The Plum Pudding Riots: When England Canceled Christmas

In 1647, Parliament abolished Christmas. On Christmas Day, Canterbury fought back with a riot, two footballs and, eventually, a war. And did Cromwell really ban mince pies?

On Christmas morning 1647, Canterbury’s mayor ordered every shop in the city to open, because by act of Parliament, Christmas no longer existed. By nightfall the mayor had been knocked into the mud, prisoners had broken out of jail, and the townspeople were playing football down the High Street.

This week we tell the real story behind the “Plum Pudding Riots”: the Canterbury Christmas riot of 1647, the Puritan barber who fired a pistol over the insult “Roundhead,” the local gentlemen jailed for calming the crowd, and the grand jury whose refusal to convict helped spark the Kent rising of 1648 and the Battle of Maidstone.

Then we test the myths against the reality:• Did Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas?• Were mince pies ever illegal, and is it still illegal to eat one on Christmas Day in England?• Where does the name “Plum Pudding Riots” come from, and was there any pudding?

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