These days, Christmas is hard to miss and nearly impossible to avoid. But at various times it has been banned in different countries, including Britain. This is the story …
Christmas Today
Radio stations blare out Christmas tunes; houses are decorated inside and out; town centres are lit up with Christmas lights; people send Christmas cards; schools put on Nativity plays; churches hold special services; television programmes seem to have Christmas specials; and shops make the most of a shopping bonanza. Christmas Day is a bank holiday and nearly everything stops, and for a few days nearly everyone is religious. Generally, most people either enjoy it or at least tolerate it. Occasionally, there are voices objecting to Christmas from those who resent the imposition of a Christian festival on everyone.
Reformation Europe
After the Reformation, many Protestants throughout Europe were suspicious of Christmas, particularly Calvinists and Puritans. Some associated Christmas with the superstitious practices of medieval Catholicism, from which they wanted to distance themselves. They objected to the unholy excesses—such as gambling, drunkenness, and dancing—which were part of the festivities. Puritans also tried to model their practices purely on the Bible, and the Bible does not state the exact time or day when Jesus was born, nor does it institute marking it with a special day. For a mixture of these reasons, many Puritans wanted to ban Christmas. Calvin never banned Christmas, but others, like John Knox, went further. It was first banned in Scotland and later in England.
Scotland
On 1 August 1560, the Scottish Parliament rejected papal supremacy and established the Reformation. Religion was overhauled and the Mass was banned, including Christ’s Mass, known as Christmas. Celebrating Christ’s Mass was now considered too Catholic and too religious, and the celebration of Yule too pagan, while its traditions were deemed excessive and sinful. Celebrations did not stop overnight, but many people caught celebrating Yule were made to repent, and others were excommunicated. By 1575, there were punishments for anyone found dancing, playing, or singing carols. In 1602, the ban was revoked under King James VI, who became King James I of England the following year. In 1640, the Scottish Parliament reintroduced the ban.
England
Meanwhile, south of the border in England, in January 1642, during the reign of King Charles I, an Act was passed by the English Parliament, which was dominated by Puritans. This legislated for a monthly day of prayer, fasting, and repentance on the last Wednesday of each month. It applied only to England and Wales, as Scotland had its own separate Parliament until 1707. The 1642 law was not designed to ban Christmas, but it so happened that in 1644 Christmas Day fell on the last Wednesday of December, and the day of fasting took precedence.
In 1645, the new Puritan Parliament introduced the Directory of Public Worship, which was intended to replace the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. This stated that Easter, Christmas, and other feast days were not to be kept with special services. Christmas, unless it fell on a Sunday, was treated as a normal day, and Parliament sat on Christmas Day from 1645 until 1656.
In June 1647, Parliament passed a specific Act that explicitly banned Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun festivities, services, and celebrations, including festivities in the home. On these days there were no services in church, and this was enforced with fines for those who did not comply. The ban on Christmas was deeply unpopular, and there were public riots in some places. In December 1647, town criers had to announce that Christmas Day was not to be observed because it was “a superstitious and hurtful custom”, and that markets were to be held on Christmas Day.
Oliver Cromwell
England descended into Civil War, and King Charles I was executed in 1649. The monarchy was not abolished but left vacant. By 1652, Parliament passed another law reinforcing the Christmas ban. New fines were introduced for holding or attending a Christmas service, and shops were ordered to stay open on Christmas Day. In 1653, Oliver Cromwell was declared Lord Protector and England was declared a Commonwealth. In 1656, there were complaints in Parliament that many people were flouting the ban. On Christmas Day in London, shops shut, and the MPs sitting that day were kept awake by the noise of Christmas parties. In 1657, the Council of State reminded authorities in London to continue enforcing the ban.
The Ban Ends
In 1660, when the monarchy was restored under King Charles II, the ban on Christmas was removed in England and Wales. However, it remained banned in Scotland and Massachusetts.
Massachusetts
In 1620, the English Pilgrim Fathers sailed across the Atlantic and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These Puritans in New England eventually followed the lead of those in England. They may have started Thanksgiving, but they banned Christmas. In 1659, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared that “whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labour, feasting, or any other way” would be fined five shillings. The official ban on Christmas was repealed in Massachusetts in 1681. However, such was the Puritan climate that businesses and schools treated Christmas Day as a normal working day until 1856, when Christmas became a public holiday in Massachusetts.
Scotland
In Scotland, Christmas was briefly reprieved in 1686, only to be abolished again in 1690. The place where the ban on Christmas lasted the longest was Scotland, where Hogmanay had developed as the celebration of choice instead. In fact, in Scotland, Christmas Day—when it did not fall on a Sunday—remained a normal working day until 1958.
France
The next country to ban Christmas was France, but for quite different reasons. The French Revolution was republican, anti-monarchical, secularist, and anti-Church. Its agenda was to overthrow the autocratic monarchy and the Church’s dominant position in society. In 1793, the new French Republic banned all religious holidays in an attempt to de-Christianise the country. Churches were forced to remain closed on 24 and 25 December. This led to the tradition of having small crib scenes in homes instead.
In a major reversal of the revolutionary spirit, Napoleon declared himself Emperor and created a new monarchy. In 1801, he signed a Concordat with Pope Pius VII, restoring both autocracy and religion.
Soviet Union
The arrival of atheistic communism saw religious festivities abolished in the Soviet Union in 1929. According to Karl Marx, whose book Das Kapital became foundational for early communists, religion was the “opium of the people”. The Soviet authorities banned religious holidays and their associated customs. Atheism proved to be among the least tolerant of belief systems, and all Christmas traditions were abolished. From 1936, songs about Christmas and Jesus were effectively replaced by songs about communism and Lenin. The communist star replaced the Bethlehem star on the Christmas tree, which became a New Year tree, and Grandfather Frost took the place of Father Christmas or St Nicholas. After the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, Christmas returned as a public holiday in Russia and in most other former Soviet republics.
Summary
Today, Christmas is celebrated across most of the world, either openly or in secret. In modern times, the banning of Christmas is usually associated with atheist communist regimes or strict Islamic states. It is sobering to remember that the only time Christmas was banned in Britain and North America, it was not by atheists or secularists, but by Christians who found it too religious.
