Reply #1: I guess he's also forgotten all the years [View All]

that Christians weren't able to celebrate Christmas because the Church leaders were trying to outlaw it too?

snip..................

There has always been some sense of complexity in the celebration of Christmas. So much so that in days of old the church attempted to have Christmas banned. It was in England during the tenure of Oliver Cromwell. His Puritan Party passed legislation outlawing Christmas. In England there would be no more lavish and raucous celebration, no more commercial exploitation, there would be no more Christmas, period.

But the people were outraged. There was rioting in the streets. Secret Christmas celebrations broke out all over England. But Cromwell retaliated. Parliament decreed penalties of imprisonment for anyone caught celebrating the holiday. Each year, by order of Parliament, town criers went through the streets a few days before Christmas, reminding people that "Christmas and all other superstitious festivals" should not be observed, businesses should remain open. There were to be no displays of Christmas decorations. During the year 1647 popular riots broke out in various places demanding the legalization of Christmas. But the puritan government stood firm and proceeded to break up Christmas celebrations by force of arms. People were arrested and in many instances jailed. The Puritans seemed surprised by the strength of popular resistance to their anti-Christmas policies, but they would not alter their policies or compromise their principles. They simply went down to defeat in the next elections. The Puritans were thrown out of power -- and Christmas was back on the march.

In cold New England, the zeal of the Puritans persisted long after it had faded away in England. The holiday remained outlawed in Massachusetts until the second half of the nineteenth century.

While we think of Christmas as something we've been doing since time immemorial, our present practices are virtual novelties. It was not until immigrants from Ireland and from the continent began arriving in great numbers that Christmas in America began to flourish. The Germans brought their Christmas tree. The Irish placed lights in their windows. Catholic immigrants from Eastern Europe brought their native carols as well as the radical idea of staying home from work on Christmas Day! Very soon their neighbors, charmed by these unfamiliar, but appealing innovations, followed the pattern set by the new immigrant groups and invented new customs of their own.

http://christianity.about.com/od/christmas/a/outlawxmas.htm

You gotta love that Puritan stock. Never content with restricting their own enjoyment of life, they had to go out and restrict the enjoyment of others.

And their children are traditionalists in this regard.