There's a word that has become shorthand for 'the war on Christmas' with a side of 'political correctness gone mad': Winterval. It began in November 1998. Newspapers furiously accused Birmingham City Council of renaming Christmas when it ran festive ev...

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There's a word that has become shorthand for 'the war on Christmas' with a side of 'political correctness gone mad': Winterval.

It began in November 1998. Newspapers furiously accused Birmingham City Council of renaming Christmas when it ran festive events under the name 'Winterval'. The council's then-head of events Mike Chubb explains the true meaning of Winterval.

2018 update: There’s a Winterval-themed riff on the Christmas sweater available at theallusionist.org/merch, for all your multidenominational festivewear needs.

READ ALL ABOUT IT:

Politico: a short history of the War on Christmas.
Time: a brief history of the War on Christmas.
Salon: the right-wing invented the War on Christmas - and Christmas has always been commercial.
A quick rundown of Christians banning Christmas.
Kevin Arscott is the Winterval historian: his book, The Winterval Myth: A Festive Tale of Bad Journalism documents all the instances of Winterval being misreported. Here's the TL;DR version in the Guardian; here's the Daily Mail's apology in 2011.
The excellent Oliver Burkeman says political correctness works. Here he is refuting Christmas controversies such as Winterval in 2006, and the War on Christmas in 2012.
One casualty of the war on the War on Christmas - anyone need a lift to the airport?
The Massachusetts Bay Colony vs Christmas.
Oliver Cromwell vs Christmas, especially those pesky carols.
The Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving vs Christmas.
Did King Herod really order the execution of all those baby boys?
Was Jesus really born on 25 December? No, probably not.
Did the Ancient Romans invent Christmas?
Ten countries that banned Christmas.
Waterford's annual Winterval is going strong.
As is Distresstivus in Florida.
The transcript of this episode is at theallusionist.org/transcripts/winterval.

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
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CREDITS:

Mike Chubb runs the Ideas Factory events company. Hire him at theideasfactory.biz.
The music is by Martin Austwick; I particularly like the versions of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' and 'Little Drummer Boy' you can hear in the show.
This episode was produced by me, with Cheeka Eyers and Devon Taylor.
Find me at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow or twitter.com/helenzaltzman.