Christmas

== History ==
=== Early and medieval era ===
[[File:Hortus Deliciarum, Die Geburt Christi.JPG|thumb|''Nativity of Christ'', medieval illustration from the {{lang|la|[[Hortus deliciarum]]}} of [[Herrad of Landsberg]] (12th century)]]
In the 2nd century, the "earliest church records" indicate that "Christians were remembering and celebrating the birth of the Lord", an "observance [that] sprang up organically from the authentic devotion of ordinary believers"; although "they did not agree upon a set date".<ref name="English">{{cite book |last1=English |first1=Adam C. |title=Christmas: Theological Anticipations |date=October 14, 2016 |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock Publishers]] |isbn=978-1-4982-3933-2 |pages=70–71 |language=English}}</ref> The earliest evidence of Christ's birth being marked on December 25 is a sentence in the ''[[Chronograph of 354]]''.<ref>The manuscript reads, ''VIII kal. Ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae.'' ("[http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_12_depositions_martyrs.htm The Chronography of 354 AD. Part 12: Commemorations of the Martyrs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122221633/http://tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_12_depositions_martyrs.htm |date=November 22, 2011 }}", ''The Tertullian Project''. 2006.)</ref><ref name="Bradshaw 7-10">{{cite book |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Paul |editor1-last=Larsen |editor1-first=Timothy |title=The Oxford Handbook of Christmas |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=7–10 |chapter=The Dating of Christmas}}</ref><ref name="NewCath" >{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2002 |title=Christmas and its cycle |encyclopedia=New Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Catholic University of America Press |edition=2nd |volume=3 |pages=550–557}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hyden |first=Marc |title=Merry Christmas, Saturnalia or festival of Sol Invictus? |url=https://times-herald.com/news/2021/12/merry-christmas-saturnalia-or-festival-of-sol-invictus |work=[[Newnan Times-Herald]] |date=December 20, 2021 |access-date=February 17, 2023 |quote=Around AD 274ᵃ, Emperor Aurelian set December 25—the winter solstice at the time—for the celebration of Sol Invictus who was the 'Unconquered Sun' god. 'A marginal note on a manuscript of the writings of the Syriac biblical commentator [[Dionysius bar Salibi|Dionysius bar-Salibi]] states that in ancient times the Christmas holiday was actually shifted from January 6 to December 25 so that it fell on the same date as the pagan Sol Invictus holiday,' reads an excerpt from [[Biblical Archaeology Review|Biblical Archaeology]]. / Could early Christians have chosen December 25 to coincide with this holiday? 'The first celebration of Christmas observed by the Roman church in the West is presumed to date to [336 AD],' per the Encyclopedia Romanaᵃ, long after Aurelian established Sol Invictus' festival. |language=en |archive-date=December 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226210422/https://times-herald.com/news/2021/12/merry-christmas-saturnalia-or-festival-of-sol-invictus |url-status=dead }}<br />(a) {{cite encyclopedia |title=Sol Invictus and Christmas |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/invictus.html |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Romana |language=en}}</ref> Liturgical historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in AD 336.<ref name="Bradshaw 7-10"/> Though Christmas did not appear on the lists of festivals given by the early Christian writers [[Irenaeus]] and [[Tertullian]],<ref name="CathChrit" /> the early Church Fathers [[John Chrysostom]], [[Augustine of Hippo]], and [[Jerome]] attested to December 25 as the date of Christmas toward the end of the fourth century.<ref name="English"/> December 25 was the traditional date of the [[winter solstice]] in the Roman Empire,<ref name="Forsythe">{{cite book |last1=Forsythe |first1=Gary |title=Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |pages=113, 123, 141}}</ref> where most Christians lived, and the Roman festival {{lang|la|Dies Natalis Solis Invicti}} (birthday of {{lang|la|[[Sol Invictus]]}}, the 'Invincible Sun') had been held on this date since 274 AD.<ref name="Bradshaw">{{cite book |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Paul |editor1-last=Larsen |editor1-first=Timothy |title=The Oxford Handbook of Christmas |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=4–10 |chapter=The Dating of Christmas}}</ref>

In the [[Eastern Christianity|East]], the birth of Jesus was celebrated in connection with the [[Epiphany (holiday)|Epiphany]] on January 6.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5VQUdZhx1gC&pg=PA65 |editor-first1=Geoffrey |editor-last1=Wainwright |editor-link1=Geoffrey Wainwright |editor-first2=Karen Beth |editor-last2=Westerfield Tucker |editor-link2=Karen B. Westerfield Tucker |title=[[The Oxford History of Christian Worship]] |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-513886-3 |page=65 |chapter=The Apostolic Tradition|first=Maxwell E.|last=Johnson|access-date=February 3, 2012}}</ref><ref name=Roy>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ANxZYgEACAAJ |first=Christian |last=Roy |title=Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |place=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=978-1-57607-089-5 |page=146 |access-date=February 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111115502/http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Traditional_Festivals_An_Multicultur.html?id=ANxZYgEACAAJ |archive-date=January 11, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> This holiday was not primarily about Christ's birth, but rather [[baptism of Jesus|his baptism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sites.google.com/site/historyofepiphany|title=History of Epiphany|last=Pokhilko|first=Hieromonk Nicholas|access-date=December 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923004605/https://sites.google.com/site/historyofepiphany/|archive-date=September 23, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Christmas was promoted in the East as part of the revival of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]] that followed the death of the pro-[[Arianism|Arian]] Emperor [[Valens]] at the [[Battle of Adrianople]] in 378. The feast was introduced in [[Constantinople]] in 379, in [[Antioch]] by [[John Chrysostom]] towards the end of the fourth century,<ref name=Roy /> probably in 388, and in [[Alexandria]] in the following century.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INJI4FGeLpYC&q=Encyclopaedia+of+religion+and+ethics+6 |editor-first1=James |editor-last1=Hastings |editor-first2=John A. |editor-last2=Selbie |title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics |publisher=Kessinger Publishing Company |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7661-3676-2 |pages=603–604 |volume=6 |access-date=February 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122005448/https://books.google.de/books?id=INJI4FGeLpYC&dq=Encyclopaedia+of+religion+and+ethics+6 |archive-date=November 22, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Georgian Iadgari demonstrates that Christmas was celebrated in Jerusalem by the [[sixth century]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frøyshov |first=Stig Simeon |title=[Hymnography of the] Rite of Jerusalem |url=https://www.academia.edu/4874556 |journal=Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology}}</ref>

