Christmas was banned in the United States during the 1600s
Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and the Plymouth colony made celebrating Christmas a criminal offense, according to "Once Upon a Gospel" (Twenty-Third Publications, 2008).
In 1659, Massachusetts made it illegal to celebrate Christmas – a ban that lasted for the next 22 years.
All Christmas activities, including dancing, seasonal plays, games, singing carols, cheerful celebration and especially drinking were banned by the Puritan-dominated Parliament of England in 1644, with the Puritans of New England following suit.
"Shocking as it sounds, followers of Jesus Christ in both America and England helped pass laws making it illegal to observe Christmas, believing it was an insult to God to honor a day associated with ancient paganism," according to "Shocked by the Bible" (Thomas Nelson Inc, 2008). "Most Americans today are unaware that Christmas was banned in Boston from 1659 to 1681."
Christmas trees and decorations were considered to be unholy pagan rituals, and the Puritans also banned traditional Christmas foods such as mince pies and pudding. Puritan laws required that stores and businesses remain open all day on Christmas, and town criers walked through the streets on Christmas Eve calling out "No Christmas, no Christmas!"
The Pilgrims who came to America in 1620 were strict Puritans, with firm views on religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Puritans were particularly contemptuous of Christmas, nicknaming it "Foolstide" and banning their flock from any celebration of it throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.
Pope Julius I is said to have chosen that day to celebrate Christ's birth as a way of co-opting the pagan rituals.
The puritans were correct when they pointed out that Christmas was nothing but a pagan festival covered with a Christian veneer... early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25... were willing to have those Pagan holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones. - The Battle for Christmas – When Christmas was banned in Boston.
"Men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas," wrote the 16th-century clergyman Hugh Latimer, "than in all the 12 months besides."
Puritans in the English Parliament eliminated Christmas as a national holiday in 1645, amid widespread anti-Christmas sentiment. Settlers in New England went even further, outlawing Christmas celebrations entirely in 1659. Anyone caught shirking their work duties or feasting was forced to pay a significant penalty of five shillings. Christmas returned to England in 1660, but in New England it remained banned until the 1680s, when the Crown managed to exert greater control over its subjects in Massachusetts.
Anti-Christmas sentiment flared up again around the time of the American Revolution. Colonial New Englanders began to associate Christmas with royal officialdom, and refused to mark it as a holiday. Even after the U.S. Constitution came into effect, the Senate assembled on Christmas Day in 1797, as did the House in 1802.
In 1836, Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas a public holiday, and other states soon followed suit.
Christmas Day was formally declared a federal holiday by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870.
Source:
The Surprising Truth: Christians Once Banned Christmas
When Americans banned Christmas
When Christmas was banned in Boston
Christ Condemned Christmas
They also hijacked the virgin-birth and moved it from April to December 25th to coincide with their own Yuletide festival, which Christ says he HATES, in the Holy Bible, in Apocalypse/Revelation 2:6, 15, where the Nicolaitanes, whose doctrine Christ hates, are the followers of Santa (Ni)-Claus, who celebrate Yuletide (and Easter [Ishtar] a god of fertility - eggs are the symbol of fertility not crucifixion).
Verse 6: But this thou hast (in thy favour), that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes which I (Christ) ALSO HATE.
