The history of Christmas in Scotland and why the holiday was outlawed

Ace History Desk – Journey back in time to learn more about the beloved holiday’s troubled history in Scotland — including an official ban.

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After a long year, Christmastime is at last here.

Before 2025 begins, now is the time to spend a few days kicking back and taking it easy. As you relax and tuck into some festive goodies this week, stop for a second and imagine what life would be like without Christmas.

While it may sound straight out of a cheesy holiday movie, this really was the reality for centuries in Scotland. What’s even stranger is that it wasn’t even that long ago.

If you want to learn why Christmas didn’t exist in Scotland, we need to journey back to the 16th century. This was a very turbulent time for the country, known as the Scottish Reformation.

Back then, Scotland officially broke away from the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church of Scotland was founded. Before this, Scots would take part in Yuletide celebrations at the end of the year.

However, as a result of the Scottish Reformation, Yule festivities were effectively banned by the Church of Scotland. The Church wanted to distance itself from the holiday, which it associated with the relative extravagance of Catholicism, and impose a simpler and ‘purer’ style of life.

After this, publicly acknowledging Christmas or Yule became less and less accepted. Before long, Scots were ordered to repent or face excommunication if they were caught celebrating the holiday.

This continued until 1640, when things reached a breaking point. An Act of Parliament of Scotland was passed that made celebrating Yuletide fully illegal. 

Christmas in Scotland

After the law was finalised, it was very heavily enforced. Those that were seen violating it were often imprisoned. 

Unsurprisingly, most Scots were fearful of engaging in festive celebrations even if they wanted to. As a result, Yuletime was completely eliminated from Scotland.

In response, Scots began placing a greater emphasis on December 31 as a holiday. This is why Hogmanay celebrations are so important for people in Scotland. 

Eventually, the Christmas ban was repealed in 1712 and Scots slowly started to celebrate Yule again. Although the Church of Scotland still disapproved of the holiday, people began to celebrate it privately in their own homes in the 18th century.

However, even after this, it would be many years until Christmas was celebrated publicly again. It had become significantly more popular by the Victorian era, but it was not until 1958 that it was officially designated a public holiday in Scotland.

So, when you are sitting down to eat some turkey this year, take a moment to imagine what life would be like if the Christmas ban in Scotland had never been lifted.

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SCOTLAND