When Massachusetts Banned Christmas

History.com ^ | December 22, 2015 | By Christopher Klein

[ConservativeStatement]

Even when compared to Ebenezer Scrooge, the Puritans who ruled the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s were downright Grinchian. Not only were the Puritans contemptuous of Christmas, they outlawed public celebration of the Yuletide holiday for an entire generation.

The pious Puritans who sailed from England in 1630 to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony brought with them something that might seem surprising for a group of devout Christians—contempt for Christmas. In a reversal of modern practices, the Puritans kept their shops and schools open and churches closed on Christmas, a holiday that some disparaged as “Foolstide.”

[SamAdams76]

I’m fascinated with this part of our history.

Read “The Battle For Christmas” by Stephen Nissembaum for a really in-depth look at Christmas in this period.

[livius]

Calvinists are like that....although I believe they’ve loosened up since.

[o_1_2_3__]

A distant relative was the subject of this play:

[iowamark]

Not until 1856 did Christmas, along with Washington's Birthday and the Fourth of July, finally become a public holiday in Massachusetts.

Calvinists rejected holidays (Holy Days) like Christmas (Christ's Mass) as too Catholic. More generally, they rejected any feasting and frivolity.

[Sacajaweau]

The Puritans were a bunch of whackos.

[the_Watchman]

The Christian church did not celebrate Christmas until the fourth century. We know this because we have the sermons of the Bishop of Constantinople, John Chrysostom, where he explains the new holy day to his congregation.

[Mrs. Don-o]

IMHO, there's a lot of things Christians didn't do publicly until the 4th century, beinst Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire until the Edict of Milan (313 AD).

[Jack Hammer]

Just goes to prove that the people of Massachusetts have been unhappy anal-retentives, obsessed with making everyone else unhappy, since forever.

Seems to go with the territory.