Boris Johnson has decided to allow 25 December celebrations go ahead this year, narrowly avoiding becoming the prime minister who cancelled Christmas for the second year in a row. Another man who knows how it feels to be accused of cancelling Christmas is Michael Chubb, the former head of events at Birmingham city council – and the legacy has not been short-lived. In 1998 Chubb inadvertently gave birth to one of the most pervasive media myths in the UK when he found himself at the centre of claims that the council rebranded its traditional December events programme to avoid offending non-Christians. Looking back 23 years on, Chubb is amazed that his team’s suggestion to promote two months of events in Birmingham city centre under the banner of “Winterval” continues to resonate. “We put it to the council, they liked the idea, and it didn’t seem necessary to explain to anyone why we did it,” he says, explaining that the programme covered everything from BBC Children in Need events to Diwali celebrations and Christmas parties. “That’s why the furore that happened afterwards was a surprise – maybe we were a little naive.” The story began when the Anglican bishop of Birmingham made some mildly critical comments about the Winterval branding in a message to local churches, suggesting Christianity was being downplayed by a council that was “embarrassed by faith”. These comments were picked up by a news agency, and almost every national newspaper – including the Guardian – subsequently ran short stories on the bishop’s intervention. What could have been a swiftly forgotten tale then took a life of its own. “The council that banned Christmas” became a regular reference in right-leaning outlets, popping up in columns and news stories about attacks on traditional British values for years to come. “It stunned me at first,” says Chubb. He insists he was so busy putting together the event that it was only the following year that he became aware of how far the story had spread. “It is because it was reported by so many people that it became a fact.” Chubb says he always attempted to promote events from different religions and cultures in one of the most diverse cities of the UK. “Everyone’s got their own festival – Diwali, Eid, Vaisakhi, Chinese new year – they’re each celebrated in their own way by their own community. No one festival should overpower the other. Each festival deserved its own communication strategy.” The Telegraph has run 61 stories referencing the term Winterval, the Mail has used it 78 times and the Sun 67. The saga also provided the basis for further claims about Birmingham, with the Mail claiming the following year that the city council wanted to “scrap Easter”. By 2004 the then Sun columnist Richard Littlejohn was stating that the city had banned Father Christmas from the Bull Ring shopping centre “in case he offends non-Christians” – something denied by all those involved. The news story about pen-pushing officials trying to erase Christmas has now become an annual event. Last month the Mail on Sunday ran a front-page story claiming civil servants were trying to “ban Christmas” by changing the language of a Covid vaccination advert because it would “offend minorities”. The term of attack has changed: in the 1990s these plots were blamed on “political correctness”, but now the word “woke” serves much the same purpose. Chubb, now 66 and living in Cardiff, says: “Ask yourself the question: why? What was the reason for falling on this one, what were they trying to achieve by putting thoughts into people’s minds? It’s to rile people, to make people take a stance and choose a team. It’s a bit like what’s happening at the moment in terms of politics.” But in terms of branding, Chubb is proud that the Winterval name is still talked about almost a quarter of a century later. “It bloody worked in terms of marketing.”