Consider a time when hardly anybody celebrated Christmas. By the 1600s, the holiday had died out for a variety of reasons, including the ironic antagonism of Puritans and the extensive poverty and awful working conditions of most people; if Christmas existed at all, it was mainly for the rich. A confluence of forces changed all this by 1843 — new technologies and factories created affordable presents, labor laws like the 1833 Factory Act gave families time to celebrate, and a middle class grew out of poverty thanks to these trends and other social reforms.