It’s said that Christmas traditions as we know them started with the Victorians but one of the things about being a Regency author is that you know which traditions are pre-Regency and which come later.

Book #1 - October 2010

Christmas decorations in the house comprised branches of greenery, with rosemary and bay, laurel and mistletoe entwined. People would also dress themselves in garlands of greenery for the Christmas festival, so as well as looking festive they would also smell rather nice!

It was Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, who first introduced the Christmas tree to England. The tree must have been something of a fire hazard as it was lit by candles and decorated with small gifts of toys and sweetmeats. Queen Charlotte also introduced the idea of giving Christmas cards to friends and relatives although this was not widely done before the Victorian period.

Book #2 - November 2010

Christmas presents were exchanged on 6^th December, St Nicholas’s Day, or a New Year gift on Twelfth Night, with a verse of poetry attached. If you belonged to the gentry you were expected to give charitable gifts to the poor on Christmas Eve and also put on a feast that night for your servants and employees, with a lot of ale and carol singing late into the night!

The Christmas Day festivities would start early (or probably simply carry on from the night before). William Holland, a vicar in Somerset, writes in his diary of 1801 that he and his family were woken at five in the morning by the church musicians serenading them outside, accompanied by carol singers:

Book #3 - December 1

“The singers at the window tuned forth a most dismal ditty, half drunk and with the most wretched voices.” It doesn’t sound a very nice way to be woken on Christmas Day!

On Christmas Day the rich would probably dine on lamb and they would eat their turkey on Twelfth Night. Turkeys were transported to London on the stagecoach from Norfolk. William Holland dined on sprats (fish) and a woodcock on Christmas Day and considered that quite a feast. Mince pies and Christmas cake were also a feature of the menu although the Christmas Cake was known as the Twelfth Cake and was also eaten on Twelfth Night. I like the idea of having a party on Twelfth Night!

The Christmas holidays lasted for several weeks because of the time it took to travel to visit family and friends. Entertainments during the Twelve Nights of Christmas would include parties, balls and ice skating, with games of charades and lots of singing Christmas songs around the open fire. It all sounds wonderfully cosy and it must have been lovely to have the whole family together. Many of the early years of the nineteenth century were very snowy at Christmas too, which would make it feel very festive!

Happy Christmas!
Nicola Cornick

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One aspect of Irish culture I loved researching for Duchess of Sin was Christmas!  No one loves a good holiday party more than the Irish.  Christmas has always been a time filled with visiting, dancing, and music, and good food.  I learned a lot about Irish Christmas traditions as a child in my grandparents’ house, which was always a wonderful time.  My grandmother would make plum puddings and ginger cakes, put up holly wreaths and mistletoe kissing boughs, and play Irish Christmas music all the time (I listen to The Chieftain’s Christmas CD every year!).

She also kept a candle in the window (albeit an electric one that wouldn’t start a fire!), and when I asked her why she told me what her mother told her.  The candle was a symbol of welcome to Mary and Joseph as they traveled looking for shelter (and in time of the Penal Laws could also be a sign of a safe place to say Catholic Mass).  One tradition said the candle should be lit by the youngest member of a household and only extinguished by a girl named Mary.

Nollaig Shona Duit (Merry Christmas) everyone!  I hope you enjoy Anna and Conlan’s story as much as I did.  For more information, excerpts, recipes, etc, please visit my website at http://laurelmckee.net.  And if you’d like to create a bit of a traditional Christmas for yourself, here is my grandmother’s old recipe for plum pudding (she used to say it was best to make this a year in advance and let it “mellow,” but she would mostly start it at the beginning of Advent…)

Ingredients

Fruit Mixture (to be made 4 days ahead)
1 pound seedless raisings1 pound sultana raisins½ pound currants
1 cup thinly sliced citron
1 cup chopped candied peel
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp mace
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp allspice
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 pound finely chopped suet (powdery fine)
1 ¼ cups cognac

Pudding

1 ¼ pounds fresh bread crumbs
1 cup scalded milk
1 cup sherry or port
12 eggs, well beaten
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
Cognac

Preparation

Blend the fruits, citron, peel, spices and suet and place in a bowl or jar.  Add ¼ cup cognac, cover tightly, and refrigerate for 4 days, adding ¼ cup cognac each day.
Soak the bread crumbs in milk and sherry or port.  Combine the well-beaten eggs and sugar.  Blend with the fruit mixture.  Add salt and mix thoroughly.  Put the pudding in buttered bowls or tins, filling them about 2/3 full.  Cover with foil and tie it firmly.  Steam for 6—7 hours.  Uncover and place in a 250 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Add a dash of cognac to each pudding, cover and keep in a cool place.

To use, steam again for 2-3 hours and unmold.  Sprinkle with sugar; add heated cognac.  Ignite and bring to table.  Serve with cognac sauce.

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