Today in the UK we celebrate Christmas and the period around it with many familiar traditions and activities. There is an understandable assumption that we have always done things this way. However, celebrating Christmas has a long and complex history and things change over time.
It is not possible to describe all the complex, rich and varied global Christmas traditions. One cannot do justice to all the traditions marked, over time, across what is now the UK either, but we can get an idea of major developments and milestones along the way to what we would now recognise as a ‘traditional’ Christmas.
In this brief examination, English traditions will dominate because – while there are fascinating specific historic activities known from Wales, Scotland and Ireland – the documentary evidence tends to be stronger for England and it is also clear that many of the traditions from this area (reinforced by imports, especially from the USA) have fed into most of what we now recognise as ‘traditional’ Christmas events. Aspects of this version of Christmas then spread out across the British Empire.
Ancient roots
Despite some claims to the contrary, we do not have a firm idea of the time of year when Jesus was born. Various suggestions have been put forward but there is no irrefutable evidence. However, a document from the year 354 shows the Church began fixing Christmas on December 25th. This annexed existing pagan festivals of Sol Invictus (the Invincible Sun), the Saturnalia, and other mid-winter festivals in the northern hemisphere. There is other evidence which indicates that this may officially have started as early as 336; and a connection with December 25th probably long predated this.
Over time, this action by the Church included a ‘Christmas season’ that celebrated events that occurred prior to the start of the adult ministry of Jesus. This became apparent in the Church’s liturgical year. In 567, the twelve days from the Nativity to Epiphany were declared to be one long festival (the start of the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’). Starting the counting on Christmas Day, most traditions make the Twelfth Day/Twelfth Night fall on January 5th, or Epiphany Eve (though some traditions start the counting on Boxing Day, which makes January 6th the Twelfth Day).
The feast of Epiphany, on January 6th, first celebrated the baptism of Jesus as an adult but, by the 6th century, the visit of the magi was the predominant event celebrated on this day. And this in turn started ‘Epiphany Tide,’ which ran to Candlemas (February 2nd ), also known as the ‘Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ’ and the ‘Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,’ commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Jerusalem Temple by Joseph and Mary. It is celebrated forty days after Christmas.
Interestingly, Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’ – though nothing to do with beliefs about the season itself – nevertheless gives an idea of the boisterous behaviour eventually associated with the end of it. And, appropriately, it was first performed at Candlemas, 1602, the formal end of the Christmastide period.
Working back nine months from December 25th gave Lady Day (the Feast of the Annunciation), on March 25th. This became the start of the medieval year (not on January 1st) and this continued in the UK until 1752.
Medieval milestones
During the medieval period we start to see events emerge to distinguish the Christmas season. In 877, a law code of King Alfred outlawed making servants and slaves work during the Twelve Days of Christmas. This is a reminder that, until the 20th century, Christmas was the start (not the climax) of the Christmas season. The period of Advent (leading up to Christmas) was a fasting period that was broken by feasting on Christmas Day.
In 1038, we have the first record, in Old English, of the term ‘Christesmas.’ Prior to this, the festival was simply called ‘Middelwinterne’ in Old English; and ‘Yule’ in Old Norse, in areas that had experienced Scandinavian settlement during the Viking Wars of the 9th and 10th centuries. The latter was clearly associated with older, and pagan, midwinter festivities and a number of these featured in seasonal events that became associated with activities in Old-English-speaking regions too.
In 1223, St Francis of Assisi initiated the first recorded (live) Nativity Scene at Greccio, in Italy. This then spread more widely and means that the modern Nativity Scene/Play is over eight hundred years old.
During the medieval period we see the emergence of carols. A carol was originally a song accompanying a dance, whether Christian or secular in content (and both are evidenced).
We also see documentary evidence for activities associated with the Twelve Days. In aristocratic households ‘Lords of Misrule’ were appointed to preside over the celebrations. As an example of role-reversal, this was often a young and low-ranking member of the household, who temporarily had authority over the exuberant festivities. In ecclesiastical households and settings, ‘Boy Bishops’ were elected in a comparable form of role-reversal.
This latter activity lasted from December 6th (Feast of St Nicholas, patron saint of children) to December 28th (Feast of Holy Innocents). These activities were later banned by Henry VIII, in 1541, and again – after a brief revival under Mary I – by Elizabeth I. In addition, evergreen foliage was cut from woods and hedges and brought indoors to decorate churches, halls, and houses.
There was a lot of boisterous behaviour, including ‘mumming’ (masked performers going door-to-door delivering short, ritualistic plays, songs, and dances in exchange for food, drink, or money) and ‘wassailing’ (blessing orchards involving singing, dancing, making loud noises and pouring cider on apples trees). It is not difficult to see that older pre-Christian activities had been swept into this period, with varying degrees of Christianisation.
Concerning gifts, at the Tudor Court (in the 16th century) gifts were given on New Year’s Day, not on Christmas Day, and these were often very elaborate, in keeping with the elite nature of that setting.
Turkey first arrived from the New World in 1526; and ‘forcemeat’ (stuffing) is first recorded in 1538. However, goose or beef was eaten by many working people until the middle of the 19th century.
