Before the British navy bombarded and burned Norfolk, Virginia, a rumor went around that the town had already been destroyed. A messenger riding from Norfolk to Williamsburg reported that while he was on his way, he heard cannon firing, and Virginia Colonel Thomas Elliott wrote from Hampton that the firing was heard until 9 p.m. (on December 28). But what was it really? Celebrating the Christmas season with cannons. A newspaper in Williamsburg got the real story from a man who had just come from Norfolk: “it was only a Christmas frolick between lord Dunmore and the captains of the navy, upon visiting each other on board their ships.”
I guess if you have some cannons at your disposal, plenty of gunpowder, and nothing else to do, you might as well put them to good use for livening up the party!