The Battle to Keep Christmas
Cromwell needed to reinforce existing legislation because the people of England refused to give up Christmas. Most people kept Christmas on the quiet. Resistance in some areas, however, was brazen. On Christmas Day 1643, a mob of London apprentices went about the city, forcing shops open for business to close. It was a scene that repeated itself in different towns around England at different times. In 1646, the apprentices of Bury St Edmunds followed suit. When the local constables tried to force the crowd to disperse, an angry scuffle broke out, and several people were injured.
Violent protests also occurred over Christmas decorations- and church services. In 1647 an angry mob physically prevented the mayor of London and his men from removing Christmas decorations that revelers had draped about a water conduit in Cornhill. When the constables began to arrest people, the protest disintegrated into violence, and one man died of his injuries in Newgate jail. That same Christmas, The Kingdom’s Weekly Post reported how some eager Christmas churchgoers went to Christmas day services armed to ensure their worship was not interrupted and that “the church doors were kept with swords and other weapons defensive and offensive whilst the minister was in the pulpit.”
By far the most alarming incident of Christmas 1647 occurred in Canterbury, an otherwise pro parliamentary city. A large crowd gathered on Christmas day, demanding services and the all-around keeping of Christmas. When an overexcited protestor assaulted a soldier, the protest turned into a full-on revolt. The Christmas crazy crowd then attacked the Mayor’s house, and before they knew it controlled Canterbury. They held the city for the entire Christmas period, decking doorways with holly and ensuring plenty of Christmas cheer. However, a new slogan arose from amongst the festive greenery: “for god, King Charles, and Kent.” It seemed that some places were so tired of Puritan piety they were even willing to have the supremacy of the monarch back.
By the late 1650s, it seems that the best efforts of Puritans to persuade people to lay aside the ” jollity and vanity of the time” were largely in vain. More and more people were risking arrest to attend unofficial Christmas services. Some shops still refused to open and “taverns and taphouses’ were routinely full on Christmas Day. In 1656 when a reverend Ezekiel Woodward admitted defeat in the face of a congregation who “go on holding fast to their heathenish customs and abominable idolatries and think they do well’.
Meanwhile, that same year in London, MP’s sourly noted that they had slept poorly on Christmas Eve due to ‘preparations for this foolish day’s solemnity.” Those attending parliament the following day noted that it was still common to “pass the Tower to Westminster” and find“not a shop open nor a creature stirring.” The Puritans had finally lost the battle over Christmas. The Pro Christmas victory, however, did not become decisive until 1660 when the monarchy as finally restored. Then, the Directory of Public Worship and all other legislation made from 1642 onwards was declared null and void. Finally, Christmas in all its secular and sacred glory could be celebrated in the open again.
Where Do We get This stuff? Here are our sources:
Did Oliver Cromwell Really Ban Christmas? Historic England
The Puritan War on Christmas, Chris Durston, History Today, December 12, 1985
Christmas abolished! Why did Cromwell abolish Christmas? The Cromwell Association
Did Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas? The Puritan assault on Christmas during the 1640s and 1650s, Mark Stoyle, History Extra, December 2, 2020.