Found in our unprocessed Center for Book & Paper Arts Collection, A Canterbury Christmas or A True Relation of the Insurrection in CANTERBURY on Christmas day last, with great hurt befell divers persons thereby is not your average Christmas tale.
With pressure from Puritans, English Parliment had banned the celebration of holidays, which they felt was immoral. Some citizens in the town of Canterbury, however, refused their orders to carry out work as usual on Christmas day, and the letter printed here recounts the events as they unfolded. The story was originally related from a Canterbury citizen to his friend in London, where it was then printed in 1647. The edition pictured here was set and printed for a Christmas workshop by Eugenia Fawcett in 1958.
Read the full story below!
Columbia College Chicago Archives 