Christmas feels like the most settled holiday of the year, yet its past is full of plot twists. It has been banned, rewritten, rebranded and revived, and the little things people made at home often kept it alive. Here is a timeline of Christmas history facts that rarely make it into the holiday movies.
336: A Date on a Roman Calendar
The first recorded celebration of Christmas on December 25 took place in Rome in the year 336, noted in an almanac compiled in 354. Some Eastern churches long gave Epiphany more weight, so even the date was once a matter of debate.
1560 to 1647: When Parliaments Cancelled Christmas
Scotland banned the festival after the Reformation in 1560, lifted the ban in 1602 and reinstated it in 1640. In June 1647, the English Parliament banned Christmas, Easter and Whitsun celebrations, even at home, and riots broke out on Christmas Day. The ban ended with the restored monarchy in 1660.
1659: Five Shillings for a Feast
Across the Atlantic, Massachusetts made it an offence to observe Christmas, with a five-shilling fine for feasting or taking the day off. The law lasted until 1681, and historians have found no records of anyone being prosecuted under it.
1818: A Silent Church Organ
According to the story, the organ in the church at Oberndorf, Austria, would not play on Christmas Eve, so Father Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber performed a new carol with a guitar, an instrument then frowned upon in church. That carol was Silent Night.
The 1860s and Beyond: Santa’s Red Coat
A popular belief says Coca-Cola invented Santa’s red suit. In truth, cartoonist Thomas Nast was drawing Santa for Harper’s Weekly in the decades before, and Coca-Cola’s own history says the red coat appeared before its artist Haddon Sundblom made the look famous in 1931.
1929 to 1935: A Tree in Disguise
In the Soviet Union, Christmas celebrations were banned from 1929, and even selling Christmas trees was a criminal offence. In 1935, the tree returned as a New Year’s tree, and the glass toys that decorated it became a national tradition.
1974: A Bucket of Chicken
In Japan, where Christmas had no religious roots, KFC launched its first Christmas campaign in 1974, reportedly inspired by a foreign customer who said he would have to celebrate with fried chicken. Today, a Christmas bucket is a national habit.
What Survives Every Ban
Look at the timeline again. Empires, parliaments and companies have shaped Christmas, yet the part that always survived is small and personal: a carol sung quietly, a tree in a corner, an ornament made at a kitchen table. That is the spirit we work in at Crochet Cozy Moments. We crochet handmade crochet Christmas ornaments by hand from natural yarn, as snowflakes, stars and openwork baubles. Each of our crochet Christmas ornaments is a small act of patience, the kind of thing no ban or trend can take away. Hung year after year, they become part of the history your own family adds to.
Christmas has been banned, rebranded and reinvented, and it is still here. Perhaps that is the best fact of all.
