On Christmas day, 2000, there was a partial solar eclipse visible from most of North America. On most of the east coast, the peak of the eclipse appeared at about 12:30 PM. On the west coast, the maximum eclipse appeared at about 8:29 AM.

The last Christmas solar eclipse occurred in 1954. It was an annular eclipse, in which case the moon darkens most of the sun but leaves a "ring of fire" around the edges. Another Christmas Day solar eclipse, a partial one, won't happen until 2307.

Details lifted from cnn.com, nasa.gov and skypub.com.