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    Why had Christmas almost died off in England before Queen Victoria and Price Albert were on the throne?

    Question #25545. Asked by an alias. (Dec 25 02 10:41 PM)


    Gnomon

    		The celebration of Christmas was always a minor affair until the middle of the 19th Century. Victoria and Albert introduced the CHristmas Tree to England, but they were not responsible for the introduction of Christmas celebrations. Christmas hadn't almost died off, it just was never a big celebration.

    Dec 25 02, 11:21 PM
    Kainantu

    		In 1642, the Puritans seized power and outlawed many acts that had no Christian or divine basis. The Puritans realised that the the sort of things that we associate with our popular Christmas today, which were still current then had nothing to do with Christianity and they, tried to dissuade people from partying, from drinking, from dressing up and giving gifts, they introduced an Act of Parliament which officially abolished the popular Christmas customs and it was, decreed that stores should stay open on Christmas day and that anyone found partying would be arrested. From Canterbury to London, there were bloody riots when shops were forced to stay open on Christmas day.
    http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/xmas/santa.htm


    Read more at the above site 'Santa meets Christianity'
    The detail in it will expand the above extract


    Dec 26 02, 12:43 AM
    Siskin



    'For many people, Christmas was reinvented by the Victorian/nineteenth century society,' says Countess Maria Hubert von Staufer, Director of Christmas Archives International in the United Kingdom. 'It is a popular misconception that Christmas in England was eradicated by the Cromwellians in the seventeenth century and was only reinvented by the Victorians.'

    According to the Countess, the customs that eighteenth-century people observed were handed down in undisturbed continuation from earlier times. 'Although the customs went underground they remained solid traditions celebrated by all who wished to do so,' she says.

    In one of her recently published books, 'Jane Austen's Christmas: The Festive Season in Georgian England,' the historian shows some of the most interesting and hitherto hidden aspects of the British Christmases of yesteryear celebrated by the whole Austen family.










    Dec 26 02, 12:44 PM

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