What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
Often thought to aid the process of falling asleep, reading in bed is a common habit practiced by many today.
Yet in the 19th century, going to bed with a book was described as "little less than tempting God, to sport with the most awful danger and calamity which can affect ourselves and others."
Reading at night had a bad reputation because of the number of house fires caused by the candles providing the light!
For centuries, women were forbidden to wear items of clothing that were thought of as men’s.
Although the first women’s pants went to market in 1918 with the hilarious name Freedom-Alls, it was frowned upon for a woman to dress in anything other than a skirt or dress until the middle of the 20th century.
Arguably this one is still frowned upon, what with teenage drivers having a greater propensity to drive under the influence or text at the wheel.
However, just a century ago a 17-year-old with a car was scandalous for an entirely different reason: taking the wheel signaled dishonorable intentions.
When Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant in 1903, many people were understandably horrified at the idea of powering their homes with the stuff.
Doctors prescribed heroin and it was an ingredient of cough syrups, while Sigmund Freud used cocaine to help with both depression and indigestion.
During the 18th century, these delicious fruits gained a reputation for being "poison apples," after a number of aristocrats suffered lead poisoning after eating them off pewter plates.
It took a long time for tomatoes to shake their bad reputation–even 19th-century poet Ralph Waldo Emerson described them as "objects of much terror."
When cars first came about at the beginning of the 20th century, they were shunned by many because of the cost.
Few felt that cars were a worthy alternative to the trusty horse and carriage that never needed its tires replaced.
In 1903, the Boston Globe printed an article called ‘Colors That Will Drive the Brain to Madness.’
The story included such statements as "purple is the most dangerous color there is" and "dead purple will kill you eventually."
Before we knew the extent to which exposure to radiation harms the human body, people used to drink radithor, a patent medicine made by distilling water with radioactive material.
Eben Beyers, a prominent American steel mogul, died of radiation poisoning in 1932. A story was printed in the Wall Street Journal with the title ‘The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off.’
At the beginning of the 20th century, it was uncommon for people to wash more than once a week.
Water was often scarce, and it wasn’t until indoor plumbing was introduced that people began to scrub themselves on the daily.
At the turn of last century, it was widely considered improper for a woman to ride a bicycle.
In 1895, the New York World published an article detailing all the things a woman should not do when riding a bike. It included "Don’t refuse assistance up a hill."
In 1900, the average life expectancy for an American man was 48.3 years. Today it is 76.3 years.
With people living longer and longer, it is now not unheard of for someone to live well into their hundreds.
Until the middle of the 20th century, it was possible to smoke pretty well anywhere. Restaurants, bars, airplanes - you name the location, smokers were welcome.
Nowadays indoor smoking is almost universally prohibited, something that would have astounded the average person just 100 years ago.
These days almost everyone uses some form of public transport, especially with the global effort to move towards environmentally friendly ways to go from A to B.
But trains and buses weren’t always so popular. According to a 1912 editorial in the Chicago Sunday Tribune, the stability handles in subway carriages could cause "a frightful strain upon internal organs."
Just a century ago, tattoos were a thing of criminality and underground culture. A woman with a tattoo was either a prostitute or a member of the circus.
Nowadays tattoos are wholly socially acceptable, and studies have actually shown that more women are getting inked than men.
See also: What normal life was like in the 1960s
As we learn more about the way the world works, our beliefs regarding acceptable behavior change. At the turn of the 20th century, no one was expected to practice household recycling, for example. Nowadays it's almost shocking if someone doesn't separate their trash.
Of course it can work the other way too, and many of today's common practices would have been horrifying back then. Check out this gallery to see which everyday occurrences would have shocked folks a century ago.
15 everyday activities that were considered scandalous 100 years ago
Click on to see how far we've come!
LIFESTYLE History
As we learn more about the way the world works, our beliefs regarding acceptable behavior change. At the turn of the 20th century, no one was expected to practice household recycling, for example. Nowadays it's almost shocking if someone doesn't separate their trash.
Of course it can work the other way too, and many of today's common practices would have been horrifying back then. Check out this gallery to see which everyday occurrences would have shocked folks a century ago.