Highland Yule Traditions

[Peter Crowe]

Certainly not wishing to dispute the fact about 1957 but, I was working in the North East of Scotland in 1961 in a relatively large firm and Christmas was certainly worked by everybody in the firm except for one worker, an English man and it appears that he always took Christmas off. At that time in this area Hogmanay and New Year's Day was the day of celebration. In my family Christmas was not Celebrated until some time in the 1960's and started off as a watered down version of Hogmanay. Of course, Scotland being quite diverse I accept in other areas and within individual families Christmas could have been celebrated much earlier than this.

I did some further research (Google is your friend) and I was out by a year. Christmas only became a public holiday in Scotland in 1958. What you state rings true of what my father's side of the family (who remained in Macduff, Banff and Gardenstown) did in the early 60's. However, at that same time having a family Christmas party (holiday) was an established practice for most people in west-central Scotland (Lanarkshire and Glasgow City) from speaking with my late mother's side of the family. When i was a child (late 60's and early 70's) I only ever remember it as a work day for my father (when he was away at sea as a merchant navy officer), and my great-uncle who was an Inspector in the Glasgow police.