday. Christmas was declared as a national holiday for celebration on June 26, 1870. And that was not all; Americans even re-invented the Christmas celebration and transformed it from a mere carnival into a family-oriented day of feast, fun and frolic." Read more