If you walk around the shops in London today (as well as those around half the planet), the chances are that you will hear the song almost on a loop. famous Mariah Carey’s famous ‘All I want for Christsmas is you’, but there was a time, in the mid-18th century, when what was played during the holidays in the City was a very different song. Around 1647, what the town criers were shouting was “No Christmas, no Christmas!” And instead of Papanoeles, soldiers paraded through the capital to ensure that no one, under any circumstances, hung sprigs of holly to decorate their houses.
The reason is very simple: Christmas was prohibited.
Say no to Christmas. It’s hard to believe it on the eve of 2025, when Christmas is presented as the friendliest time of the year and there are town councils spending fortunes on decorating their streets with millions of LEDs, but things were very different in the British Isles in the mid-17th century. . In a turbulent political, social and religious context, marked by the English civil war, the authorities decided to prohibit the celebration of Christmas. Literally. No metaphors. In 1647 Parliament approved an ordinance that abolished any Christmas celebration.
The party is over (by decree). The norm in question was baptized as ‘Ordinance for Abolishing of Festivals’, it was approved in June 1647, and its message could not be clearer: after denouncing that Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the rest of the festivities considered “Holy Days” had been used “superstitiously”, the House decreed their abolition. “May they no longer be observed as festivals or holy days within this Kingdom of England and the dominion of Wales, notwithstanding any law or custom.”
In an article published in The ConversationMartyn Bennet, Professor of Modern History at Nottingham Trent University, recalls that the ban on Christmas extended to the kingdoms of England (which then included Wales), Scotland and Ireland. The ban lasted several years and was categorical: it banned celebrations in homes, under penalty of fines, and was also extended to businesses, forced by decree to open on December 25 as if it were a conventional day. In exchange, Parliament established secular holidays.
A mirror of its time. The fact that the celebration of Christmas is prohibited with a law may be striking (or not, after all there are still those who “stretch it” via decree), but the measure is better understood in the complex social and political context of 17th century Great Britain. To begin with, because the ordinance of 1647 was not entirely new. It was doing nothing other than extending a previous rule, from 1644, when, taking advantage of the fact that December 25 coincided with the Parliament’s monthly day of prayer and fasting, the authorities prohibited holding religious services.
Two years before the “anti-Christmas” ordinance, in 1645, the same House had also given the green light to a “directory of public worship” that outlined new forms of celebration for the Anglican Church and ordered that Christmas or Easter, among other holidays religious, should not be accompanied by special services.
And all that, why? By religion. And politics. Christmas in the second half of the 1640s may not have been very orthodox in Britain; But the truth is that they were not calm times on a political level either. Between 1642 and 1651 the kingdom fought the so-called English civil wars between royalists and parliamentarians. The “anti-Christmas” ordinance of ’47 actually arrived shortly after the first civil war, in which the parliamentarians prevailed over the supporters of Charles I.
Against this backdrop, the Puritans asserted their influence in Parliament to, among other issues, undertake a peculiar crusade against Christmas. For them, their celebrations and songs, not to mention the actual celebration of the birth of Christ every December 25, were abhorrent for several reasons. They found no justification in the Bible for such a celebration, they considered it a “popish” tradition and the way of commemorating Christmas was sinful to them.
In the 17th as in the 21st. Saving the obvious historical distance, in reality there were no big differences between how they celebrated Christmas in England in the 17th century and how we do it well into the 21st century. Every December 25th the birth of Christ was commemorated and a period of festivities began that lasted until January 5th. All accompanied by special services in churches, houses decorated with holly, ivy and mistletoe and reduced business hours. There was no shortage of theatrical performances, songs, carols, banquets based on turkey or minced meat pies, among other delicacies, and mugs of beer.
An “unacceptable” party. Under the new Presbyterian system these celebrations came to be considered excesses. And as such, they were stopped. “The usual festivities during the 12 days of Christmas were considered unacceptable. Shops had to remain open throughout the period, including Christmas Day. The display of Christmas decorations was prohibited and other traditions, such as banquets and consumption, were restricted. of alcohol, which was consumed in large quantities just as it is now,” recalls Professor Martyn Bennet in The Conversation.
And how did the people react? Not everyone liked the idea of giving up the Christmas celebration. So what was expected happened: there were those who chose to turn a deaf ear and ignore the Parliament’s ordinance. Perhaps Christmas carols could no longer be sung at the top of their lungs in the streets, but it was very difficult for the Puritan authorities to prevent them from being sung clandestinely. There were even those who decided to openly ignore the new restrictions, which gave rise to notorious (and in some cases violent) run-ins with the law.
In Norwich the mayor decided to turn a blind eye and allowed his neighbors to celebrate Christmas as usual, which led to riots, just like in Bury St. Edmund or Ipswich. Bennet remembers how in some cases the tension escalated to dramatic situations: in the spring of 1648 the residents of Norwich mobilized to prevent their alderman from having to go to London to explain his tolerance towards Christmas. The result was a considerable revolt that ended with a powder magazine exploding into the air and dozens of deaths.
From religion to politics. That Christmas carols and banquets became a focus of riots may seem exaggerated, but in 17th century Britain, Christmas was more than a party or religion. It was politics. And power. There were also moments of tension in Kent and Canterbury, where hanging holly on doors became an act of rebellion, and a popular ballad, ‘The World Upside Down’, was composed to denounce the ban on Christmas.
Far from giving in, Parliament passed new rules strengthening its veto in 1652, and three years later efforts to repress Christmas celebrations increased. Attending Christmas services became fined. And businesses were prohibited from closing early on Christmas Day.
Problem or opportunity? It was of little use to them. In 1656 Parliament lamented how people ignored its restrictions. The situation was seen through very different eyes from the royalist side, which found in the discontent unleashed by the Christmas repression a valuable lever to promote its own cause.
After the veto of 1647, the monarchists knew how to channel popular anger and helped organize revolts. In fact, there are historians convinced that the Christmas repression contributed to reviving the civil war. In case there were any doubts about the extent to which the festivals had a political component, when the monarchical Restoration arrived in 1660, the authorities decided to declare null and void the legislation passed since 1642… And, of course, allow holly-based celebrations again, carols, turkey and beer between December 25 and January 5.
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