In Massachusetts, the observation of Christmas was utterly denounced as an evil, ungodly, and pernicious custom, and any child daring to think of as much as a plum pudding on that day would make herself liable to re-proof by the authorities. All along the stern and rock-bound coast, Geraldine Ames writes in the Churchman, the only Christmas trees in the days of the Puritan domination were those that nature had planted there and had adorned with fleecy snow. The fires burned brightly on the open hearths, but as far as the children knew, Christmas was just like any other day in the calendar. Even after the Puritan reaction against the forms and customs of the old church had spent itself to some extent, the children of the seventeenth century still expected no gifts in honor of the birth of Christ. 