The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 - Day Six: The Year Parliament Cancelled the Festive Season

 

Christmas Was Once Banned in Britain

It’s strange to imagine, in an age where Christmas seems to start in October, as the shops gear up for a winter spending spree, that there was a time when the festive season wasn’t just discouraged — it was actually illegal in Britain.

Yes, Christmas was cancelled.

In 1647, right in the aftermath of the English Civil War, Parliament cancelled Christmas. And not just for a year or two. For thirteen years, Christmas Day, decorations, feasting, and merriment were all banned by law.

England in Turmoil

By 1647, the first English Civil War had ended. Parliament’s forces had defeated the Royalists after seven years of conflict. But the fighting didn’t immediately stop. There was a brief and bloody second war, and eventually King Charles I was taken prisoner.

Negotiations failed, and compromise was impossible. In early 1649, England executed its king. Power now rested firmly with Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians. The country was declared a republic. In the aftermath, the Church of England was abolished and replaced with a strict Presbyterian system.

And the Puritans were now in charge.

The Ban on Christmas

To the Puritan mind, Christmas had drifted away from its religious roots. They saw it as a day of excess, idleness, drinking, feasting, dancing, and wastefulness. In general, people are having too much fun. It was everything they disapproved of.

So Parliament abolished it.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 - Day Five: Shopping like It's The 1970s

It’s Christmas, 2025, but yesterday out shopping, I was reminded of the 1970s. No, it wasn’t the sound of Slade or Wizard singing about Christmas over the tannoy; it was too early for that. I was looking at the prices on the shelf. 

It has become a holiday tradition for certain supermarkets, on this day, Aldi and Lidl, to reduce prices on a number of staple Christmas food items — usually, Christmas dinner.

The prices were at 1970s level.

Potatoes, carrots, sprouts, shallots, parsnips, and turnip were all priced at eight pence. At Lidl, I bought one of each: potatoes, carrots, sprouts and shallots, for thirty-two pence. The receipt told me what the discount was — £3.87.

You would need a time machine to see prices like that.

The UK has been going through a cost of living crisis for some time, and inflation is always there. The longer you live, the more of it you see and remember. Growing up as a young boy in the 1960s and 70s, I saw plenty of inflation. My pocket money, and earnings from the paper round, did not go far. Little changes in that regard, although I gave up delivering newspapers long ago.

So, if you live in the UK and have an Aldi or Lidl nearby, go and get a bargain, and party like it’s 1970!

** An update: I went to my local Lidl this morning (19th Dec), and they have dropped their price to five pence. It's more like shopping in the 1960s now.

And as I left the store, over the tannoy, Noddy Holder and Slade were singing Merry Xmas...

More can be found here: The Twelve Posts of Christmas

 

Image by CrimsonMystique from Pixabay

The Twelve Posts of Christmas - Day Three: 1970s Christmas TV: A Promise of Endless Excitement

 

There was a time, and it wasn’t that long ago, when Christmas television was every bit as exciting as the presents under the tree. It was a family highlight of the year — something to look forward to.

And all of that excitement began with the two sacred texts of television: the Radio Times and the TV Times. As Christmas approached, they arrived at the newsagent's, heavy with festive promise, you could smell the ink on the pages when you opened them.

They were the unofficial start of Christmas in many British households.

What’s In A Name?

The Radio Times was the original British Christmas radio and television listing magazine — how could it not be? Until commercial television and radio came along, there was only the BBC. 

And for a while, it was only radio.

That history and tradition lives on in the name of the magazine, Radio Times. Although, today, and for some time now, the radio has taken a backseat to the world of visual media in the magazine. ‘Television’, in whatever way it is broadcast now — over the air waves, digital, satellite, cable, online or by smartphone, rules the day. 

But it began with radio. The 1940 Radio Times (image above) was all about the radio listings. In those dark, early days of the Second World War, it was the only radio entertainment that people had. 

Then television arrived, slowly at first, but by the 1970s, when Christmas arrived, it gave us everything that the entertainment industry had to offer.

The 1970s Experience—Three Channels, Several Generations, One Living Room.

Christmas telly back then was different. 

With only three channels — BBC1, BBC2 and a regional commercial channel (I think we had ATV) — choice was limited, but the listings had real weight. We did have our own version of ‘doom-scrolling’ the listings magazines to see what was on. You also had to buy both magazines, as each only listed their own TV schedule.

When it came to how we watched, there was no streaming, no catch-up, no play later. Until video came along, if you missed it, you missed it. Forever, or until it was repeated — probably the next Christmas. And television closed down for the evening around midnight, starting up again in the morning.

The fear of missing a favourite show was as real as running out of Quality Street or Cadbury’s Roses on Christmas Day.

Most homes only had the one television — that one source of home entertainment. There was no TV in every room, or parents saying, “Go and watch it on the internet.” There was no, “I’ll watch it on my phone in my room.” 

Christmas became a battleground of television rights, and it could get ugly. There would be ongoing living-room negotiations about what would be watched. The disagreements could rival anything at the United Nations.

“There’s a good film on ATV at the same time. Let’s watch that.”

“BBC1’s got the big Christmas special. We can’t miss it.”

“We have to watch Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em and Blankety Blank.”

“Can we watch Top of the Pops?”

The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 - Day Two: The Christmas Truce, 1914 - Football in the Trenches

 

 

 

The First World War was unlike anything the world had seen before. A conflict of mud, wire, artillery and unimaginable loss. By winter 1914, the Western Front across Europe had solidified into a vast network of trenches. 

A front line of two armies faced each other, with long, zig-zagging trenches dug in the earth that stretched for hundreds of miles. Between them lay a wasteland of destroyed cities and villages. The ground was a mixture of shell holes, shattered trees, churned mud, and lost lives. 

This was No Man’s Land, and to cross it — “going over the top” — was for many the last action that they would take in the war.

On some days, casualties ran into the tens of thousands, as each side took it in turns to find a breakthrough. And yet, for all the horror, the opposing trenches were often just a stone’s throw away. In places, there were no more than fifty yards between the British and German soldiers. They could hear the enemy talking, singing, and coughing. Occasionally, even laughing. 

A Different Kind of Silence

As December approached, winter tightened its grip. But something else began to happen too — something unexpected.

On Christmas Eve, on certain stretches of the front, the guns went silent. Not everywhere; there was no official truce, but it was enough to be noticed. British soldiers reported hearing carols drifting across the lines. “Stille Nacht” sung by German voices. Some units replied with “The First Noel” or “O Come All Ye Faithful”. 

For a moment, music replaced gunfire.

These were not formal negotiations. There were no officers signing an agreement or diplomats shaking hands. The truce emerged from the trenches. Enemies called out to one another.