Ghosts of Christmases Past…
Aline writes: I went to a wonderful Christmas exhibit at the Geffrye Museum last week. Our loyal readers may remember that the Geffrye Museum has a series of rooms showing English furnishings over the last several hundred years. For Christmas, they decorated each period room with Christmas decorations appropriate to the time, which made for a fascinating display. I learned a lot about Christmas customs – here are a few examples:
In early Tudor times, holly and mistletoe were prominently displayed with citrus fruits. The confectionaries were quite elaborate, in the shapes of all sorts of funny things. See the close-up for an example – sweets in the shape of bacon and eggs!
This next photo shows a recreation of Samuel Pepys’ Christmas dinner in 1662, recorded in his famous diary. It consisted of a “mess of brave plum porridge and a roasted pullet… and I sent for a mince-pie abroad, my wife not being well enough.” The decorations are modest, since it had not been that long since the Puritans (during the Civil War) had banned all Christmas celebrations.
In the mid 1700’s, the influence of Dutch customs came to England: on St. Nicholas’ Day, December 6, children left out their clogs filled with straw as fodder for St. Nicholas’ horse, which would then be exchanged for presents and sweets.
By the late Georgian period, Christmas had fallen out of favor, but the middle-class used it to throw elegant parties. This room is set up for a whist party, and the greenery in the room is limited to laurel, reflecting the value that the master of the house placed on classical traditions.
In the mid 1850’s we can see many of the traditions that we still have today. A Christmas tree dominates the room, with the children’s presents below it. It was probably Prince Albert’s enthusiasm for the Christmas tree tradition that made it so popular in England during Victorian times (it had been a tradition in Germany since the 16th century.)
I thought the most interesting thing is how Christmas decorations and celebrations had fallen in and out of favor over the years!
In early Tudor times, holly and mistletoe were prominently displayed with citrus fruits. The confectionaries were quite elaborate, in the shapes of all sorts of funny things. See the close-up for an example – sweets in the shape of bacon and eggs!
This next photo shows a recreation of Samuel Pepys’ Christmas dinner in 1662, recorded in his famous diary. It consisted of a “mess of brave plum porridge and a roasted pullet… and I sent for a mince-pie abroad, my wife not being well enough.” The decorations are modest, since it had not been that long since the Puritans (during the Civil War) had banned all Christmas celebrations.
In the mid 1700’s, the influence of Dutch customs came to England: on St. Nicholas’ Day, December 6, children left out their clogs filled with straw as fodder for St. Nicholas’ horse, which would then be exchanged for presents and sweets.
By the late Georgian period, Christmas had fallen out of favor, but the middle-class used it to throw elegant parties. This room is set up for a whist party, and the greenery in the room is limited to laurel, reflecting the value that the master of the house placed on classical traditions.
In the mid 1850’s we can see many of the traditions that we still have today. A Christmas tree dominates the room, with the children’s presents below it. It was probably Prince Albert’s enthusiasm for the Christmas tree tradition that made it so popular in England during Victorian times (it had been a tradition in Germany since the 16th century.)
I thought the most interesting thing is how Christmas decorations and celebrations had fallen in and out of favor over the years!
posted by Bill | 10:56 PM
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