December 25 Christmas from Christ’s Mass Day feast to Celebrate Jesus’ birth (actual date of Jesus birth is April 6^th Gregorian calendar).

The Nativity by Charles-François Poerson, 1667. Julius and Augustus Ceasar set the calendar with the 5^th month renamed July (for Julius), the 6^th month renamed August (for Augustus), the 7^th as September, 8^th as October, 9^th as November, and 10^th month as December.

In Anglo-Saxon England, about 5^th to 11^th centuries, the year began on 25 December, which, as the winter solstice, had marked the start of the year from Roman times, though 25 March is occasionally documented in the 11^th century. Sometimes the start of the year was reckoned as 24 September, the start of the so-called “western indiction” introduced by a monk, the venerable Bede (8^th century). After the Norman conquest, from 1087 to 1155 the English year began on 1 January, but from 1155 to 1751 the year began on 25 March. Before 1600, Scotland’s year began 24 March. Scotland began the year on 1 January in 1600. In 1752 the new year for England and colonies was also moved to 1 January.

934 – Owen of Strathclyde was once more at Æthelstan’s court along with the Welsh kings, but Constantine II was not.

1400 Archibald Douglas, 3^rd Earl of Douglas dies.

• Douglas 1036 2Stewart 2Ruthven 2Kinchin 2Jared 2Simmons 2Choate – Douglas 2Montgomerie 2Blair 2Cochrane 2Miller 2Simmons 2Choate – Douglas 2Hamilton 2Stewart 2Miller 2Simmons 2Choate – Douglas 2Carlyle 2Semple 2Montgomery 2Cochrane 2Miller 2Simmons 2Choat

1483 Henry VII Tudor of England At Rennes Cathedral on Christmas Day 1483, pledged to marry Edward IV’s York eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York Edward’s heir since the presumed death of her brothers, the Princes in the Tower. Henry’s grandsons include James 4^th King of Scots (clan Stewart) and the Master of Methven (cland Stewart).

King Henry VII holding a Tudor Rose, wearing collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, dated 1505, by unknown artist, National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 416).

1618 In Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland also discouraged observance of Christ’s mass. James VI (of Scotland, 1^st of England) commanded its celebration in 1618, however attendance at church was scant.

1647 Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War, England’s Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647. Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans.   Imagine the resentment from all classes with the end of Christmas! It would eventually doom the Republic.

1652 The book, The Vindication of Christmas (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of auld English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with “plow-boys” and “maidservants”, and carol singing.

1652 – Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (d. 1713) born.

1657 Worship as a Continuation of the Bishops’ wars, most recently begun with the riots of 1637 in Edinburgh. Christmas Day 1657. ‘I went to London with my wife to celebrate Christmas Day… Sermon ended, as [the minister] was giving us the holy sacrament, the chapel was surrounded with soldiers, and all the communicants and assembly surprised and kept prisoners by them, some in the house, others carried away… These wretched miscreants held their muskets against us as we came up to receive the sacred elements, as if they would have shot us at the altar.’ John Evelyn recorded, in Diary, receiving communion according to the 1604 Prayer Book rite. The 1604 book was finally outlawed by Parliament in 1645 to be replaced by the Directory of Public Worship, which was more a set of instructions than a prayer book. Following the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the establishment of the Commonwealth under Lord Protector Cromwell, the 1604 Prayer Book would not be reinstated until shortly after the restoration of the monarchy to England (1661).

1659 Celebration Christ’s Mass was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681. [No Christmas!]

1660 The Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 ended the 1647 Christmas ban, but many Puritan and Presbyterian clergymen still disapproved of Christmas celebration.

1665 – Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish songwriter (d. 1746) born.

1674 – Thomas Halyburton, Scottish theologian (d. 1712) born/

1681 Boston. The ban by the Pilgrims was revoked in 1681 by English governor Sir Edmund Andros, however it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.

1688 Ambleteuse France. James II, King of England, 7^th of Scotland, resumes flight, in frigate, arrives in France. Glorious Revolution. Tytler’s Britannica 215

Rochester. King James II of England and VII of Scotland stayed at this house as the guest of Sir Richard Head before embarking for France on the 25^th December 1688 when he finally left England.

openplaques.org – King JAMES II OF ENGLAND AND VII OF SCOTLAND STAYED AT THIS HOUSE AS THE GUEST OF SIR RICHARD HEAD BEFORE EMBARKING FOR FRANCE ON THE 25TH DECEMBER 1688 WHEN HE FINALY LEFT ENGLAND ABDICATION HOUSE.

1700 The Darien colony. Sometime in December. It is, however, only justice to King William II, to state, that though in the Darien affair he refused the Scots the justice which was unquestionably their due, he was nevertheless the only person in either kingdom who proposed, and was anxious to have carried into execution, an union between the kingdoms, as the only effectual means of preventing in future such subjects of jealousy and contention. But the prejudices of England as well as Scotland, rendered more inveterate by this unhappy quarrel,  disappointed the King’s wise and sagacious overture. (TG)

1776 Battle of Trenton, New Jersey, United States. One of the American artillery sections was commanded by Captain Alexander Hamilton. Captain William Washington and Lieutenant James Monroe were wounded in the battle, the only American officer casualties. Battle in the Streets of Trenton.

