The silly season is in full swing, with office kris kringles, long team lunches and obligatory Christmas parties all round. In the spirit of the season, Insights has compiled a list of odd Christmas laws and cases. These laws ensure that it’s not only Santa who will decide whether you’re naughty or nice this Christmas – it’s also the courts. 

 

 

In 1645, the puritans of England removed Christmas as a national holiday. In 1659, puritans of New England took their anti-Christmas fervor a step further, banning Christmas celebrations entirely. Contravention of this law incurred a penalty of five shillings, and included any person avoiding work or feasting.

 

This ban persisted for decades. Indeed, Cotton Mather, an influential New England church leader, declared that “the feast of Christ’s nativity is spent in reveling, dicing, carding, and in all licentious liberty…by mad mirth, by long eating, by hard drinking, by lewd gaming, by rude reveling!”

 

New England adhered to its Grinch Policy until the 1850s. 

 

Brunei, a Muslim nation which has recently adopted Sharia law, banned the open celebration of Christmas and wearing of Santa hats this year.

 

 

In 2004, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed an Act preventing shops over 3000 square feet from opening on Christmas Day in England and Wales. The Act was introduced in response to a vocal campaign from religious groups and workers unions, who opposed the increasing number of major retailers, such as Woolworths, trading on Christmas Day. Scotland followed suit with a similar law in 2007, which also upheld the sanctity of New Year’s Day.

 

 

Texas Governor Rick Perry ushered in a bill protecting the right of Texan students to say ‘Merry Christmas’ with impunity. Dubbed the ‘Merry Christmas’ bill, the 2013 law also protected other well-known symbols of Christmas, such as the nativity scene, provided other religions and a secular symbol are also present. 

 

“It’s a shame that a bill like this one I’m signing is even required,” said Governor Perry, who signed the bill into law in June 2013. 

 

 

If you are celebrating Christmas in England, you may want to give the traditional Christmas mince pie a pass. Though seldom enforced, it is technically illegal to eat Christmas mince pie. This law harkens back to the aforementioned puritanical era, during which the mince pie was considered to represent the decadence inherent in Christmas revelry. For those of you who would rather not tempt the long arm of the law, you can always jump across the border to Scotland or Wales, where no such statute was ever passed. 

 

 

For as long as most citizens of Indiana could remember, a boozy Christmas needed to be coordinated in advance. However, thanks to the ruling of Governor Mike Pence, it is now legal for businesses to sell liquor on Christmas Day. The bill overturned a state provision that prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages from 3am on the 25th December to 7am on the 26th December. 

 

The bill came into effect on 1 July, meaning that this Christmas will be the first to offer liquor to the state of Indiana.  

 

From all of us here at Insights, we wish you happy holidays and a great 2016!