Christmas under attack!
Following the Reformation, many traditional activities came under hostile scrutiny for not being authorized in the Bible, and were accused of being superstitious and/or were associated with Roman Catholic traditions. As a result, many medieval Church ceremonies associated with Christmas and Epiphany were ended by Protestant reformers under Edward VI (1547–1533), as was decorating churches with greenery.
However, the biggest direct challenge that the celebration of Christmas has ever faced in Britain occurred in the 1640s and 1650s. And it occurred at the hands of believers who passionately believed that their conflict with it represented the will of God in purifying the Church and nation. This took place during one of the most radicalised periods of British history – both in terms of politics and faith – as the increasingly heated clashes between the monarch (Charles I) and his opponents in Parliament, spiralled down into the British Civil Wars.
Charles I and his supporters (including Anglicans who espoused more formal and traditional Church worship) eventually came to blows with those in Parliament (often termed ‘Puritans,’ ‘the godly’ and ‘the saints’) who wished to both constrain royal power (which they thought a tyranny) and purify the Church and society of what they considered vestiges of Catholicism, and of ungodly superstitions and behaviour.
The Scottish kirk attempted to abolish Christmas festivities in the 1560s. James VI and I restored the feast there in 1617, but it was banned in Scotland again in 1640. While all concerned believed in the Virgin Birth of Jesus, no later festivity celebrating it was found in the New Testament; secondly, it was accused of being a ‘popish’ celebration (grounded as it was in centuries of pre-Reformation customs); thirdly, it was associated with festivities that were regarded as worldly.
From 1641, this hard-line Puritan attitude was also evident in England. As early as 1643 Puritan-inclined tradespeople opened their shops as normal on Christmas Day and MPs sat in Parliament. Churches were kept shut. In 1644, what had once been a feast day was declared a fast. A specific ordinance directed that Church services were not to be held that day. In January 1645, Parliament issued its Directory for the Public Worship of God, an alternative to the Book of Common Prayer, with no reference to Christmas as a Church event. It took the same approach to some Easter celebrations too. By December 1645, Christmas officially ceased to exist in Parliamentary areas of the country.
A blanket ban came in June 1647. It was then that Parliament passed an ordinance banning Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun festivities, services and celebrations. This included the banning of festivities in the home. Decorative use of holly, ivy and other evergreens was outlawed too. In addition, Father Christmas – who had been associated with seasonal festivities since the 15th century – was to be abandoned, as pro-Christmas tracts lamented.
This was all very unpopular and there were pro-Christmas riots in East Anglia, London, and Canterbury. At Canterbury the traditional Christmas football game went ahead and, in the end, force had to be used to restore ‘godly order.’
In 1655 – under Oliver Cromwell – there was an attempt to enforce the ban more rigorously in parts of the country under military rule; often termed the ‘Rule of the Major Generals.’ However, resistance was increasing. In 1656 Parliament complained that many people ignored the ban. Even in London – the seat of Parliament – a number of shops resolutely remained shut and some Puritan MPs complained that they were kept awake by the sound of Christmas parties.
It was not until the Restoration of the monarchy, in 1660, that Christmas was restored in England and Wales. And there is plenty of evidence to show its return was greeted with widespread joy. What is less well known is how the Puritan legislation continued to influence the status of Christmas in Scotland. Legal pressure on it eased a little in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and it started to make a – fairly low key – comeback, largely via private events, from the 18th century. Despite this, Christmas Day only became a public holiday in Scotland in 1958. In contrast, the public celebrations of Hogmanay (New Year) in Scotland grew more elaborate.
The decline of Christmas
Celebrating Christmas revived after 1660, but events generally seem fairly low key in the 18th century, although gift-giving was increasingly associated with Christmas Day, not New Year’s Day, which was a significant shift.
At the same time, there is evidence for secular partying (always something that caused concern to the better-off and Church leaders since the 16th century) and other evidence emerges for kissing under mistletoe from the 18th century onwards, although this probably had much earlier origins.
A more fundamental threat to Christmas celebrations was caused by industrial changes. With textile production increasingly shifting from the domestic sphere to factories, holidays (essential to many traditional events) were curtailed. In addition, factory owners enforced longer hours of work and expected workers on-time and focused on their work. The 1833 Factory Act reduced days off work (apart from Sundays) to just Christmas Day and Good Friday. This reveals the huge shrinkage of the ‘Twelve Days,’ due to industrialisation.
The invention of the modern Christmas
Yet the 1840s saw a fightback. In 1841 Prince Albert popularised the German tradition of Christmas trees; although Queen Charlotte may have been the first British royal to have one, in 1800, and neighbours of the German community in Manchester are recorded as having them in the 1820s. The Victorian royal-family Christmas prompted a refocus from communal celebrations to a family-focused one. This rediscovery of Christmas (but in a domestic setting) is reflected in Dickens’ 'A Christmas Carol' (1843).
