How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas by Jeff Guinn Page A

other Puritan leaders instantly imposed their religious will on everyone else. Nicholas and Felix weren’t surprised in December 1620 when Christmas was hardly mentioned. The new colonists were spending every waking minute trying to build shelters and find food in the harsh winter. But in 1621 the Puritan leaders decreed that Christmas would not be celebrated at all in Plymouth.
    â€œThis has made Nicholas and Felix so furious that they’ve left Plymouth and joined Dutch settlers in their colony of Fort Orange,” I told Arthur and Leonardo as I read a letter from my husband that had arrived by ship. “They say that, as awful as it sounds, Christmas has been made completely against the law in Plymouth, and celebrating it will result in severe punishment.”
    â€œI’m sorry, but not surprised,” Arthur observed. “I suppose, in all their excitement of going to the New World, Nicholas and Felix forgot this has already happened in an entire country. Christmas has been against the law in Scotland since 1583.”
    This was very sad, but still a fact. In Scotland, a nation separate from England to the north, Puritans were especially anxious to rid themselves of anything to do with the Catholic Church. Christmas, their leaders insisted, was more than just a bad Catholic name for a holiday. In fact, when people celebrated Christmas with singing and dancing and feasting, they violated the way Puritans thought Jesus should be worshipped. They felt people should sit quietly and think about all God’s blessings, especially sending his son among us. And choosing December 25 as Jesus’ birthday was, to their minds, an insult—Jesus was better than any ordinary person, and only ordinary people had birthdays. They were certainly entitled to these opinions, but they wanted everyone to share them. So the Scottish Puritans and elected leaders made celebrating Christmas a crime. And, as Arthur pointed out, if it happened in Scotland, it could certainly happen in England.
    â€œOur current King James ruled in Scotland before Queen Elizabeth of England died without children in 1603,” he reminded me. “So James has allowed Christmas to be banned in one country already. Puritans don’t yet control government in England, but they are louder than anyone else, and if they ever are in charge I suspect Christmas will be the first target of their wrath.”
    â€œChristmas means too much to too many people in this country,” I said firmly. “For poor families in particular, December 25 is the only day of the year when they can feast and dance and sing and forget, for just a little while, how hard they have to work, and how little they have to call their own. It’s just a different way of thanking God for Jesus than sitting quietly in a room, thinking. I can’t believe the Puritans want to prevent others from having a little holiday happiness.”
    Arthur’s eyes narrowed, and he looked quite grim.
    â€œLayla, we’ve both lived long enough to realize something,” he said. “There are always those who want to control the way everyone else lives, including how, when, and why they are happy.”
    â€œWell, the Puritans have picked the wrong place for a fight over Christmas,” I replied. “No country celebrates Christmas better than England. Of course, no country needs Christmas more, either.” Then, upset at the possibility of the holiday being taken away, I donned my cloak and hurried outside. I walked for hours through the London streets, and everywhere I looked I was reminded why the ordinary people of Britain should not be deprived of their beloved holiday.

    The London where Arthur and I fretted about the Puritans and Christmas almost four hundred years ago was a much dirtier, desperate place, where most citizens lived in poverty and seldom survived past the age of fifty.

CHAPTER Six
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