The man who cancelled Christmas, or did he?

During the pandemic I was three days into a new job and I had to make the unfortunate, and unpopular decision to cancel the Christmas Party due to Covid. Needless to say it was an ongoing joke about how I was the Risk Manager who stole Christmas and this got me thinking about the other infamous man associated with cancelling Christmas - no not the Grinch, Oliver Cromwell.

Cromwell was the leader of the parliamentary forces during the civil wars and Lord Protector of England from 1653 until his death in 1658. His legacy is complicated and still hotly debated, some consider him to have laid the foundations for parliamentary democracy, while others argue that he was a tyrant highlighting his campaigns in Ireland which decimated the population and should be viewed as an act of genocide. But did he really cancel Christmas?

The answer is no.

However, there was a ban of Christmas celebrations throughout this period so how did the ban come about and why has Cromwell become associated with it? The origins of the ban date back to 1642 just before the outbreak of the first English Civil War, parliament legislated for a monthly day of prayer, fasting and repentance. This was not an uncommon practice for the time when there was widespread belief that divine intervention could resolve all manner of problems. In 1644 this day of repentance coincided with Christmas Day and while parliament issued an ordinance reinforcing that the day of fasting should be observed it is hard to measure how many people obeyed the order.

Between 1644 and the restoration of King Charles II in 1660 parliament made several attempts to make the Christmas ban enforceable. In June 1647 Christmas, Easter and Whitsun services were officially banned with fines being issued for non-compliance. These bans and fines were furthered in 1652 with shops also being ordered to stay open on Christmas Day.

Puritan soldiers patrolled the streets arresting anyone found to be breaking the ban and confiscating Christmas dinners. For puritans the Christmas celebrations were a pagan hangover which encouraged excess and other social deviances which they believed distracted from 'true' Christianity. Despite being in control of the army and central government these puritanical beliefs about Christmas were deeply unpopular and bans proved difficult to enforce. Several riots broke out protesting the ban and many across the country chose to simply ignore it and continued to celebrate Christmas. It is worth pointing out that while Christmas was banned, mince pies were not - the ban made no mention of mince pies. Besides mince pies at this time were still made with meat and not associated with Christmas but instead were a celebratory dish for weddings.

So where does Cromwell fit into this? Well, interestingly he was not actually present when the official ban of Christmas was passed in 1647. However, this had more to do with his disagreement with parliament over army pay than any strong feelings against the ban. Given his position within the puritan party it is likely that he agreed with the ban, he never revoked it and gave his military major-generals the authority to clamp down on those still celebrating during the Christmas of 1655. Nevertheless he was not responsible for the ban and his feelings towards Christmas are impossible to determine for certain as he never mentioned it in any of his speeches or letters.

The myth that Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas and its enduring legacy is a testament to the success of Restoration propaganda. When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 he repealed the moral laws of the Cromwellian era which saw Christmas return as well as music halls, pubs and theatres reopen. In the years following the restoration anything negative associated with Cromwellian rule (such as the ban on Christmas) became personally linked to Oliver Cromwell. There is much which Cromwell can be blamed for, the man was arguably a dictator, but he did not cancel Christmas.