What was Xmas like before the Victorians?

 As most people are aware the so called Christmas traditions we follow each year were actually only created during the Victorian era,. Xmas imagery and festive staples like Xmas trees, cards, Xmas dinner, carol singing and even marking it with a bank holiday only started in the mid-1800s. So what happened in England before then?

 

Father Xmas has always existed in some form or other though not necessarily with that name. Like some mysterious fantasy character he has been known by many names over the centuries- King Frost, Father Winter, Odin, Jul, St Nicholas and several others – and yet he always seems to be a figure who distributes gifts. Where he supposedly obtains these gifts is another matter that not even the Victorians had an explanation for.

 Before there was the Christian religion the day that tended to be acknowledged rather than the 25th was the midwinter solstice on 21st December (aka the shortest day). Neolithic people are believed to have celebrated this by eating large amounts of beef or pork, fermented milk and mead. So by the 25th they’d probably had enough anyway!  They also gave presents though the most popular ones would nowadays be kept in the evidence room your local police station. Daggers made of bronze were popular gifts to replace your old flint or stone items. Historians believe they might also have had songs which would celebrate the Sun hoping it would be back before too long. Our Xmas songs of course are always on about snow as if it’s a good thing, forgetting the icy roads and slippery conditions.

The Romans had a week long festival that lasted from 17th to 23rd December and was called Saturnalia after Saturn, chief of the Roman gods. Here the tables were turned and slaves were served at meals by their masters whom they were also allowed to criticise. Probably not advisable though as their masters had the other fifty-one weeks to take their revenge. People did give small gifts and amongst the `luxury` foods on offer were dormice, snails, and figs. Yum, I bet the public lavatories were busy that week.

In medieval times the holiday expanded further and now ran typically from 24th December to 6th January, or Twelfth Night ,which is when they exchanged presents. This is probably were the twelve days of Christmas originated. Early forms of decorations included holly, ivy, and mistletoe though not so much for decoration as to ward off evil spirits. It was around this time that the name `Christmas' was first coined; historians have dated the earliest reference in England as being in 1038. The name was coined from `Christ’s Mass`. 

The Roman tradition of servants becoming masters for a time was continued and your menu involved such filling delights as boar’s head and strong ale spiked with brandy.  Its safe to say nobody was `on call` during this period. Someone was selected to be the Lord of Misrule who would oversee the events with a mischievous flourish.

Maybe the Middle Ages was so named because people ate so much. By then Christmas had become a filling festival whose food included the likes of roast peacock, swan, oysters, salmon, oranges, cakes, fruit custards, figs, and dates. On the drinks menu were cider, ale, or wine (sweet or spiced). As if there wasn’t enough washing up to be done, the table cloth was changed after each course while you would be entertained by jesters, acrobats, and potentially irritating minstrels. The only people who seemed to work were watchmen who were paid to ensure things remained inside the law.

In Elizabethan England public holidays were formalised for the first time and fasting at Advent was introduced. People still gave gifts, even the poor who would give gloves or fruit. Tudor festivities remained as riotous as previous times. One odd tradition was the King of the Bean in which a bean was baked into a cake and whoever got the slice which contained it became the King and everyone had to imitate them. This only lasted for the day incidentally. There was also dancing and a lot of sugar was consumed so not that different to now really.

Looking at these earlier versions of Xmas it seems the Victorians sanitised it to some extent, creating traditions more orientated towards the family and decoration rather than crazy over indulgence and sloshing down gallons of mulled wine.  Gift  giving moved to Xmas Day and thus took place after the meal. Though the festive feast was still larger than an average meal the excess of previous centuries of gorging was reduced. That’s not so say it was all gentile.

There were still unusual traditions some of which sound exactly like the behaviour you might expect students today to indulge in. For example, Snap Dragon involved putting fruit on a plate, dousing it in alcohol, setting it on fire, and then trying to pick out the goodies without injuring yourself. Young scholars returning home after a long semester of study would shoot peas from their carriage at innocent passers by. On Christmas day or the day after, the boys of a village would slaughter a wren with a stick, mount it to a broomstick, and march from door-to-door asking for money or food.

So not everything the Victorians came up with has lasted and that includes some of their more macabre  Christmas cards. Some of these were hardly what we would deem appropriate as they depicted frightening clowns, dead birds or dogs carrying guns. Just the sort of things that say “Merry Christmas”