How the Puritans Stole Christmas

Volume 2 | Issue 3 - Festivals and Celebration

Article by Rosie Rogers. Edited by Ellie Veryard. Additional Research by Emily Spencer.

Every Merry maker

Down in Massachusetts,

Liked Christmas a lot,

But the Puritans and even Cromwell himself,

Detested it,

For its slovenly ways and its festive wealth.

The pair hated Christmas and the Christmas season

They linked it to idolatry, paganism

And a kind of religious treason....

For all of those who thought the first to steal Christmas was the Grinch, they were wrong. Such a portrayal from Suess has at times pushed the Puritan banning of Christmas a mere three centuries before, out of sight. This article is not just a narrative or a Suess-like rhyme however, what it aims to examine is the impact that the puritan ban had on future Christmas celebrations and subsequently, celebrations of today.

In 1659, the Massachusetts General Court curtailed Christmas, fining all those caught in festive celebrations of any sort a sum of five shillings. Finding no scriptural evidence to legitimize the celebrations, Puritans labelled it as idolatrous and insulting to their straight and narrow religious approach.

For the Puritans were by no means a leisurely bunch. Following on from the military rule under Cromwell’s Commonwealth, the uptight believers distanced themselves from mythical connections and the worshipping of God through physical objects. Under the puritans, 240 working days of the year turned into 300 and Christmas was no exception.

Deeming foolish all those who idolised December 25th with its feasting and nativity, it can be argued that at times the Puritans paid a little too much attention to the date of Jesus’ birth and maybe not enough attention on the deeper morals and traditions that Christmas adhered to; like unity, appreciation, and fun. It was a sad sad time you see, when the Puritans stole Christmas.

Ultimately, in the long run, this blip did not remain and in the aftermath of the American Civil War, Christmas became the festival highpoint of the American calendar. Just like the Grinch up on Mount Crumpit, the Puritans were silenced and their hostility gradually relaxed. The day became a Federal holiday in 1870 under President Grant, in an attempt to unite North and South. Elaborate stories of sickly Puritan boys being restored to health with the coming of Christmas, outweighed previous views and the festive season was restored.

On reflection, as historiography has highlighted, by banning Christmas the Puritans may have actually helped future celebrations, as opposed to hindering them. When the festival’s more provocative activities were stripped away, like excessive behaviour, Americans recreated Christmas to their own needs, desires and principles. Christmas was reshaped in the nineteenth century to incorporate ideals such as spirituality, nostalgia and commercialism.

Despite this however, it can also be argued, that when Christmas became a federal holiday in 1870, this so called revival of Christmas spirit actually went a step too far. Commercialism intervened to a standard that most of us now recognize today and with this came new controversies and debates.

For example, in some States ‘Winterval’ holidays have dominated, stretching over a longer period of time and downplaying the initial focus on Christmas Day itself. In a similar fashion, debates over Christmas trees have also prevailed. Since the 1980s, there have been several instances in both the US and Canada where Christmas trees have been renamed as ‘holiday trees’ mostly it has been thought, as a way of separating church and state. In 2005, one of the most prominent Christmas tree controversies of this sort occurred, when the city of Boston labelled their official tree as a holiday tree. The ‘Nova Scotian tree farmer’ who had donated the tree, subsequently responded that ‘he would rather have put the tree in a wood chipper than have it named a “holiday” tree’.

This sparks an interesting theme within today’s perceptions of Christmas. As scholars like Trentmann have claimed, the rise in focus on consumption has elevated so much so, that no longer are we first and foremost Citizens, but instead, Citizen-Consumers. Using advertising and market based products to both assert our individuality as well as bringing us closer together as communities, consumption is slowly becoming the sole force of our current society. If this is the case, when comparing these views to the rise in Christmas and Consumption, is it therefore possible to deem Christians who support the festivities and gift buying procedures, as Christian-Consumers?

Have we, as celebrators of Christmas like those the Puritans strived to suppress, become too consumed in a world of advertising, buying and lavish spending? The annual Coca Cola advert, the multi pack Christmas decorations and the buying of gifts in October to avoid the ‘Christmas rush’, could act as evidence for this.

When the Whos of Who Ville woke to find their presents missing, the Grinch heard nothing of squabbles or quarrels but only of singing; the true spirit of Christmas acting as the glue between the citizens. Presents were not essential to the true ideal of Christmas, only the company that it entailed. If we were to likewise curtail consumption in present societies, in the same way that the Puritans banned merrymaking or the Grinch took away material possessions, would it really be such a bad thing? Would non- Christians for example feel marginalised, or would they just relish in other aspects like family unity and snowball fights and, like the Whos themselves, focus on things that didn’t revolve around a consumer Christmas?

While it is not possible to say that the Puritan banning only served to make future Christmas celebrations worse, what can certainly be considered is the way in which the impact of the very activities they were trying to ban, developed over time, in order to create the current perceptions of Christmas that we see today. Whatever the outcome and where ever the definition of Christmas may be heading next, we should definitely keep a close eye on it, as Christmas has been stolen once, twice and for all we know, it could happen again.

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