The first Christmas in America before the English arrived (see commentary) was held in Florida, The Spanish landed there in 1539 and, being Christian, may have paused to celebrate during the one winter they stayed during the visit. There is no record of that experience, but it would have been unusual for the adventurers to pass over the day completely. If they did ignore it, however, other Spaniards would have held the first American Christmas in St. Augustine, established in 1565, the oldest continuously occupied and European-settled town in the contiguous U.S. (The explorer Ponce de Leon, who named Florida, was apparently never there during Christmas.)
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