Myths about Christmas

In the Daily Telegraph of 22nd December 2006, Christopher Howse declared himself as a “wise man bearing the gift of truth”.
Angela Murray has distilled what he wrote.

Mistletoe was banned from Churches
Since when? Steve Roud points out in his learned The English Year that there is no evidence of mistletoe being banished by law from churches, nor even that it was used in “pagan” ceremonies in England.

Decorations should come down on 6th January
Should they? Until the 19th century, people kept decorations of holly, ivy, box, yew, laurel and mistletoe until 2nd February, Candlemas Day, the end of the Christmas season, 40 days after the birth of Jesus. Only since the reign of Queen Victoria have decorations usually been taken down on Twelfth Night, 6th January.

“We three kings of Orient are …. “
Really? Matthew 2:1 is the source. Translations vary. The 1611 version says “there came wise men from the east”. The Good News Bible (English version 1976) records: “some men who studied the stars came from the east.” Were they kings? Not certain. Were there three men? More likely, because three gifts are described: incense (signifying Christ’s divinity, also formally burnt in divine worship among the Jews, and in the pagan world, too); gold (representing royalty); and myrrh (for the future sufferings of Christ who was offered wine mixed with myrrh to drink on the Cross, and whose body was anointed with myrrh and aloes before his burial).

It is illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day
No longer. An Act proclaimed on June 8, 1647, declared that “forasmuch as the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and other Festivals commonly called Holy-Days, have been heretofore superstitiously used and observed, be it Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, that the said Holy Days be no longer observed”. Mince pies were not singled out. The anti-Christmas laws of the interregnum lapsed at the restoration.
Nowell means “good news”
Not exactly. Nowell is a word fraught with misunderstanding. It comes through Old French from the Latin natalem, “birthday”, referring to the birth of Christ. It does not come from nouvelle, the French for “new”. Nowell was used centuries ago in English as an exclamation of joy, not just in carols (where it survives) but in circumstances unconnected with Christmas (as in the welcoming home of Henry V from Agincourt). Only in the 19th century did nowell come to be used as noel: a synonym for “carol”.

Good King Wenceslas looked out
“Good” yes, but did he look out? The Feast of Stephen is Boxing Day, and Wenceslas did exist. Known as Vaclav to the Bohemians whom he ruled, Wenceslas was murdered by his brother in 929. He is the patron saint of the Czech Republic, so there is no quarrel with the adjective “good”. Much of the rest of the concept emanates from John Mason Neale who published the carol’s lyrics in 1853 to go with a mediaeval tune he had come across. Though the historical basis for the words is lacking, Howse suggests that it is unkind, as some hymnologists have, to call Neale’s verses “doggerel”.