[[File:Nativity from Sherbrooke Missal cropped.jpg|thumb|left|''The Nativity'', from a 14th-century [[missal]], a liturgical book containing texts and music necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year]]

In the [[Early Middle Ages]], Christmas Day was overshadowed by Epiphany, which in [[western Christianity]] focused on the visit of the [[Biblical Magi|magi]]. However, the medieval calendar was dominated by Christmas-related holidays. The forty days before Christmas became the "forty days of St. Martin" (which began on November 11, the feast of [[St. Martin of Tours]]), now known as Advent.<ref name="Murray">Murray, Alexander, [http://www.historytoday.com/alexander-murray/medieval-christmas "Medieval Christmas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213224341/http://www.historytoday.com/alexander-murray/medieval-christmas |date=December 13, 2011 }}, ''History Today'', December 1986, '''36''' (12), pp. 31–39.</ref> In Italy, former [[Saturnalia]]n traditions were attached to Advent.<ref name="Murray" /> Around the 12th century, these traditions transferred again to the [[Twelve Days of Christmas]] (December 25 – January 5); a time that appears in the liturgical calendars as Christmastide or Twelve Holy Days.<ref name="Murray" />

In 567, the [[Council of Tours 567|Council of Tours]] put in place the season of [[Christmastide]], proclaiming "the [[twelve days of Christmas|twelve days]] from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive season, and established the duty of [[Advent]] fasting in preparation for the feast."<ref name="Forbes"/><ref name="Hynes1993">{{cite book|last=Hynes|first=Mary Ellen|title=Companion to the Calendar|url=https://archive.org/details/companiontocalen0000hyne|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=Liturgy Training Publications|isbn=9781568540115|page=[https://archive.org/details/companiontocalen0000hyne/page/8 8]|quote=In the year 567 the church council of Tours called the 13 days between December 25 and January 6 a festival season.}}</ref> This was done in order to solve the "administrative problem for the Roman Empire as it tried to coordinate the solar Julian calendar with the lunar calendars of its provinces in the east."<ref name="Hill2003">{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Christopher|title=Holidays and Holy Nights: Celebrating Twelve Seasonal Festivals of the Christian Year|year=2003|publisher=Quest Books|isbn=9780835608107|page=91|quote=This arrangement became an administrative problem for the Roman Empire as it tried to coordinate the solar Julian calendar with the lunar calendars of its provinces in the east. While the Romans could roughly match the months in the two systems, the four cardinal points of the solar year—the two equinoxes and solstices—still fell on different dates. By the time of the first century, the calendar date of the winter solstice in Egypt and Palestine was eleven to twelve days later than the date in Rome. As a result the Incarnation came to be celebrated on different days in different parts of the Empire. The Western Church, in its desire to be universal, eventually took them both—one became Christmas, one Epiphany—with a resulting twelve days in between. Over time this hiatus became invested with specific Christian meaning. The Church gradually filled these days with saints, some connected to the birth narratives in Gospels (Holy Innocents' Day, December 28, in honor of the infants slaughtered by Herod; St. John the Evangelist, "the Beloved," December 27; St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, December 26; the Holy Family, December 31; the Virgin Mary, January 1). In 567, the Council of Tours declared the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany to become one unified festal cycle.}}<!--|access-date=15 December 2014--></ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanminute.com/index.php?|title=On the 12th Day of Christmas|last=Federer|first=William J.|publisher=American Minute|date=January 6, 2014|access-date=December 25, 2014|quote=In 567 AD, the Council of Tours ended a dispute. Western Europe celebrated Christmas, December 25, as the holiest day of the season... but Eastern Europe celebrated Epiphany, January 6, recalling the Wise Men's visit and Jesus' baptism. It could not be decided which day was holier, so the Council made all 12 days from December 25 to January 6 "holy days" or "holidays," These became known as "The Twelve Days of Christmas."}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|people=[[Kirk Cameron]], William Federer|date=November 6, 2014|title=Praise the Lord|url=http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/TBN/ec/FyODhvcTrKC2NHhNkBx1leF42RiSVq_v#ooid=FyODhvcTrKC2NHhNkBx1leF42RiSVq_v|access-date=December 25, 2014|time=01:15:14|publisher=[[Trinity Broadcasting Network]]|quote=Western Europe celebrated Christmas December 25 as the holiest day. Eastern Europe celebrated January 6 the Epiphany, the visit of the Wise Men, as the holiest day... and so they had this council and they decided to make all twelve days from December 25 to January 6 the Twelve Days of Christmas.|archive-date=December 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141225225359/http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/TBN/ec/FyODhvcTrKC2NHhNkBx1leF42RiSVq_v#ooid=FyODhvcTrKC2NHhNkBx1leF42RiSVq_v|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after [[Charlemagne]] was crowned Emperor on Christmas Day in 800.<ref>{{cite news |title=Who was Charlemagne? The unlikely king who became an emperor |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/holy-roman-empire-king-charlemagne |access-date=November 30, 2023 |work=National Geographic}}</ref> King [[Edmund the Martyr]] was anointed on Christmas in 855 and King [[William I of England]] was crowned on Christmas Day 1066.<ref>{{cite news |title=William the Conqueror: Crowned at Christmas |url=https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/william-the-conqueror-crowned-at-christmas/ |access-date=November 30, 2023 |work=[[The History Press]]}}</ref>

[[File:Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German - The Coronation of Charlemagne - Google Art Project.jpg|alt=|thumb|The coronation of Charlemagne on Christmas of 800 helped promote the popularity of the holiday]]

