The celebration of Christmas is a blend of very old winter solstice traditions and the celebration of Jesus' birth, plus all the music, rich food, parties, and fun that people need in the darkness of winter. Either the fun or the religion have caused the whole thing to be banned in six countries and one well-known community. When Stalin banned the celebration of Christmas in the Soviet Union, he aimed to obliterate the Christian part, but the rest was too much fun, so people moved those traditions to New Year's Day, which continues today. In Germany, the land that gave us the Christmas tree, Adolf Hitler was okay with celebrating Christmas, but it couldn't be about Jesus, because, well, he was Jewish.
Several other countries, at one time or another, were okay with keeping the religious observation, but wanted to do away with the parties and fun and a day off work because those things were either too decadent or too Catholic. Workers in Scotland didn't get December 25th off for hundreds of years -until 1958! Read about seven historic Christmas bans and the reasons behind them at Mental Floss.
