‘What’s next, are we going to cancel Santa?!’: Outrage as ‘bonkers’ museum bosses remove word ‘Christmas’ from their festive market in woke drive to make celebration more inclusive

• The Bowers Museum, in Barnard Castle, Durham, renamed it to Winter Market 

Woke bosses of a museum founded by the ancestors of the late Queen Mother have removed the word ‘Christmas’ from its festive market.

The Bowes Museum’s decision to rebrand its annual festive event to ‘Winter Market’ has been met with disbelief with it being alleged the change was made in a bid to pull in more visitors. 

Calls have been made for the Durham museum’s ‘bonkers’ decision to be reversed by BBC Antiques Road Trip expert David Harper who said they are deleting Christmas. 

The art gallery in Barnard Castle was founded by John Bowes in 1892 who was a distant relative of the Queen Mother, who was born Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

Her Late Majesty was patron of the museum from 1962 until her death in 2002. 

Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, Durham, has removed ‘Christmas’ from its festive event for it now to read ‘Winter Market’

Antiques expert David Harper has hit out at the change and claimed it was done in the hope to bring in more visitors 

Mr Harper claimed the museum was hoping to try and attract more people but was taking the joy out of Christmas. 

He told The Sun: ‘What’s next? Are we going to cancel Santa, the reindeer, children wearing Christmas hats?

‘Essentially, all you’ll be left with is a Wednesday market. This won’t stop until we stop it.

‘We need to nip this in the bud, take control and be a bit braver.’

The Cash in the Attic and Bargain Hunt expert said he could only imagine what the Queen Mother would have thought about the decision and that the founders would be spinning in their graves just a stone’s throw from the museum’s walls. 

However, the museum’s director Hannah Fox denied they had cancelled Christmas. 

She said: ‘We have a very popular seasonal programme of events of which the market is the centrepiece.

‘It’s fabulous and everyone is welcome, however they celebrate over the festive season.’

The art gallery was founded by ancestors of the late Queen Mother, whom herself was patron of  the museum from 1962 until her death in 2002 

Mr Harper ran a poll on his X page asking what Bowes Museum should call the market after they ‘cancelled’ the word Christmas. It attracted more than 300 votes with ‘Humbug Market’ receiving 66 per cent of the votes. 

People left comments underneath the poll with one person saying it was an ‘Xmas betrayal’ while another said it was an ‘absolute joke’. 

Another called for people to boycott the event, while a fourth said: ‘That is dreadful the question is WHY? and if I was around that area I wouldn’t bother with a new name because I for one wouldn’t be going to it.’

Conservative Durham County councillor wrote: ‘Wow! I loved going to the Christmas market. It made you all glowing inside with that word. I wonder how many will come along now.’ 

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