As well as arguing for communal generosity at the season and family-focused celebration, it also assumes shops were open on Christmas Day (ordinary people lacked storage capacity and ovens). Otherwise, the reformed Scrooge could not have purchased a giant, prize turkey from a poulterer's shop and have it delivered to the Cratchit family, replacing the goose they usually have, as a vivid gesture of his transformed spirit and generosity. At the same time, the first recorded Christmas card was sent in 1843 (featuring a family celebrating and scenes of charity). Christmas crackers also started in the 1840s but neither were yet a commercial success.
It is clear that goose (or beef) was the usual food for workers who could afford it; gradually replaced by more expensive turkey (with more meat) under US (Thanksgiving-inspired) influence. Figgy pudding (first called a ‘Christmas Pudding’ in the 1650s) and mince pies (originally containing meat and dried fruits) continued and adapted a medieval tradition which was not confined originally to Christmas, although became increasingly associated with it. The better-off ate ‘Twelfth Cake,’ which became ‘Christmas Cake.’
By the 1870s, the Church increasingly engaged with the opportunity to spread the Christmas message with new Christmas carols, events and services. At Christmas, 1878, these new carols were first introduced into choral evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Older collections of Christmas carols have survived and there remains a strong (now pub-based) tradition of these – having been pushed out of Church services in the 19th century – in Sheffield, dating from the 18th century.
The 1850s saw the start of the reappearance of Father Christmas, who had become a peripheral character since the 17th century. But now that ancient character was reinvigorated with the addition of some of the US characteristics of Santa Claus (derived from Dutch immigrant traditions of Sinterklaas/St Nicholas) and dressed in red and white, not traditional green clothing. This process was accompanied by the increasing popularity of hanging up stockings, to receive gifts from Santa Claus.
By the 1870s that fusion was virtually complete and also during that decade Christmas cards finally took off with the successful spread of post offices and post boxes. By the 1890s huge numbers were posted. 1890 to 1914 was the heyday of Christmas crackers. Like cards, their success was also associated with more disposable income being enjoyed by working people. While this occurred, the abandonment of large hearths ended the ‘Yule Log’ tradition in rural areas. 1895 saw the first use of electric Christmas tree lights in municipal displays.
Christmas pantomime (panto) in the UK evolved from a combination of 17th-century Italian street theatre (Commedia dell'arte) and Elizabethan masques. Its popularity increased in the 18th century with characters like Harlequin, Columbine, and Pantaloon appearing. It became a Christmas staple in the Victorian period, employing stories loosely based on fairy tales and traditional characters; and including slapstick, song, dance, and audience participation.
Christmas in the 20th and 21st centuries
Post-1918, Christmas traditions evolved significantly, blending Victorian-era customs with the influence of mass media and commercialisation. This continued its movement from a predominantly religious and communal event, to a family-centric one, commercialised and increasingly shaped by the rise of technology like radio and television, which created unifying traditions (though many were entertainment-, not faith-based).
In 1918, a ‘Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’ (on Christmas Eve) was first held in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. It was first broadcast in 1928. A form of the service had started earlier in Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, in 1878. King George V delivered the first Royal Christmas Message via radio in 1932.
Pantomime became a Christmas favourite, and paper Advent calendars (a Germany tradition) arrived in the UK in the mid-1950s, with chocolate behind the doors in the late 1950s. Christmas became increasingly focused on children and family life, with the role of Father Christmas/Santa Claus (as the bringer of gifts for children) being solidified during this period. Turkey, mince pies and Christmas pudding became a staple (with their modern vegetarian and vegan alternatives).
Accelerating consumerism (especially post-1945) has reorientated Christmas to be the culmination of a massive present-buying period, not the start of the season. There are sometimes attempts to further secularise it via artificial terms like ‘Wintermas’; the use of culturally-neutral terms such as ‘the Season,’ and ‘the Holidays’ (a borrowing from the US); and framing festivities using pre-Christian terms such as ‘Yuletide’ and ‘Solstice.’ These things are sometimes presented as efforts to avoid offending people of other religious traditions – who usually have expressed no such sensitivity to the use of the traditional name! But for the vast majority of people it is still Christmas.
The celebration of Christmas has altered greatly over the years and is still changing. Yet, while digital technology (and rising postal costs) may threaten the future of Christmas card sending, and families may meet via a laptop or mobile phone, actual physical gathering for Christmas is still a major feature of the experience of families in the UK (many of whom will eat ‘traditional’ turkey and pull ‘traditional’ crackers). And, though extreme commercialisation and secularism conflict with the central meaning of Christmas, many people still attend carol services in churches and watch Nativity reenactments.
Though there may be much about a modern Christmas that is a very long way from the celebration of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, it still offers an extraordinary opportunity to talk about that amazing event and its implications.
Happy Christmas!
Martyn Whittock is a historian, commentator, columnist and a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England. The author, or co-author, of fifty-seven books, his work includes: Daughters of Eve (2021), Jesus the Unauthorized Biography (2021), The End Times, Again? (2021), The Story of the Cross (2021), Apocalyptic Politics (2022) and American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America (2023). His latest book (published in April) is: Vikings in the East. From Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin – the Origins of a Contested Legacy in Russia and Ukraine.
