Christmas trivia

I've already mentioned that Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of mince pies back in the 17th century. In fact he went much further than that - he banned Christmas! Well, not strictly - what he banned was the celebration of Christmas. He was a Puritan, and Puritans believed that religion was a serious business, and there was no place for any sort of merrymaking. So as far as they were concerned December 25th was just another day. The Puritan church was a plain building with no statues or stained-glass windows - nothing to distract you from concentrating on the worship of God. But the Puritan reign was short-lived and the ban on celebrating Christmas was lifted after just 13 years.