Christmas Past

'Tis the Season to be Jolly' by Marion Watson

Christmas is always associated with hearty eating. At a time when most people's diet was very limited and the poor were often very hungry it presented a time of joyous celebration with plenty of food and a chance to store up some fat for the lean days ahead as the winter went on and food preserves were depleted. At first the Christian Church was opposed to any celebration of Christ's birth, preferring to mark his conception on 25th March. This was partly to avoid various pagan celebrations and also the Roman festival of Kalens, which took place around the time of the winter solstice. So there is no mention of any celebration of Christmas anywhere until the fourth century and no mention until 597 that it came to England - thanks to St Augustine. Within a short time it was a popular day for mass baptisms and, with the Church gradually absorbing the pagan festivals, it also became a popular day to marry, since everyone was free from work. However during the Cromwellian period (1649 - 1660) Christmas was once again celebrated in style and M. Misson writes: "Every family against Christmas makes a famous Pye, which they call Christmas Pye... the Composition of this Pasty is a most learned Mixture of Neats-tongues, Chicken, Eggs, Sugar, Raisins, Lemon and Orange Peel, various kinds of Spices etc."

Originally there were three Christmas morning masses, at midnight, dawn and full daylight. However the midnight one was not always very devout with eating, drinking and dancing in church. Indeed, such was the behaviour that midnight mass was abolished in various countries, including Britain, and the present practice is not a continuous tradition but a revival.

Turkey was first introduced in 1518 and by 1543 was well established, especially in Norfolk and Suffolk from where they were slowly walked to London, grazing on the way, to arrive in time for the festive season! Before the arrival of the turkey the wealthy had boar's head, which came to us from Scandinavian countries where it was served at the festival of Yule to celebrate the Sun Boar, sacred to the heroes of Valhalla. Beautifully presented with an apple or orange in its mouth it was often carried into the great hall at the head of a procession to the accompaniment of trumpets. An alternative to boar's head was swan or peacock, the latter carefully skinned with the feathers intact. Once the bird had been stuffed with fruits, nuts and spices and cooked it was re-wrapped in its plumage and presented at table decorated with gold leaf. The less well off had capon or goose. Few people had ovens and right up to this century there was a practice of taking the bird to the local bake house to be cooked. There are still people who recall collecting it and can remember the distinctive smell of the charred label, which identified their particular roast.

Mince pies were originally oval shaped to resemble the crib and were savoury containing minced mutton. Only from the late seventeenth century did sweet ingredients, such as sugar, nuts, apples and dried fruit, begin to be introduced. Suet is now the only remnant from the original minced meat. Some Christmas pies contained such things as tongue, geese, turkey, duck, rabbit, blackbird, pigeon, partridge and other game birds. It was thought that to eat a mince pie on each of the twelve days of Christmas ensured good luck for the next year, but to refuse one would lead to bad luck.

Christmas (or Plum) Pudding was not introduced until about 1670. Before that Plum Porridge, or Pottage, was the fashion. A mixture of beef and mutton in broth, the pudding was thickened with breadcrumbs dried fruit and flavoured with wine and spices. It was served with the first course and eaten with a spoon. Over the years the mixture was gradually made thicker and the meat left out to give us our modern pudding, again with suet as a remnant of the original meat. The first Sunday in Advent is known as "Stir-Up Sunday" because the Collect (church prayer) for that particular Sunday begins "Stir up we beseech thee.." and was said to serve as a reminder that it was time the puddings were made if they were to mature in time for the great day. In fact, some believed that a pudding made one year should not be eaten until the next, giving it full time to mature. Puddings were tied up in a cloth and boiled to give the traditional shape we see on Christmas cards. They were often hung from the rafters where air could circulate round them and keep them fresh.

Our Christmas traditions are often ancient reaching back to pagan times. These include bringing in greenery, feasting and giving confectionery. Sweets were given at Roman Kalens and later on New Year's day, as the French still do. Nuts and things made from them are traditional. Marzipan (the French 'marce pain', which gave us 'march pane') is made from ground almonds and was used to make sweets, such as marzipan fruits and stuffed dates, as well as the marzipan layer put under the royal icing on the traditional Christmas cake.

Frumenty is an old dish still eaten in some places first thing on Christmas morning and last thing at night. It is made from crushed wheat, broth, almonds and eggs and can be served either with mutton or venison or eaten on its own sweetened with sugar.

Festive drinks are almost too numerous to mention. A traditional Devon dish is Egg Hot, which is hot cider blended with eggs and spices. Lambs wool is made from ale, baked apples, sugar, spices, eggs and cream served with little pieces of bread. In some places this is served in a wassail (drinking) bowl and is carried round the town and used to bless the apple trees in the hope of a good harvest next year. In the Shetland Isles they drink Whipcoll, which is a mixture of brandy beaten with eggs, sugar and cream. Mulled wine is a countrywide favourite, sometimes served to carol singers and very welcome on a cold winter's night.

In short, almost everything we eat and drink at Christmas is linked to tradition evolving over many centuries. Perhaps, as we enjoy our (increasingly commercial) festive goodies today, it is worth pondering their original meaning and wondering, too, how Christmas will change as the present century passes.

And What They Have Said About Christmas

At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.
Thomas Tusser 1524?-1580.
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.

"I have often thought", says Sir Roger, "it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of winter".
Joseph Addison 1672-1719.
The Spectator

Heap on more wood! The wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We'll keep our Christmas merry still.
Sir Walter Scott 1771-1832.
Marmion

I am a poor man, but I would gladly give ten shillings to find out who sent me the insulting Christmas card received this morning!
George and Weedon Grossmith 1847-1912 and 1854-1919.
The Diary of a Nobody

Let's dance and sing and make good cheer
For Christmas comes but once a year.
G MacFarren before 1580

T'was the night before Christmas when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring - not even a mouse:
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.
Clement C Moore 1799-1863.
A Visit from St Nicholas

Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like washing day! A smell like an eating-house and a pastry-cook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that. That was the pudding . . . like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in a half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedecked with Christmas holly stuck into the top.
Charles Dickens 1812-1870.
A Christmas Carol

Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum,
And said, "What a good boy am I!"

A traditional nursery rhyme but it is also said to refer to Jack Horner who worked for Thomas Cromwell during the dissolution of the monasteries. The last Abbot of Glastonbury, Abbot Whiting, sent Horner to Henry VIII with a large pie as a Christmas present. Upon investigation he discovered that it contained the deeds of twelve Somerset manors, intended as a bribe to Henry in an attempt to save the monastery. Reputedly, Horner helped himself to the deeds to the Manor of Mells, where he lived until he was eighty and which has remained in his family ever since