by Jo Beverley
This movement gathered steam and reached full speed in the 1830s with Dickens, first with Pickwick, and then with A Christmas Carol.
So, what was Christmas like through most of our Regency period? My reading suggests that it was still celebrated in many local, rustic ways, but that among the gentry it was a mostly religious festival marked by a good meal with friends and charity to the poor.
In Jane Austen’s Emma, we are told, "At Christmas everybody invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather." Many of the traditions we now associate with it had been practiced in the past, but were now considered rustic. The "false refinement" referred to above.
William Holland, a rural parson, kept a diary from 1799 to 1818. His records of Christmas show a pattern. Apart from his presiding over two or more services in his different local parishes, he and his family were woken early in the morning by musicians (wassailers – see below), then held a kind of open house in their kitchen for various local people who were perhaps charity cases, as well as hosting a meal for friendly neighbors.
Charity was an important feature of the day for Holland, and it seems to have been traditional for him to give a gift to each person attending service. Later in his period this was wheat, perhaps because of the high price of wheat then. Christmas Eve was also a time for widespread charity to the poor.
It is hard, however, to decide quite how most people celebrated Christmas, for perhaps some did hold to older ways like Squire Bracebridge and, particularly after 1815, some would have been in the forefront of the Christmas revival. From Jane Austen above, we have "silk and gold paper", which suggests decorations, and the "Christmas fire" which might have been a Yule log.
So, here are some of the Christmas traditions that might have been present in some places at Christmas in the Regency.
One feature that crops up often in many sources is the traditional use of greenery, and this seems to have been retained by many. The traditional greenery of Christmas, going back to the middle ages, comprised rosemary, bay, holly, laurel, and mistletoe. Along with the aspects of fire and light in the darkest days, evergreens were either fertility symbols, symbols of eternal life, or both.
A poem from 1825 goes as follows.
"Bring me a garland of holly,
Rosemary, ivy, and bays;
Gravity's nothing but folly,
Till after the Christmas Day."
1825 is after the regency, but Louis Simond, a traveler in England in 1810 noted the greenery in all the cottages at Christmas, so it was a custom among the simpler people. It was, however, apparently considered unlucky to bring greenery into the house before Christmas Eve, so this would have been a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day ceremony for those who observed it.
Mistletoe, of course, was the other traditional plant with roots back into the Dark Ages and Druid magic.
This poem is from December 1826
The Mistletoe.
Sweet emblem of returning peace
The heart's full gush and love's release
Spirits in human fondness flow
And greet the pearly mistletoe.
Many a maiden's cheek is red
By lips and laughter thither led;
And fluttering bosoms come and go
Under the Druid mistletoe
Dear is the memory of a theft
When love and youth and joy are left;--
The passion's blush, the rose's glow,
Accept the Cupid mistletoe
Oh! Happy tricksome time of mirth
Giv'n to the stars of sky and earth!
May all the best of feeling know,
The custom of the mistletoe.
Spread out the laurel and the bay,
For chimney piece and window gay:
Scour the brass gear -- a shining row,
And holly place with mistletoe.
Married and single, proud and free,
Yield to the season, trim with glee:
Time will not stay -- he cheats us so --
A kiss? -- 'tis gone -- the mistletoe.
The last line refers to the custom of plucking a berry every time a kiss was stolen beneath the kissing bough. Once the berries were gone, the practice was over.
The earlier mistletoe bough was simply a collection of branches tied together with ribbons and hung from the ceiling. By Victorian times, however, it had become a complex construction. Five circles of wire were joined together to form a globe, and evergreens were bound around the wires. Apples were hung in the center and there could also be candles fixed. A large bunch of mistletoe was hung beneath.
It could also be decorated with paper flowers. As there would be few flowers available in December in England, paper flowers might have been popular Christmas decorations.
I've not found any mention of an actual Yule log in a regency source, though as I said, it's possible that Jane Austen's "Christmas fire" referred to it. Most Regency fireplaces would not be big enough for a real Yule log, which was brought in on Christmas Eve and lit, and was expected to last through the twelve days of Christmas. It was lit from a piece of last year's log and is a clear remnant from the pre-Christian festival of Yule, the midwinter ceremony of fire and light. As we can see from Austen, however, the connection of Christmas with a roaring fire was alive and well.
Candles link into this. There was a tradition of a Christmas candle that was lit on Christmas Eve and was supposed to last throughout Christmas Day. Again, this is not something I've seen specific reference to in a Regency text, though I used it in the story, A Gift of Light.
Snapdragon was one of those good old traditions -- even if it is one that would be banned today as highly dangerous! Raisins were soaked in brandy in a large shallow bowl. The lights were turned out, and the brandy lit. People had to try to grasp a raisin and eat it without burning themselves. I gather speed is the key. Don't try this at home!