By the [[High Middle Ages]], the holiday had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely noted where various [[magnate]]s celebrated Christmas. [[Richard II of England|King Richard II]] of England hosted a Christmas feast in 1377 at which 28 oxen and 300 sheep were eaten.<ref name="Murray" /> The Yule boar was a common feature of medieval Christmas feasts. [[Christmas carol|Caroling]] also became popular, and was originally performed by a group of dancers who sang. The group was composed of a lead singer and a ring of dancers that provided the chorus. Various writers of the time condemned caroling as lewd, indicating that the unruly traditions of Saturnalia and Yule may have continued in this form.<ref name="Murray" /> "[[Lord of Misrule|Misrule]]"—drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling—was also an important aspect of the festival. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day, and there was special Christmas ale.<ref name="Murray" />

Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival that incorporated [[ivy]], [[holly]], and other evergreens.<ref name=mcgreevy /> Christmas [[gift-giving]] during the Middle Ages was usually between people with legal relationships, such as tenant and landlord.<ref name=mcgreevy>McGreevy, Patrick. "Place in the American Christmas", ([https://www.jstor.org/stable/215896 JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215223504/https://www.jstor.org/stable/215896 |date=December 15, 2018 }}), ''Geographical Review'', Vol. 80, No. 1. January 1990, pp. 32–42. Retrieved September 10, 2007.</ref> The annual indulgence in eating, dancing, singing, sporting, and card playing escalated in England, and by the 17th century the Christmas season featured lavish dinners, elaborate masques, and pageants. In 1607, [[James I of England|King James I]] insisted that a play be acted on Christmas night and that the court indulge in games.<ref name=BTR /> It was during the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] in 16th–17th-century Europe that many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the [[Christ Child]] or ''[[Christkindl]]'', and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve.<ref name="ADS">Forbes, Bruce David, ''Christmas: a candid history'', University of California Press, 2007, {{ISBN|0-520-25104-0}}, pp. 68–79.</ref>

=== 17th and 18th centuries ===

Following the [[Protestant Reformation]], many of the new denominations, including the [[Church of England|Anglican Church]] and [[History of Lutheranism|Lutheran Church]], continued to celebrate Christmas.<ref name="Lowe2011">{{cite book|last=Lowe|first=Scott C.|title=Christmas|date=January 11, 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-4145-4|page=226}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> In 1629, the Anglican poet [[John Milton]] penned ''[[On the Morning of Christ's Nativity]]'', a poem that has since been read by many during Christmastide.<ref name="Shawcross1993">{{cite book|last=Shawcross|first=John T.|title=John Milton|date=January 1, 1993|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-7014-5|page=249|quote=Milton was raised an Anglican, trained to become an Anglican minister, and remained an Anglican through the signing of the subscription books of Cambridge University in both 1629 and 1632, which demanded an allegiance to the state church and its Thirty-nine Articles.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref><ref name="Browne">{{cite book|last=Browne|first=Sammy R|title=A Brief Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1 |date=April 29, 2012 |isbn=978-1-105-70569-4|page=412|publisher=Lulu.com |quote=His father had wanted him to practice law but Milton considered writing poetry his life's work. At 21 years old, he wrote a poem, "On the morning of Christ's Nativity," a work that is still widely read during Christmas.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> Donald Heinz, a professor at [[California State University]], states that [[Martin Luther]] "inaugurated a period in which Germany would produce a unique culture of Christmas, much copied in North America."<ref name="Heinz">{{cite book|last=Heinz|first=Donald|title=Christmas: Festival of Incarnation|publisher=Fortress Press|isbn=978-1-4514-0695-5|page=94|year=2010}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> Among the congregations of the [[Dutch Reformed Church]], Christmas was celebrated as one of the principal [[evangelical feast]]s.<ref name="Old2002">{{cite book|last=Old|first=Hughes Oliphant|title=Worship: Reformed According to Scripture|year=2002|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22579-7|page=29|quote=Within a few years the Reformed church calendar was fairly well established. The heart of it was the weekly observance of the resurrection on the Lord's Day. Instead of liturgical seasons being observed, "the five evangelical feast days" were observed: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. They were chosen because they were understood to mark the essential stages in the history of salvation.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref>

However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the [[Puritans]] strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the "trappings of [[Papist|popery]]" or the "rags of [[The Beast (Bible)|the Beast]]".<ref name="Durston">{{Cite magazine |last=Durston |first=Chris |url=http://www.historytoday.com/dt_main_allatonce.asp?gid=12890&aid=&tgid=&amid=12890&g12890=x&g9130=x&g30026=x&g20991=x&g21010=x&g19965=x&g19963=x |title=Lords of Misrule: The Puritan War on Christmas 1642–60 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310013925/http://www.historytoday.com/dt_main_allatonce.asp?gid=12890&aid=&tgid=&amid=12890&g12890=x&g9130=x&g30026=x&g20991=x&g21010=x&g19965=x&g19963=x |archive-date=March 10, 2007 |magazine=History Today |date=December 1985 |volume=35 |issue=12 |pages=7–14}}</ref> In contrast, the established [[Church of England|Anglican Church]] "pressed for a more elaborate observance of feasts, penitential seasons, and saints' days. The calendar reform became a major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party."<ref name="Old">{{cite book|last=Old|first=Hughes Oliphant|title=Worship: Reformed According to Scripture|year=2002|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22579-7|page=29}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> The [[Catholic Church]] also responded, promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. King [[Charles I of England]] directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity.<ref name=BTR /> Following the [[Roundhead|Parliamentarian]] victory over Charles I during the [[English Civil War]], England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647.<ref name="Durston" /><ref>{{cite journal |title=From Sukkot to Saturnalia: The Attack on Christmas in Sixteenth-Century Chronological Scholarship |author=Carl Philipp Emanuel Nothaft |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=72 |issue=4 |date=October 2011 |pages=504–505 |jstor=41337151 |quote=However, when Thomas Mocket, rector of Gilston in Hertfordshire, decried such vices in a pamphlet to justify the parliamentary 'ban' of Christmas, effective since June 1647... }}</ref>

Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks [[Canterbury]] was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with [[holly]] and shouted [[Royalism|royalist]] slogans.<ref name="Durston" /> Football, among the sports the Puritans banned on a Sunday, was also used as a rebellious force: when Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule.<ref name="auto">{{cite press release |url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/ne1000000086166/ |access-date=August 25, 2023 |date=December 17, 2003 |title=Historian Reveals that Cromwellian Christmas Football Rebels Ran Riot|publisher=University of Warwick|archive-date=September 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928090437/https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/ne1000000086166/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The book, ''The Vindication of Christmas'' (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with "plow-boys" and "maidservants", old Father Christmas and carol singing.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sandys|first1=William|title=Christmastide: its history, festivities and carols|date=1852|publisher=John Russell Smith|location=London|pages=119–120}}</ref> During the ban, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ's birth continued to be held, and people sang carols in secret.<ref name="Outlawed"/>

[[File:FatherChristmastrial.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''The Examination and Tryal of [[Father Christmas|Old Father Christmas]]'', (1686), published after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England]]

It was restored as a legal holiday in England with the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] of [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared null and void, with Christmas again freely celebrated in England.<ref name="Outlawed">{{cite news |title=When Christmas carols were banned |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20141219-when-christmas-carols-were-banned |access-date=March 11, 2022 |agency=BBC}}</ref> Many Calvinist clergymen disapproved of Christmas celebration. As such, in Scotland, the Presbyterian [[Church of Scotland]] discouraged the observance of Christmas, and though [[James VI]] commanded its celebration in 1618, [[Church attendance|attendance at church]] was scant.<ref>Chambers, Robert (1885). ''Domestic Annals of Scotland'', p. 211.</ref> The [[Parliament of Scotland]] officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, claiming that the church had been "purged of all superstitious observation of days".<ref name="RPS1">{{cite web|url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?action=fc&fn=charlesi_ms&id=id8564&query=&type=ms&variants=&google= |title=Act dischairging the Yule vacance |work=[[The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707]] |publisher=University of St Andrews and National Archives of Scotland |version=(in [[Middle Scots]]) |access-date=February 29, 2012 |location=St Andrews |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519170629/http://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?action=fc&fn=charlesi_ms&id=id8564&query=&type=ms&variants=&google= |archive-date=May 19, 2012 }}</ref> Whereas in England, Wales and Ireland Christmas Day is a common law holiday, having been a customary holiday since [[time immemorial]], it was not until 1871 that it was designated a [[Public holidays in the United Kingdom|bank holiday]] in Scotland.<ref name="scotland-1871">{{cite web|url=http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/bankholidays.pdf |title=Bank Holiday Fact File |last=Anon |date=May 22, 2007 |work=TUC press release |publisher=TUC |access-date=January 12, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603185926/http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/bankholidays.pdf |archive-date=June 3, 2013 }}</ref> Following the Restoration of Charles II, ''Poor Robin's Almanack'' contained the lines: "Now thanks to God for Charles return, / Whose absence made old Christmas mourn. / For then we scarcely did it know, / Whether it Christmas were or no."<ref>{{cite book|last=Miall|first=Anthony & Peter|title=The Victorian Christmas Book|year=1978|publisher=Dent|isbn=978-0-460-12039-5|page=7}}</ref> The diary of James Woodforde, from the latter half of the 18th century, details the observance of Christmas and celebrations associated with the season over a number of years.<ref>{{cite book|last=Woodforde|first=James|title=The Diary of a Country Parson 1758–1802|year=1978|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-281241-4|url=https://archive.org/details/diaryofcountrypa00wood}}</ref>

As in England, Puritans in [[Colonial America]] staunchly opposed the observation of Christmas.<ref name="Barnett" /> The [[Pilgrim Fathers|Pilgrims]] of New England pointedly spent their first December 25 in the New World working normally.<ref name="Barnett" /> Puritans such as [[Cotton Mather]] condemned Christmas both because scripture did not mention its observance and because Christmas celebrations of the day often involved boisterous behavior.<ref>{{cite speech |last=Mather |first=Cotton|title=Grace defended. A censure on the ungodliness, by which the glorious grace of God, is too commonly abused. A sermon preached on the twenty fifth day of December, 1712. Containing some seasonable admonitions of piety. And concluded, with a brief dissertation on that case, whether the penitent thief on the cross, be an example of one repenting at the last hour, and on such a repentance received unto mercy?|date=December 25, 1712|location=Boston, Massachusetts|publisher= B. Green, for Samuel Gerrish|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N01303.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext|access-date=August 12, 2022|language=English}}</ref><ref name="nissenbaum">Stephen W. Nissenbaum, "[https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44539478.pdf Christmas in Early New England, 1620–1820: Puritanism, Popular Culture, and the Printed Word]", ''Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society'' '''106''':1: p79-164 (January 1, 1996). Retrieved December 25, 2023.</ref> Many non-Puritans in New England deplored the loss of the holidays enjoyed by the laboring classes in England.<ref>{{cite book |last=Innes |first=Stephen |year=1995 |title=Creating the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture of Puritan New England |publisher=[[W.W. Norton & Company]]|isbn=978-0-393-03584-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9XUKUkulSkIC&pg=PA145 |page=145 }}</ref> Christmas observance was outlawed in [[Boston]] in 1659.<ref name="Barnett">{{cite book |last=Barnett |first=James Harwood |year=1984 |title=The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture |publisher=Ayer Publishing |isbn=978-0-405-07671-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sRH9skUh6oC&pg=PA2 |page=3}}</ref> The ban on Christmas observance was revoked in 1681 by English governor [[Edmund Andros]], but it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.<ref>{{cite book |last=Marling |first=Karal Ann |year=2000 |title=Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00318-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUc13_ourtYC&pg=PA44 |page=44}}</ref>

