The meal is served only after the first star appears. Afterward, children receive gifts of nuts and apples. The family then attends a midnight mass. Singers visiting homes are rewarded with gifts of food and money. In Mexico, the season is observed with Las Posadas, a procession depicting the search for a place to stay by Mary and Joseph.
Families visit each other with prayers and song.
This goes on for nine evenings prior to Christmas Eve and ends with a small image of the baby Jesus placed in a cradle at the end of the prayers and midnight mass. Children then receive toys and gifts in their shoes placed in the window on Epiphany, Jan. 6. The chief of the island helped the strangers and provided a feast of shrimp. The somber Puritans of 1620 refused to acknowledge the festive season, but the Pilgrims brought with them a barrel full of ivy, holly and laurel to observe the holiday. The Puritan beliefs prevailed, and the General Court of Massachusetts of 1659 enacted a law that fined those observing Christmas five shillings.