December third, Currier and Ives (1834). Founded by Unitarian Nathaniel Currier, the Currier and Ives Printing Firm published an annual set of winter images. Scenes of snowball fights, horse and sleigh races, and children ice skating wooed Americans into a love affair with the idea of a snow covered New England holiday. The 1950 choral arrangement of “Sleigh Ride” attests to the spot these illustrations hold in our modern Christmas canon.