At the same time, Christian residents of [[Virginia]] and New York observed the holiday freely. [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] settlers, predominantly [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] settlers of [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania|Bethlehem]], [[Nazareth, Pennsylvania|Nazareth]], and [[Lititz]] in Pennsylvania and the [[Wachovia, North Carolina|Wachovia]] settlements in North Carolina, were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. The Moravians in Bethlehem had the first Christmas trees in America as well as the first Nativity Scenes.<ref>{{cite book |first=Nancy |last=Smith Thomas |title=Moravian Christmas in the South |page=20 |year=2007 |publisher=Old Salem Museums & Gardens |isbn=978-0-8078-3181-6}}</ref> Christmas fell out of favor in the United States after the [[American Revolution]], when it was considered an English custom.<ref name="cinne">{{cite book
 |last =Andrews
 |first =Peter
 |title =Christmas in Colonial and Early America
 |publisher =World Book Encyclopedia, Inc.
 |year=1975
 |location =United States
 |isbn = 978-0-7166-2001-3}}</ref>
[[George Washington]] attacked [[Hessian (soldiers)|Hessian]] (German) mercenaries on the day after Christmas during the [[Battle of Trenton]] on December 26, 1776, Christmas being much more popular in Germany than in America at this time.

With the atheistic [[Cult of Reason]] in power during the era of [[Revolutionary France]], Christian Christmas [[church service|religious services]] were banned and the [[three kings cake]] was renamed the "equality cake" under [[Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution|anticlerical government policies]].<ref name="Inc1996">{{cite book|title=Christmas in France|year=1996|publisher=[[World Book Encyclopedia]]|isbn=978-0-7166-0876-9|page=35|quote=Carols were altered by substituting names of prominent political leaders for royal characters in the lyrics, such as the Three Kings. Church bells were melted down for their bronze to increase the national treasury, and religious services were banned on Christmas Day. The cake of kings, too, came under attack as a symbol of royalty. It survived, however, for a while with a new name—the cake of equality.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://historybuff.com/christmas-renamed-dog-day-french-revolution/|title=Why Was Christmas Renamed 'Dog Day' During the French Revolution?|last=Mason|first=Julia|date=December 21, 2015|publisher=HistoryBuff|access-date=November 18, 2016|quote=How did people celebrate the Christmas during the French Revolution? In white-knuckled terror behind closed doors. Anti-clericalism reached its apex on 10 November 1793, when a Fête de la Raison was held in honor of the Cult of Reason. Churches across France were renamed "Temples of Reason" and the Notre Dame was "de-baptized" for the occasion. The Commune spared no expense: "The first festival of reason, which took place in Notre Dame, featured a fabricated mountain, with a temple of philosophy at its summit and a script borrowed from an opera libretto. At the sound of Marie-Joseph Chénier's Hymne à la Liberté, two rows of young women, dressed in white, descended the mountain, crossing each other before the 'altar of reason' before ascending once more to greet the goddess of Liberty." As you can probably gather from the above description, 1793 was not a great time to celebrate Christmas in the capital.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161101103908/http://historybuff.com/christmas-renamed-dog-day-french-revolution/|archive-date=November 1, 2016}}</ref>

=== 19th century ===

[[File:Scrooges third visitor-John Leech,1843 edit.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ebenezer Scrooge]] and the [[Ghost of Christmas Present]]. From [[Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', 1843.]]

In the early 19th century, Christmas festivities and services became widespread with the rise of the [[Oxford Movement]] in the [[Church of England]] that emphasized the centrality of Christmas in Christianity and charity to the poor,<ref name="Rowel1993">{{cite journal|last=Rowell|first=Geoffrey|date=December 1993|journal=[[History Today]]|volume=43|issue=12|quote=There is no doubt that A Christmas Carol is first and foremost a story concerned with the Christian gospel of liberation by the grace of God, and with incarnational religion which refuses to drive a wedge between the world of spirit and the world of matter. Both the Christmas dinners and the Christmas dinner-carriers are blessed; the cornucopia of Christmas food and feasting reflects both the goodness of creation and the joy of heaven. It is a significant sign of a shift in theological emphasis in the nineteenth century from a stress on the Atonement to a stress on the Incarnation, a stress which found outward and visible form in the sacramentalism of the Oxford Movement, the development of richer and more symbolic forms of worship, the building of neo-Gothic churches, and the revival and increasing centrality of the keeping of Christmas itself as a Christian festival.{{nbsp}}[...] In the course of the century, under the influence of the Oxford Movement's concern for the better observance of Christian festivals, Christmas became more and more prominent. By the later part of the century cathedrals provided special services and musical events, and might have revived ancient special charities for the poor – though we must not forget the problems for large: parish-church cathedrals like Manchester, which on one Christmas Day had no less than eighty couples coming to be married (the signing of the registers lasted until four in the afternoon). The popularity of Dickens' A Christmas Carol played a significant part in the changing consciousness of Christmas and the way in which it was celebrated. The popularity of his public readings of the story is an indication of how much it resonated with the contemporary mood, and contributed to the increasing place of the Christmas celebration in both secular and religious ways that was firmly established by the end of the nineteenth century.|access-date=December 28, 2016|url=http://www.historytoday.com/geoffrey-rowell/dickens-and-construction-christmas|title=Dickens and the Construction of Christmas|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229101255/http://www.historytoday.com/geoffrey-rowell/dickens-and-construction-christmas|archive-date=December 29, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> along with [[Washington Irving]], [[Charles Dickens]], and other authors emphasizing family, children, kind-heartedness, gift-giving, and [[Santa Claus]] (for Irving),<ref name="Rowel1993"/> or [[Father Christmas]] (for Dickens).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j5c9GqZ_7BMC&pg=PA178 |editor-first1=Sally|editor-last1=Ledger |editor-first2=Holly |editor-last2=Furneaux |title= Charles Dickens in Context |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-513886-3 |page=178 |access-date=December 25, 2020}}</ref>