1832 Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Kirtland, Ohio (clans Huntley, Hamilton, Mackenzie, Mack of Inverness, Malcolm King of Scots), Doctrine and Covenants 87. Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls;

1839. Aberdeen and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Samuel Mulliner (b. 1809), and Alexander Wright (b. 1804), Scots, arrive as missionaries. [Ensign Feb. 1987]. Christmas morning Alexander awoke in a boarding house to find “my face and all over me brock out in large nots … I was all covered one of my eyes I could only see like mist I [k]new nothing what was the mater with me.” Frightened, he went to a druggist who immediately recognized Alexander’s ailment as smallpox, telling him he “could do nothing more.” A doctor he consulted was amazed to learn he had walked from Edinburgh in that condition and advised him to rest and take medication, but Alexander decided to push on, “pox or not,” to his family home.

Edinburgh in the 17th century

1843

Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present. From Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, 1843.

1875 – Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (b. 1851) died.

1936 After the Thin Man

Poster. Myrna ‘Loy’ Adele Williams daughter of Adelle Mae (née Johnson) and rancher David Franklin Williams, in nearby Radersburg. Her maternal grandparents were Swedish and Scottish.[ James Maitland “Jimmy” Stewart 1908-1997. Brigadier General. American actor, Scottish descent.

1947 Scrooge McDuck in “Christmas on Bear Mountain” (1947). Scrooge is a wealthy Scottish business magnate and tycoon.

Christmas on Bear Mountain comic book cover. Uncle of Donald Duck. Fictional clan McDuck.

1949 Whisky Galore! (released in the US as Tight Little Island) is a 1949 Ealing comedy film based on the novel Whisky Galore by Compton MacKenzie. Both the movie and the novel are based on the real-life 1941 shipwreck of the S.S. Politician near the island of Eriskay and the unauthorized taking of its cargo of whisky.

1950 – The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951. (Edward 1^st had stolen it over 600 years previously)

1969 The Reivers movie released. Border Reivers (Scots for ‘rob’) were raiders along the Scottish-England border from the 13^th century to the 18^th century. The Reivers was published in 1962 and won William Faulkner the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963, his last (book and prize). The Reivers’ plot is located in fictional Yoknapatawpha County Mississippi.

The Reivers poster. Name from Scots borders raiders.

1980 Mr. Krueger’s Christmas, allowed Stewart to fulfill a lifelong dream to conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir James Maitland “Jimmy” Stewart 1908-1997. Brigadier General. American actor, Scottish descent.

VHS cover for Mr. Krueger’s Christmas created by Brigham Young University for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and allowed Stewart to fulfill a lifelong dream to conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

1982 Miranda Raquel Masayon born. (clans Boyd, Campbell, Drummond, Fraser, Gordon, Graham, Kennedy, MacDonald, Montgomerie, Morton, Murray, Ogilvie, Ross)

25 december 2007 released. The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep science fiction movie released. How do you keep a secret this big?     Next to the Loch Ness Scotland, during World War Two, a boy finds an egg, which hatches into a bald headed chick like lizard. with web flippers for arms and feet, teeth in its beak, two eyes, neck, ribs and tail. The 12^th Medium Regiment Royal Artillery troops, in uniform, move in to defend the Loch Ness. The boy is Angus MacMorrow, the pet cook’s dog is Churchill. The chicken lizard paddle creature is named Crusoe. Like Jack and the Bean Stalk, which grows to the clouds overnight, Crusoe, eating fish in the fountain grows to the size of a dog, then wild boar, in but a few days. Then Crusoe is so big, he is let to roam wild in the loch, swimming or paddling on land as is convenient. Crusoe, grows as large as a horse, hence Water Horse, but really a water seal or walrus, without tusks. Well fed by fish in Loch Ness, Crusoe gets as big as a whale, and can be ridden bare back like a car sized eel.

Scenes for Water Horse shot in Scotland’s Ardkinglas estate on Loch Fyne. Loch Fyne is a sea (salt) water Loch off Firth of Clyde, extending 40 miles inland from the Sound of Bute, off of Argyll and Bute, in the west. Loch Ness is fresh water lake in the Scots highlands, and because of depth (755 feet), and surface area, (14,080 acres) it holds more fresh water than all other lakes in England and Warles combined.

2015   https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/the-christmas-spirit-3

“To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ,” Thomas S. Monson [Scots ancestry] has taught. That lesson is brought to life in this story of a young girl who reminds her preoccupied family what matters most this time of year and always. What will you do to stay focused on Jesus Christ this Christmas?

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