In every country there are times to celebrate, weddings, birthdays, religious festivals. Although the U.S.A is a multi-cultural society, where different groups celebrate their own traditional 21 , Christmas is the most popular holiday in the U.S.A. Some of the 22 of Christmas time are old and others are newer. Already in the late 18th and the 19th centuries, people felt sentimental (眷恋的) about Christmases of the past. The American 23 , Washington Irving, wrote in 1819 about the old-fashioned Christmas he experienced in England. He was taken in a stagecoach (驿站马车) full of happy people, food and presents, to an old house in the 24 . There, he found a crowd of happy farmers, lots of food and drinks, snow, games and ghosts. The first Christmas card, which was printed in England, showed people eating and drinking 25 . It was sent in 1846, but Christmas cards did not become really 26 until the 1860s, when color printing became possible. By this time, stagecoaches had 27 running, replaced by the railroad. More and more families 28 the country and were living in towns and cities, but the dream of the 29 Christmas remained. The loaded stagecoach driving along the country road through the snow still 30 on many Christmas cards today.
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