What was Winterval? How a noble idea sparked the urban myth that 'Christmas is cancelled'

Mike Chubb, the authority’s head of events, had envisioned an array of celebrations that joined up several festivals and put on extra events to entice shoppers and cut down on spending by reducing infrastructure.

He called this collection of events Winterval.

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But what started as a well-meaning and prudent idea took on a life of its own and became a regularly-used example of political correctness going too far.

With lights beginning to be put up for festivities this autumn, here is the story behind one of the great urban myths.

What was Winterval?

Mr Chubb and his team at the council had been charged in 1997 with creating a media strategy to cover off a host of autumn and winter festivals, both religious and secular.

Winterval covered: "Forty-one days and nights of activity that ranged from BBC Children in Need, to the Christmas Lights Switch On, to a Frankfurt Christmas Market, outdoor ice rink, Aston Hall by Candlelight, Diwali, shopping at Christmas, world class theatre and arts plus, of course, New Year's Eve with its massive 100,000 audience."

To be clear, Winterval was a marketing campaign to advertise all of the events and Christmas events, a major part of the branding, were added to the calendar - and not renamed.

The events were held that year and then expanded upon for 1998 when the local press got hold of it and approached the city’s Christian leaders for a response.

Rev Mark Santer, Bishop of Birmingham, said at the time: "I confess I laughed out loud when our city council came out with Winterval as a way of not talking about Christmas.”

Archdeacon of Aston John Barton added: "It is a totally unnecessary example of political correctness to avoid sensitivities people simply do not have.”

It went further, with all manner of tabloids and broadsheets running with a story of controversy, political correctness going too far, and Christmas being cancelled.

The term stuck around for much longer than just 1997 and 1998, and a decade later Mr Chubb was moved to pen a full response to his intentions with the fuss still having not died down.

“Political correctness was never the reasoning behind Winterval, but yes, it was intended to be inclusive—which is no bad thing to my mind—and a brand to which other initiatives could be developed as part of the Winterval offer, in order to sell the city at a time when all cities are competing against each other for the seasonal trade,” he wrote in 2008.

Nonetheless, the myth lingered on - with the Guardian reporting in 2011 that it had been mentioned more than 100 times in print media, while at least 15 articles had said that Christmas had been renamed Winterval to avoid offending other faiths. It was also falsely reported that Father Christmas had been banned from Birmingham’s Bull Ring shopping centre.

“Andrew in Erith was far from alone when he insisted that you can’t even celebrate Christmas anymore,” LBC’s James O’Brien said in his book, How to Be Right, about an infamous call to his show in 2010.

Andrew said: “You can’t celebrate it and offend other people. You have to call it Winterval now.”

He added: “Why can’t we just call it Christmas? I just want to celebrate Christmas as a Christian festival”

James responded: “For a couple of years, before the millennium, Birmingham City Council decided to save a few quid by tying together a load of things under the banner, Winterval. Short for Winter Festival.

“It was a well meaning attempt to create a festival season that would bring business to Birmingham for a much longer period than just Christmas.”

James went on to tell Andrew that all of the promotions featured Christmas and there was nothing to diminish the festival or persuade anyone to call it by a different name.

But it didn’t stop with LBC. The Mail was forced into an apology in 2011, a year later, when columnist Melanie Phillips lamented the rise of “Winterval”.

An amendment read: “A previous version of this article stated that Christmas has been renamed in various places Winterval. Winterval was the collective name for a season of public events, both religious and secular, which took place in Birmingham in 1997 and 1998. We are happy to make clear that Winterval did not rename or replace Christmas.”

Mr Chubb has said more recently that the myth is still being heard today, that he created an event to avoid offending non-Christians.

He said in 2021: “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.”