When Christmas Became Illegal

What if celebrating Christmas could get you thrown in jail? To more than 2 billion people worldwide, Christmas is now a holiday of togetherness, festivities, and giving. If you were a Puritan in the 1600s, though, you did not see it that way. The Puritans were Protestants who sought to purify the Church of England by renouncing practices they considered unscriptural. Some rejected Christmas because of the Bible’s lack of evidence that Christ’s birth was on the 25th of December or that it should even be celebrated. Others were more bothered by the belief that it encouraged drinking, gambling, mischief, and licentiousness. Their contempt for the holiday swelled when King Charles I was crowned, as his royal court had especially extravagant Christmas celebrations. Tensions between Parliament and the crown steadily grew for many reasons. One major factor was that many powerful Parliament members were Puritans. Eventually, civil war broke out between the Parliamentarian and Royalist armies. With England mostly controlled by Parliamentarians in 1645, the stage was set to cancel Christmas in England, Ireland, and Wales. Parliament decreed that festival days, including Christmas, were for observation rather than celebration, and on December 25th, churches were shut down. Two years later Parliament made Christmas celebrations officially illegal and punishable by a fine. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t get the Puritans any peace on Earth or mercy mild. Public backlash varied from protesting via the press and hanging holly around town to violent riots. Unfortunately for Christmas, the Parliamentarians came out ahead of King Charles and won the civil war. By the time Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of the Commonwealth, stricter laws against Christmas had been passed and arrests were more common. Following Cromwell’s death, worries of a destabilized country ultimately led to the reinstatement of the monarchy. Charles I’s son, Charles II, was invited to rule, and he reinstated Christmas. Ever since, Christmas has been reborn—it’s a lot more popular…and a little less controversial. We wish you a very merry, crime-free Christmas.