--- --- # When Fidel Castro Canceled Santa Claus  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 6, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 6, 2015 12:00 PM UTC For most of the Western world, the so-called holiday season ended about a week ago, as New Year’s Day brought to a close a few weeks full of religious holidays, gift-giving and days off from work. But for decades, despite its ties to Catholicism, Cuba marked Jan. 6 — the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as Three Kings’ Day — as the central focus of the gift-giving season, instead of Christmas. Here’s [how TIME explained, in 1959](http://time.com/vault/issue/1959-10-19/page/48/), how that came to be: --- > “” --- In 1969, Castro [cancelled Christmas](http://time.com/vault/issue/1969-11-07/page/44/) altogether, so that celebrations wouldn’t get in the way of the sugar harvest. Cuba was officially an atheist nation and the Christmas ban lasted until December of 1997\. In anticipation of a visit by Pope John Paul II that was planned for January of 1998, Castro [declared](http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/15/castro.christmas/) that, for that year only, Christmas would be a national holiday. The change, however, stuck. **_Read TIME’s full coverage of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Cuba, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Clash of Faiths](http://time.com/vault/issue/1998-01-26/spread/28/) Feast of the Epiphany: Why Cubans Gave Gifts on This Day, Not X-Mas ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3652532/cuba-epiphany-feast-christmas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3652532/cuba-epiphany-feast-christmas/"},"headline":"When Fidel Castro Canceled Santa Claus","datePublished":"2015-01-06T12:00:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:14:49.906Z","description":"For decades, Cubans gave gifts on Three Kings' Day on Jan. 6 and not on Christmas in December","url":"https://time.com/3652532/cuba-epiphany-feast-christmas/","keywords":["faith","christmas","Cuba topic","pope","Castro"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3652532/cuba-epiphany-feast-christmas/","name":"When Fidel Castro Canceled Santa Claus"}}]}] ```