The Year They Tried to Ban Christmas in the U.K.
No matter how much power you have, leaders throughout history have found that there’s still certain things you just can’t ban.
If what you’re thinking of taking off the table is intimately connected to people’s ability to feel happiness in a cold world, it’s unlikely to stick. Case in point: Prohibition. Centuries earlier, Britain uncovered another cultural rubicon that they were best staying on the good side of: Christmas. Again, probably a good idea to stay away from government rulings that make every child in the nation start crying if you want to be popular.
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The unsuccessful Christmas ban came about in the year 1647, and it had to do with a religious change at the top of England’s pecking order. Still within the bounds of Christianity, mind you, but the Church of England was gone, and had been replaced with Presbyterians. The new, Protestant heads of England decided that Christmas was a shady, borderline Catholic practice and that it was very much not going to be a part of their England.
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They sent down word that December 25th was, from now on, nothing more than that. Shops weren’t allowed to close, feasts and drinking weren’t to be merrily engaged in and even the hanging of holly would get you a rap on your window and a stern talking to. That is, if they didn’t straight up seize your decorations and any paraphernalia seen to be Christmas-related.
So how did that go?
Not great.
The very first year it was implemented, riots broke out. Disobedience wasn’t just among the rank-and-file, either. Some mayors quietly refused to enforce the laws. In Ipswich, there were even youths patrolling the streets with baseball bats, convincing stores to stay closed for the holiday — or else. A couple Protestants deciding that there was no Christmas eventually led to armed conflict with their own citizens, and dozens of deaths. In fact, there's an argument to be made that the single, poorly-thought-out decision to make Christmas illegal ended with the entire government being overthrown.
As for the Christmas ban? Needless to say, it didn’t stick.
