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Archive for the ‘Holiday’ Category

Happy Christmas, Everyone

Posted in Holiday, jane austen, Regency Christmas Traditions, tagged on December 25, 2007| 2 Comments »

This illustration was made over 80 years after Jane Austen died, but there’s a “Regency feeling” about the dresses, hairstyles, and interior. Read more about Christmas of old in these links, and in the post below.

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Christmas Traditions from The Regency Era

Posted in Christmas, Holiday, jane austen, tagged on December 24, 2007| 3 Comments »

“I remember we had a discussion that time as to what was the great point and crowning glory of Christmas. Many were for mince-pie; some for the beef and plum-pudding; more for the wassail-bowl; a maiden lady timidly said the mistletoe; but we agreed at last, that although all these were prodigious, and some of them exclusively belonging to the season, the fire was the great indispensable. Upon which we all turned our faces towards it, and began warming our already scorched hands. A great blazing fire, too big, is the visible heart and soul of Christmas. You may do without beef and plum-pudding; even the absence of mince-pie may be tolerated; there must be a bowl, poetically speaking, but it need not be absolutely wassail. The bowl may give place to the bottle. But a huge, heaped-up, over heaped-up, all-attracting fire, with a semicircle of faces about it, is not to be denied us. It is the lar and genius of the meeting; the proof positive of the season; the representative of all our warm emotions and bright thoughts; the glorious eye of the room; the inciter to mirth, yet the retainer of order; the amalgamater of the age and sex; the universal relish. Tastes may differ even on a mince-pie; but who gainsays a fire? The absence of other luxuries still leaves you in possession of that; but

‘Who can hold a fire in his hand With thinking on the frostiest twelfth-cake?’
– a contributor to the New Monthly Magazine, December 1, 1825

Bringing in the Yule Log, Fronticepiece

More traditions:

“At Ripon, on Christmas Eve, the grocers, send each of their customers a pound or half of currants and raisins to make a Christmas pudding. The chandlers also send large mould candles, and the coopers logs of wood, generally called Yule clogs, which are always used on Christmas Eve; but should it be so large as not to be all burnt that night, which is frequently the case, the remains are kept till old Christmas Eve.”

In Sinclair’s Account of Scotland, parish of Kirkden, county of Angus (1792), Christmas is said to be held as a great festival in the neighbourhood. “The servant is free from his master, and goes about visiting his friends and acquaintance. The poorest must have beef or mutton on the table, and what they call a dinner with their friends. Many amuse themselves with various diversions, particularly with shooting for prizes, called here wad-shooting; and many do but little business all the Christmas week; the evening of almost every day being spent in amusement.” And in the account of Keith, in Banffshire, the inhabitants are said to “have no pastimes or holidays, except dancing on Christmas and New Year’s Day.”

Illustration of a Christmas Scene from The Republic of Pemberley
Yorkshire

A writer in “Time’s Telescope” (1822) states that in Yorkshire at eight o’clock on Christmas Eve the bells greet “Old Father Christmas” with a merry peal, the children parade the streets with drums, trumpets, bells, or perhaps, in their absence, with the poker and shovel, taken from their humble cottage fire; the yule candle is lighted, and—

“High on the cheerful fire Is blazing seen th’ enormous Christmas brand.”

Supper is served, of which one dish, from the lordly mansion to the humblest shed, is invariably furmety; yule cake, one of which is always made for each individual in the family, and other more substantial viands are also added.

This information is excerpted from Christmas: It’s Origins and Associations, William Francis Dawson, 1902, Project Gutenberg, Chapter XI, p 251-252. Fronticepiece comes from this volume as well.

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    A Jane Austen Christmas

    Posted in Holiday, jane austen, Regency Christmas Traditions, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency World, tagged , , , on December 22, 2006| 6 Comments »

    Happy Christmas! The Christmas season in the early 1800s was a time of festive balls, dinner parties, and parlor games as described in Christmas Regency Style and a Jane Austen Christmas. While Christmas decorations in the form of garlands and mistletoe were put up on Christmas Eve and a yule log was cut and burned, the custom of ornamenting christmas trees, swapping Christmas cards, and singing Christmas carols did not become widespread until the Victorian era.

    Click on the links below to learn how Christmas was actually celebrated during Jane Austen’s and the Prince Regent’s time.

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    Yule Log

    Posted in Holiday, jane austen, Regency Life, Regency World, tagged , on December 21, 2006| 1 Comment »


    An enormous log of freshly cut wood called the Yule log was fetched and carried to the house on Christmas Eve. In England it was the custom to burn the log for the twelve days of Christmas, from Christmas eve on December 24th to Epiphany on January 6th.

    The Yule Log was originally burned in honor of the gods and to bring good luck in the coming year. Since ancient times, the yule log ceremony celebrated the sun during the winter solstice. The log was chosen from a massive tree that required hauling by a team of horses or oxen. Tom Larson writes, “On or about Christmas eve, a big log was brought into a home or large hall. Songs were sung and stories told. Children danced. Offerings of food and wine and decorations were placed upon it. Personal faults, mistakes and bad choices were burned in the flame so everyone’s new year would start with a clean slate.”

    Learn more about the origins of the Yule Log at the following sites:

    The Yule Log

    The Yule Log by Tom Larson

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