And what of Christmas carols? They don't seem to have been popular in the Regency. There certainly are ones that predate the period, but if sung at all in the Regency it was in church as hymns. The other sort of singing was the wassail, where groups would go around to houses singing what were usually frank begging songs, hoping for some food, some drink, and some money.
A variant on this was the mummers, an ancient tradition. Groups of lower class men dressed up in traditional costumes to sing or perform a short play, again hoping for money. Some of the plays were traditional, and perhaps went back to the middle ages, but they were also generally updated with recent heroes such as General Wolfe and Nelson.
I use the mummers in a Christmas story available separately -- A Mummers' Play. The heroine uses the mummers as a way to invade the hero's house to get revenge.
Here is one description of these traditions in Whitehaven, Cumberland during the Regency.
"The comedians, of which there are many companies, parade the streets and ask at almost every door if the mummers are wanted. They are dressed in the most grotesque fashion; their heads adorned with high paper caps, gilt and spangled, and their bodies with ribbons of various colours, while St. George and the Prince are armed with ten swords. The "mysterie" ends with a song, and afterwards a collection is made." The "mysterie" these groups performed was Alexander and the King of Egypt. (Whose son is Saint George, an almost essential character in these mumming plays.)
And that might be connected to one English Christmas tradition that was present in the Regency and is still alive today – the Christmas pantomime. The pantomime usually opened on Boxing Day. Joseph Grimaldi, the famous clown who lived from 1779 to 1837, regularly performed in one at Drury Lane, and Astley’s Amphitheater also usually had a special Christmas spectacular.
However it was celebrated, Christmas in the Regency was Christmastide, which is the period from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night, and Twelfth Night itself seems to have been more celebrated than Christmas.
Twelfth Night is January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, and the official
end of Christmas.
On Epiphany Eve, men would gather round a tree with cider and guns. In an obviously ancient ceremony, they would drink to the tree and fire the guns to drive away evil spirits and promote the vigor of the trees. Horn-blowing was an alternative to firing guns. They also sometimes lit fires and tended them through the night. (It all sounds like an excuse for a rollicking all-male party, to me!)
The day and night of the 6th – Twelfth Night – was a time for masks and playacting. Cakes were part of this day, not Christmas.
This is from a report by a Regency traveler. "The Confectioners of London are famous for the elegance and size of their Twelfth Day cakes: for some days previously to this period, their shops are decorated with a great variety of them, made of different shapes, and with various devices upon them: some weigh many hundred pounds."
They were covered with coloured sugar in fanciful designs, and they contained a bean and a pea. The man who found the bean would become king for the night, and the woman who found the pea would become queen. I have no idea what happened if the wrong sex found the bean or pea! There are variants of this wherein the king and queen could choose a partner for the night, which could provide a situation for a romance.
Another similar Twelfth Night tradition was for the ladies to pick a man’s name from a hat, and he would be her partner for the night.
At the end of Twelfth Night, all the decorations were taken down and the greenery burned or else the house risked bad luck. That was the end of Christmas. Until the next time.
Of course the things that were not present in the Regency are Santa Claus/Father Christmas, reindeer-drawn sleighs and toy-making elves. Some members of the royal family had brought over the German tradition of the Christmas tree, but it didn't become popular until the reign of Victoria, when the London Illustrated News published a picture of her, Albert, and their young children around their tree. It was a small tree on a table, and that was the norm in most British households for a long time. It had candles, which would seem very dangerous, but the tradition was to light them on Christmas Eve and sing a carol. Then they were extinguished.
SOME SEASONAL RECIPES
Many Christmas recipes are shaped by the season. Fresh fruit of any sort would be rare in Britain in the past, so dried fruits are a staple.
Gingerbread
This was a Christmas treat. Here's a Regency recipe, if you want to have a go. Not your usual gingerbread. In fact, literally bread with ginger. (A penny loaf was a normal sized loaf, but I can't be more precise than that because it was the size of loaf a person could buy for a penny, so it varied according to the price of flour. As for the moulding, printing -- stamping with a design? -- and drying, you're on your own.)
"Into a pound of almonds, blanched and pounded, grate a penny white loaf; sift and beat them together; to the mixture add an ounce of ginger scraped fine, and of liquorice and aniseed in powder, of each a quarter of an ounce; pour in two or three spoonfuls of rose water, and make the whole into a paste with half a pound of sugar: mould and roll it; print it, and dry it in a stove."
The book adds, "Some make gingerbread of treacle, citron, lemon, and orange-peel, with candied ginger, coriander, and caraway seeds, mixed up with as much flour as will make it into a paste."
Sugar-plums
These were connected with Christmas, but have fallen out of favour. These days people sometimes think they were plums, but they were only plum shaped. They were formed of a paste of dried fruits and spices with no fixed recipe and covered with a sugar crust that could be quite hard. Cardamom
was a popular seasoning, as was caraway.