In the early-19th century, writers imagined [[Tudor period|Tudor]]-period Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration. In 1843, [[Charles Dickens]] wrote the novel ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', which helped revive the "spirit" of Christmas and seasonal merriment.<ref name=standiford>{{cite book |first=Les |last=Standiford |title=The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits |publisher=Crown |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-307-40578-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/manwhoinventedch0000stan}}</ref><ref name=AFP>{{cite news
 |title=Dickens' classic 'Christmas Carol' still sings to us
|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-12-17-dickens-main_N.htm
 |work=[[USA Today]]
 |access-date=April 30, 2010
|first=Bob
 |last=Minzesheimer
 |date=December 22, 2008
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091106135858/http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-12-17-dickens-main_N.htm
 |archive-date=November 6, 2009
|url-status=live
 }}</ref> Its instant popularity played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion.<ref name="Rowel1993"/>

Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, linking "worship and feasting, within a context of social reconciliation."<ref name="Hutton2001">{{cite book|last=Hutton|first=Ronald|title=The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain|date=February 15, 2001|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-157842-7}}</ref> Superimposing his humanitarian vision of the holiday, in what has been termed "Carol Philosophy",<ref name="Forbes2008">{{cite book|last=Forbes|first=Bruce David|title=Christmas: A Candid History|date=October 1, 2008|publisher=--University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-25802-0|page=62|quote=What Dickens {{em|did}} advocate in his story was "the spirit of Christmas". Sociologist James Barnett has described it as Dickens's "Carol Philosophy", which "combined religious and secular attitudes toward to celebration into a humanitarian pattern. It excoriated individual selfishness and extolled the virtues of brotherhood, kindness, and generosity at Christmas.{{nbsp}}[...] Dickens preached that at Christmas men should forget self and think of others, especially the poor and the unfortunate." The message was one that both religious and secular people could endorse.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Richard Michael |editor-last=Kelly |year=2003 |title=A Christmas Carol |pages=9, 12 |publisher=Broadview Press |isbn=978-1-55111-476-7}}</ref> A prominent phrase from the tale, [[Christmas and holiday season#History of the phrase|"Merry Christmas"]], was popularized following the appearance of the story.<ref>Cochrane, Robertson. ''Wordplay: origins, meanings, and usage of the English language''. University of Toronto Press, 1996, p. 126, {{ISBN|0-8020-7752-8}}.</ref> This coincided with the appearance of the [[Oxford Movement]] and the growth of [[Anglo-Catholicism]], which led a revival in traditional rituals and religious observances.<ref>Hutton, Ronald, ''The Stations of the Sun: The Ritual Year in England''. 1996. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 113. {{ISBN|0-19-285448-8}}.</ref>

[[File:The Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle, by J. L. Williams - ILN 1848 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright|The Queen's Christmas tree at [[Windsor Castle]], published in the ''Illustrated London News'', 1848]]

The term ''[[Ebenezer Scrooge|Scrooge]]'' became a synonym for [[miser]], with the phrase [[Humbug|"Bah! Humbug!"]] becoming emblematic of a dismissive attitude of the festive spirit.<ref>Joe L. Wheeler. ''Christmas in My Heart'', Volume 10, p. 97. Review and Herald Pub Assoc, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8280-1622-4}}.</ref> In 1843, the first commercial [[Christmas card#History|Christmas card]] was produced by [[Sir Henry Cole]].<ref>{{cite web |last = Earnshaw |first = Iris |title = The History of Christmas Cards |publisher = Inverloch Historical Society Inc. |date = November 2003 |url = http://home.vicnet.net.au/~invhs/2004.htm |access-date = July 25, 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160526174327/http://home.vicnet.net.au/~invhs/2004.htm |archive-date = May 26, 2016 |url-status = live }}</ref> The revival of the [[Christmas Carol]] began with [[William Sandys (antiquarian)|William Sandys]]'s ''Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern'' (1833), with the first appearance in print of "[[The First Noel]]", "[[I Saw Three Ships]]", "[[Hark the Herald Angels Sing]]" and "[[God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen]]", popularized in Dickens's ''A Christmas Carol''.

In Britain, the [[Christmas tree#18th and 19th centuries|Christmas tree]] was introduced in the early 19th century by the German-born [[Queen Charlotte]]. In 1832, the future [[Queen Victoria]] wrote about her delight at having a Christmas tree, hung with [[Christmas lights (holiday decoration)|lights]], [[Christmas ornaments|ornaments]], and presents placed round it.<ref>''[https://archive.org/details/girlhoodofqueenv01vict/page/60/mode/2up The Girlhood of Queen Victoria: a selection from Her Majesty's diaries]'', p. 61. Longmans, Green & Co., 1912. University of Wisconsin. Retrieved December 25, 2023.</ref> After her marriage to her German cousin [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]], by 1841 the custom became more widespread throughout Britain.<ref name="Lejeune, Marie Claire p.550">Lejeune, ''Marie Claire''. ''Compendium of symbolic and ritual plants in Europe'', p.550. University of Michigan {{ISBN|90-77135-04-9}}.</ref>

An image of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle created a sensation when it was published in the ''[[Illustrated London News]]'' in 1848. A modified version of this image was published in ''[[Godey's Lady's Book]]'', Philadelphia in 1850.<ref name="Shoemaker">Shoemaker, Alfred Lewis. (1959) ''Christmas in Pennsylvania: a folk-cultural study.'' Edition 40. pp. 52, 53. Stackpole Books 1999. {{ISBN|0-8117-0328-2}}.</ref><ref>''[[Godey's Lady's Book]]'', 1850. ''Godey's'' copied it exactly, except he removed the Queen's tiara, and Prince Albert's moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene.</ref> By the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in America.<ref name="Shoemaker" />

In America, interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by [[Washington Irving]] which appear in his ''[[The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.]]'' and "Old Christmas". Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in [[Aston Hall]], Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned,<ref>Kelly, Richard Michael (ed.) (2003), ''A Christmas Carol'', p. 20. Broadview Literary Texts, New York: Broadview Press, {{ISBN|1-55111-476-3}}.</ref> and he used the tract ''Vindication of Christmas'' (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories.<ref name=BTR>{{Cite book
 |author=Restad, Penne L.
 |year=1995
 |title=Christmas in America: a History
 |location=Oxford
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-510980-1
 }}</ref>

