The English Civil War Society of America Home Page

Christ-tide in the New Worlde
Being a discourse on how Christmas was celebrated in the Colonies
from ECWSA collections

In the Colonies the effect on Christmas depended on which specific colony one belonged to. Christmas never took a firm hold in New England. In 1621, Governor Bradford ordered the new arrivals at Plimoth Colony either to work or to their houses, but no other mentions are made of Christmas in Plimoth, which is not surprising given the almost solely Puritan background of the colony. Governor Bradford relates this in his journal on December 25, 1621:

"On ye day called Christmas Day, ye Governor called them out to work (as he was use to), but the most of this new company [referring to new crew members, not the Pilgrims' faith] excused themselves and said it went against their consciences to work on ye day. So the Governor told them that if they made it a matter of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed. So he led away ye rest, and left them; but when they came home at noon from their work, he found them in ye street at play, openly: some pitching ye bar [horseshoes], and some at stool-bar [early form of cricket] and such like sports. So he went to them and took away their implements and told them that it was against his conscience that they should play and others work. If they made the keeping of it a matter of devotion, let them keep to their houses, but there should be no gaming in ye street. Since which time nothing hath been attempted that way, at least openly."

Then in 1659 the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared that "whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forebearing of labor, feasting, or any other way...shall pay for every such offense five shillings." This law was repealed in 1681 in New England.

Christmas at the Jamestown Colony was a different matter. In his journal for December, 1608, Captain John Smith captured well the prevailing English attitude towards Christmas in the colony at that time:

"Wherever an Englishman may be, and in whatever part of the world, he must keep Christmas with feasting and merriment! And indeed, we were never more merry, nor feed on more plenty of good oysters, fish, flesh, wild fowl and good bread; nor never had better fires in England than in the dry, smoky houses of Kecoughton [Jamestown]."