Originally Posted by
stut
But then I can also remember when Christmas in Scotland was celebrated a lot less than it is now (although not old enough - like my grandparents - to remember when it wasn't even a public holiday...)
If you are writing in the present tense about your forebears they must be remarkably long-lived, because Christmas Day became a holiday in Scotland under the Bank Holiday Act 1871. There was a religious rivalry (not unknown elsewhere in Scotland) between the Presbyterians and the Catholics, and a holiday on Christmas Day had been seen as supporting the latter tradition. It was not necessary for the act to cover Christmas Day in England because it was "perfectly obvious" that it was a religious day, leading to the bizarre situation of it officially being a holiday in Scotland but not England, but actually celebrated much more in England.
In more recent times Boxing Day (Dec 26) also became an official holiday in Scotland under the 1971 Banking & Financial Dealings Act (which also does public holiday rules, and why they are called 'bank' holidays), along with January 2, at the same time as New Year's Day became so in England. It seems strange now that New Year's Day only became a holiday in London comparatively recently.
If we are going back to past memories, I'll recall my father said that in the 1920s he posted ALL his Christmas cards on Christmas Eve, and they were ALL delivered on Christmas Day !