[[File:Adolph Tidemand Norsk juleskik.jpg|thumb|upright|A Norwegian Christmas, 1846 painting by [[Adolph Tidemand]]]]

In 1822, [[Clement Clarke Moore]] wrote the poem ''[[A Visit From St. Nicholas]]'' (popularly known by its first line: ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'').<ref>Moore's poem transferred the genuine old Dutch traditions celebrated at New Year in New York, including the exchange of gifts, family feasting, and tales of "sinterklass" (a derivation in Dutch from "Saint Nicholas", from whence comes the modern "Santa Claus") to Christmas.[http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm ''The history of Christmas: Christmas history in America''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419103042/http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm |date=April 19, 2018 }}, 2006.</ref> The poem helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts, and seasonal Christmas shopping began to assume economic importance.<ref>[http://usinfo.state.gov/scv/Archive/2005/Dec/19-344398.html "Americans Celebrate Christmas in Diverse Ways"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210120636/https://usinfo.state.gov/scv/Archive/2005/Dec/19-344398.html |date=December 10, 2006 }}, Usinfo.state.gov, November 26, 2006.</ref> This also started the cultural conflict between the holiday's spiritual significance and its associated [[commercialism]] that some see as corrupting the holiday. In her 1850 book ''The First Christmas in New England'', [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] includes a character who complains that [[the true meaning of Christmas]] was lost in a shopping spree.<ref>First [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian Church]] of Watertown [http://www.watertownfirstpres.org/sermons/12-11-05.html "Oh ... and one more thing"] December 11, 2005 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225081456/http://www.watertownfirstpres.org/sermons/12-11-05.html |date=February 25, 2007 }}</ref>

While the celebration of Christmas was not yet customary in some regions in the U.S., [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] detected "a transition state about Christmas here in New England" in 1856. "The old puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so."<ref name=APH>Restad, Penne L. (1995), ''Christmas in America: a History'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 96. {{ISBN|0-19-510980-5}}.</ref> In [[Reading, Pennsylvania]], a newspaper remarked in 1861, "Even our presbyterian friends who have hitherto steadfastly ignored Christmas—threw open their church doors and assembled in force to celebrate the anniversary of the Savior's birth."<ref name=APH />

The First Congregational Church of Rockford, [[Illinois]], "although of genuine Puritan stock", was 'preparing for a grand Christmas jubilee', a news correspondent reported in 1864.<ref name=APH /> By 1860, fourteen states including several from [[New England]] had adopted Christmas as a legal holiday.<ref name=ABD>{{cite web|url=http://www.christianchurchofgod.com/httpwww.christianchurchofgod.comhistofchristmas.htm |title=Christian church of God – history of Christmas |publisher=Christianchurchofgod.com |access-date=February 24, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219215754/http://www.christianchurchofgod.com/httpwww.christianchurchofgod.comhistofchristmas.htm |archive-date=December 19, 2010 }}</ref> In 1875, [[Louis Prang]] introduced the [[Christmas card#History|Christmas card]] to Americans. He has been called the "father of the American Christmas card".<ref name="meggspage148">Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 148 {{ISBN|0-471-29198-6}}.</ref> On June 28, 1870, Christmas was formally declared a [[Federal holidays in the United States|United States federal holiday]].<ref name="federalholidays">{{cite web|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41990.pdf|title=Federal Holidays: Evolution and Current Practices|publisher=Congressional Research Service|author=Jacob R. Straus|date=November 16, 2012|access-date=January 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103115217/http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41990.pdf|archive-date=January 3, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 20th and 21st centuries ===

[[File:The Christmas Visit. Postcard, c. 1910.jpg|thumb|upright|The Christmas Visit. Postcard, {{c.|1910}}]]
During the [[First World War]] and particularly (but not exclusively) in 1914,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Crossland|first=David|date=December 22, 2021|title=Truces weren't just for 1914 Christmas|language=en|work=The Times|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wartime-football-truces-3-historical-prejudice-0-wclv9hs3f|access-date=December 24, 2021|issn=0140-0460}}</ref> a series of [[Christmas truce|informal truces]] took place for Christmas between opposing armies. The truces, which were organised spontaneously by fighting men, ranged from promises not to shoot (shouted at a distance in order to ease the pressure of war for the day) to friendly socializing, gift giving and even sport between enemies.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Baxter|first=Keven|date=December 24, 2021|title=Peace for a day: How soccer brought a brief truce to World War I on Christmas Day 1914|url=https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/story/2021-12-24/christmas-truce-soccer-world-war-germany-britain-adolf-hitler|url-status=live|access-date=December 24, 2021|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224122434/https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/story/2021-12-24/christmas-truce-soccer-world-war-germany-britain-adolf-hitler |archive-date=December 24, 2021 }}</ref> These incidents became a well known and semi-mythologised part of popular memory.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Real Story of the Christmas Truce|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-real-story-of-the-christmas-truce|access-date=December 24, 2021|website=Imperial War Museums|language=en}}</ref> They have been described as a symbol of common humanity even in the darkest of situations and used to demonstrate to children the ideals of Christmas.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Christmas Truce 1914|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/assemblies-ks1-ks2-christmas-truce-1914/zhjpm39|access-date=December 24, 2021|website=BBC School Radio|language=en}}</ref>

Up to the 1950s in the UK, many Christmas customs were restricted to the upper and middle classes. Most of the population had not yet adopted many Christmas rituals that later became popular, including [[Christmas tree]]s. Christmas dinner would normally include beef or goose, not turkey as would later be common. Children would get fruit and sweets in their stocking rather than elaborate gifts. Full celebration of a family Christmas with all the trimmings only became widespread with increased prosperity from the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weightman |first1=Gavin |last2=Humphries |first2=Steve |title=Christmas Past |url=https://archive.org/details/christmaspast00weig |url-access=registration |date=1987 |publisher=Sidgwick and Jackson |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/christmaspast00weig/page/31 31]|isbn=978-0-283-99531-6 }}</ref> National papers were published on Christmas Day until 1912. Post was still delivered on Christmas Day until 1961. League football matches continued in Scotland until the 1970s while in England they ceased at the end of the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harding |first1=Patrick |title=The Xmas Files: Facts Behind the Myths and Magic of Christmas |date=2003 |publisher=Metro Publishing |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=When was the last time football matches in Britain were played on Christmas Day?|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/dec/19/theknowledge.sport|access-date=October 23, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006110605/http://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/dec/19/theknowledge.sport|archive-date=October 6, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