One Regency recipe book offers these ways to color the white sugar.
"A Beautiful green for this and for other purposes of confectionary may be obtained either from spinach or beet leaves, by first pounding them well in a mortar in order to express the juice, and then boiling in a water-bath, by placing the cup containing it in a stew pan of water over the fire, to take off its rawness. Yellow is easily obtained by a little saffron; and a red sufficiently good from boiling water poured over beet-root. Where a finer red is wanted, five grains of cochineal, boiled gently with half a dram of cream of tartar in a tea-cupful of water, for about twenty minutes, with the addition of a bit of alum not larger than a pin's head, will render it very beautiful. The colours will, in general, answer better by being mixed with a weak solution of the gum, and are to be put on with the last coat."
Mince Pies
These are still a British staple. I'll give a period recipe and then my own. Readers in North America might have trouble finding suet, but a good butcher can provide some and grate or grind it for you. Try not to use the powdered kind. It doesn't give quite the same result. You'll need either a mincer or a food processor, or a lot of time and strength.
The addition of hard boiled eggs is a surprise! Mountain wine was probably "mountain Malaga" a rich, sweet wine.
"Mince sufficiently small two pounds and a half of fine fresh beef suet, eight eggs boiled hard, three ounces of blanched sweet almonds, a pound and a half of stoned raisins, and half a dozen of fine apples; mix up with them two pounds and a half of picked and cleansed currants, a pound and a quarter of the finest powdered sugar, an ounce of finely beaten cinnamon, half an ounce of pounded nutmeg, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves and mace beaten together, with half a pint of the best French brandy, a gill of mountain wine, a little fresh lemon peel finely shredded, and some candied citron, lemon, orange, and angelica.
For the pastry. Make a fine paste with one pound of butter rubbed into two pounds of flour, and half a pound rolled in; fill the pans in the usual manner, and bake them in a moderate oven. If the mince meat is intended to be kept, the candied sweetmeats, and even the currants, need not be added till wanted for making up the pies."
My recipe, which is actually approximate. Mincemeat is not a precise science! I make it in October so it can mature. I only make mince pies in December and up to Twelfth Night. Then no more until next year.
Equal amounts of currants, raisins, and sultanas. I use a pound of each because I make a large quantity, so the rest of the quantities are to match.
1 pound of apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks.
Half a pound of mixed candied peel.
Half a pound of shredded suet.
Half a pound of sugar, either brown or white with a bit of treacle/molasses.
The grated rind and juice of a lemon and an orange.
Half a teaspoonful of nutmeg
Half a teaspoonful of ginger
A quarter teaspoonful of cinnamon
About a cup of booze. This is according to preference, but is essential if you're storing it. I use a cup of rum.
Stir it all together in a big bowl and then feed through your mincer or food processor so it's a mush. Store in one or more lidded containers and put in a cool place.
This will be a fairly stiff paste, so when making the pies or tarts you need to add a little liquid -- say a teaspoonful to a small mince tart. I add rum or brandy, but you can add plain water or orange juice.
In my opinion, the best way to eat a mince tart is still a little warm from the oven with stiffly whipped cream. Gently ease off the top crust, put a spoonful of cream in there. Put the lid back on and enjoy!
Toasted Cheese.
This isn't particularly a Christmas recipe, but if you've explored the Regency period at all you might have seen that they were very fond of toasted cheese for supper, even having lovely silver dishes in which to keep it warm.
This is a period recipe.
4oz of firm cheese, grated. (I find red cheddar in North America has a flavor which is different to any English cheese, so I recommend using old white cheddar.)
3 tbsp milk,
Mustard, English if possible.
Two slices of thick toast, using good bread of course. You can use French or Italian bread though it’s not quite authentic.
Melt the cheese in the milk in a heav
y pan, stirring over gentle heat. When it’s a thick consistency, season to taste. Re-heat to just below boiling. Put the toast in a suitably sized heat-proof dish and pour the cheese sauce over it. Put under boiler until it bubbles and browns. Serve immediately, preferably with English beer.
Toasted cheese was often called Welsh Rarebit or Rabbit, but my family’s recipe for that is a bit different.
Toast a slice of bread on one side only.
Grate 2 oz firm, flavorful cheese (being from Lancashire, that is preferred.) Add ¼ cup grated onion (or to taste. I like onion.)
Add ½ cup fresh breadcrumbs.
(This can all be done in the food processor. Slice cheese, chop onions, and tear bread into chunks, then whirl a bit.)
Add milk until there’s a soft paste, and salt and pepper to taste. If you don’t care to taste at this stage, be moderate with the salt, but generous with the freshly ground pepper.
It’s good to let it stand an hour or so at this point, and then you might have to add a little more milk, especially if the bread was a bit stale.