Not Just the Tudors Did Oliver Cromwell Ban Christmas?
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Dec 22, 2025 Mark Stoyle, a historian specializing in the English Civil Wars, discusses the Puritan ban on Christmas in 1647. He reveals how this wasn't just a holiday suppression but a clash of beliefs, with festive families lighting candles in secret and even staging the plum pudding riots. Stoyle connects the resistance against the ban to Scotland's earlier experiences with Christmas. He highlights the cultural impact of the prohibition, linking it to later literary figures like Dickens and C.S. Lewis, while emphasizing the ban's social ramifications and the importance of community celebration.
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Why Puritans Targeted Christmas
- Puritans saw Christmas as an invented, popish feast that encouraged idleness, gluttony and sin.
- They believed scriptural purity and social order required removing such festivities from public life.
Scotland Led The Anti‑Christmas Trend
- Scotland abolished Christmas early after a more radical Reformation and declared it an invented papist feast.
- This Scottish precedent influenced later English parliamentarian moves against Christmas.
The Covenant Made Christmas Vulnerable
- The Solemn League and Covenant allied English Parliament with Scottish Presbyterians and nudged England toward Scottish-style church reform.
- That alliance made Christmas vulnerable in England for the first time.