Some of us may have occasionally rather wished he’d succeeded. On 10th November the church was full of small children practicing a carol along the lines of ‘Christmas is here” – and I couldn’t help thinking that a) it wasn’t and b) it still wouldn’t be when they had their end of term concert. I don’t think excessive carol singing can have been Cromwell’s objection though. In the late 16th century Ascetic Protestants, Presbyterians and Calvinists hated its excesses and dubious origins – it had, after all, probably originated in an attempt to bring the Roman Saturnalia under Christian control. “What masking and mumming, what dicing and carding, what eating and drinking, what banqueting and feast is used” complained Philip Stubbes in the 1580s “to the great dishonour of God and impoverishing of the realm”. Admittedly Stubbes wrote pamphlets attacking pretty much any sort of enjoyment but Cromwell evidently agreed with him and after the Civil War tried to ban Christmas. Puritan ministers and Parliament declared Christmas to be just another day – suitable for worship and fasting, nothing else. Ministers weren’t even allowed to preach. The campaign was hugely unpopular and led to the pro-Christmas riot at Canterbury, an uprising against the government and royalists celebrating the festival’s benign, charitable aspect. The Vindication of Christmas in 1652 said the occasion should “call home exiles, help the fatherless and cherish the widow.” On the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Charles II brought back Christmas. But it took the combined writing talents of Washington Irving and Charles Dickens to form our image of Christmas – and Clement Clarke Moore of course, who wrote The Night Before Christmas, not forgetting Tom Smith, a London confectioner, who invented the Christmas Cracker.
Material taken partly from an article in The Week last year and passed on to me by a member of congregation.
Oliver Cromwell tried to ban Christmas