National Geographic: In 1647, Christmas was canceled—by Christians


A 32-foot Christmas tree stands in Salisbury Cathedral in England. In the 17th century, churches across the country were forbidden from decking the halls for Christmas—which Puritans rejected as a pagan festival covered with a Christian veneer.
Photograph by Finnbarr Webster, Getty Images

In 1647, Christmas was canceled—by Christians


Riots. Looting. Defiant acts of… stringing up holly? When Puritans in Parliament banned Christmas, it sparked revolts across England.

ByParissa DJangi
December 15, 2023


On Christmas Day in 1647, a riot broke out in Canterbury, a city 60 miles southeast of London. The inciting event? Mayor William Bridge had ordered the arrest of a shop owner and attempted to clap him in the stockade—all for closing his shop for the holiday.


A crowd of onlookers refused to stand by and do nothing. They attacked Bridge—and then started to riot. They smashed the windows of shops that had remained open for business, looted them, and quickly claimed control of Canterbury. They even captured the city’s magazine, where gunpowder was stored. One of their less violent acts: stringing up holly around town.

The Canterbury Christmas riot was a battle in a war on Christmas that raged in 17th-century England—and Christians were the ones waging it.

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