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In 800 on the day of Christmas Charlemagne was throned as the emperor. After this event the prominence and the prevalence of the celebration of Christmas increased gradually. In 855 on the day of Christmas King Edmund the Martyr was anointed. Similarly, in 1066, on the day of Christmas William I of England was crowned and appointed as king. The prominence of the festive holiday of Christmas was so much that during the high Middle Ages people started noticing on daily routine basis where the various magnates celebrate the festive season of Christmas. It started becoming of much importance to the chroniclers.
A king of England namely King Richard the Second in 1377 hosted a big party and feast on the occasion of Christmas. At this feast in England you will not imagine that three hundred sheeps and twenty eight oxens were eaten by the people. A very common feature and part of the medieval Christmas feasts and celebrations was the yule boar. Soon after that the concept of caroling also came in to the picture. The entire thing became very poular soon and originally caroling was performed by a group of great dancers who coulf sing as well. In the group of people who performed caroling there was a lead singer and a chorus. The chorus generally consisted of a ring of dancers. People or rather writers who composed songs or wrote the lyrics thought of the concept of caroling as very lame. They indirectly wanted to say that this is the continuation of one of the number of traditions and customs that have been passed on by Yule and Saturnalia. Later another aspect got involved along with the celebration of Christmas. The bad things that also came with the numerous good things associated with Christmas were gambling, promiscutiy and drunkenness.
There was very special and beautiful Christmas ale in England. At the time of Middle Ages Christmas became a public festival that involved holly, ivy and other evergreen trees. Gift giving during Christmas was prevalent even then but it was only restricted between people having legal relations for example a landlord and tenant. Christmas celebrations at one stage have also been referred to as the rags of the beast and the trappings of popery. This was stated by some Puritans during the time of reformation. The promotion of the festival then came under the Roman Catholic Church. The promotion of Christmas by the church was done very religiously and systematically in a very oriented form. After the English civil war in which King Charles the first was defeated by the parliamentarian, Christmas was banned in the country by the Puritan rulers in the year 1647.
There were riots which started in many cities just before the arrival of the Christmas festival. Canterbury was under the control of the people who were conducting the riots for many weeks. The rioters decorated the hallways and doorways with holly and shouted many slogans. In the year 1660, the ban of not celebrating Christmas was lifted.
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