Under the [[state atheism]] of the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other Christian holidays—were prohibited in public.<ref name="Connelly2000">{{cite book|last=Connelly|first=Mark|title=Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema|year=2000|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-397-2|page=186|quote=A chapter on representations of ''Christmas'' in Soviet cinema could, in fact be the shortest in this collection: suffice it to say that there were, at least officially, no Christmas celebrations in the atheist socialist state after its foundation in 1917.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the [[League of Militant Atheists]] encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an antireligious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement.<ref name="Ramet2005">{{cite book|last=Ramet|first=Sabrina Petra|title=Religious Policy in the Soviet Union|date=November 10, 2005|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-02230-9|page=138|quote=The League sallied forth to save the day from this putative religious revival. ''Antireligioznik'' obliged with so many articles that it devoted an entire section of its annual index for 1928 to anti-religious training in the schools. More such material followed in 1929, and a flood of it the next year. It recommended what Lenin and others earlier had explicitly condemned—carnivals, farces, and games to intimidate and purge the youth of religious belief. It suggested that pupils campaign against customs associated with Christmas (including Christmas trees) and Easter. Some schools, the League approvingly reported, staged an anti-religious day on the 31st of each month. Not teachers but the League's local set the programme for this special occasion.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> At the height of this persecution, in 1929, on Christmas Day, children in Moscow were encouraged to spit on [[crucifix]]es as a protest against the holiday.<ref name="Zugger2001">{{cite book|last=Zugger|first=Christopher Lawrence|title=Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin Through Stalin|year=2001|publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]]|isbn=978-0-8156-0679-6|page=210|quote=As observed by Nicholas Brianchaninov, writing in 1929–1930, after the NEP and just as the worst of collectivization was beginning, the Soviets deemed it necessary to drive into the heads of the people the axiom that religion was the synthesis of everything most harmful to humanity. It must be presented as the enemy of man and society, of life and learning, of progress.{{nbsp}}[...] In caricatures, articles, ''Bezbozhnik'', ''Antireligioznik'', League of Militant Atheists propaganda and films. School courses [were give] on conducting the struggle against religion (how to profane a church, break windows, objects of piety). The young, always eager to be with the latest trend, often responded to such propaganda. In Moscow in 1929 children were brought to spit on the crucifixes at Christmas. Priests in Tiraspol diocese were sometimes betrayed by their own young parishioners, leading to their imprisonment and even death, and tearing their families apart.}}</ref> Instead, the importance of the holiday and all its trappings, such as the Christmas tree and gift-giving, was transferred to the New Year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/12/30/how-soviets-came-to-celebrate-new-years-like-christmas-and-why-russians-still-do/ |title=How Soviets Came to Celebrate New Year's Like Christmas (and Why Russians Still Do) |last=Tamkin |first=Emily |date=December 30, 2016 |website=Foreign Policy |access-date=January 6, 2022}}</ref> It was not until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991 that the [[persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union|persecution]] ended and Orthodox Christmas became a state holiday again for the first time in Russia after seven decades.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.latimes.com/1991-01-07/news/mn-5892_1_russian-christmas-traditions|title=A Russian Christmas—Better Late Than Never: Soviet Union: Orthodox Church celebration is the first under Communists. But, as with most of Yeltsin's pronouncements, the holiday stirs a controversy.|last=Goldberg|first=Carey|date=January 7, 1991|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=November 22, 2014|quote=For the first time in more than seven decades, Christmas—celebrated today by Russian Orthodox Christians—is a full state holiday across Russia's vast and snowy expanse. As part of Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin's ambitious plan to revive the traditions of Old Russia, the republic's legislature declared last month that Christmas, long ignored under atheist Communist ideology, should be written back into the public calendar. "The Bolsheviks replaced crosses with hammers and sickles," said Vyacheslav S. Polosin, head of the Russian legislature's committee on religion. "Now they are being changed back."|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222093318/http://articles.latimes.com/1991-01-07/news/mn-5892_1_russian-christmas-traditions|archive-date=December 22, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

European History Professor Joseph Perry wrote that likewise, in [[Nazi Germany]], "because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize—or eliminate altogether—the Christian aspects of the holiday" and that "Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime's racial ideologies."<ref>{{cite news|title=How the Nazis co-opted Christmas: A history of propaganda|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/12/24/how-the-nazis-co-opted-christmas/|last=Perry|first=Joseph|date=December 24, 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=March 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106211548/https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/12/24/how-the-nazis-co-opted-christmas/|archive-date=January 6, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

As Christmas celebrations began to spread globally even outside traditional [[Christian culture]]s, several Muslim-majority countries began to ban the observance of Christmas, claiming it undermined [[Islam]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/12067683/Somalia-joins-Brunei-by-banning-Christmas-celebrations-to-protect-Islam.html|title=Somalia joins Brunei by banning Christmas celebrations 'to protect Islam'|date=December 24, 2015|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=April 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529064440/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/12067683/Somalia-joins-Brunei-by-banning-Christmas-celebrations-to-protect-Islam.html|archive-date=May 29, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2023, public Christmas celebrations were cancelled in [[Bethlehem]], the city synonymous with the birth of Jesus. [[Palestinians|Palestinian]] leaders of various Christian denominations cited the [[2023 Israel–Hamas war|ongoing Israel–Hamas war]] in their unanimous decision to cancel celebrations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2023/12/16/1219245873/bethlehem-christmas-gaza-israel|title=There's no Christmas in Bethlehem this year. With war in Gaza, festivities are off|date=December 16, 2023|accessdate=December 23, 2023|last=Neuman|first=Scott|work=NPR}}</ref>