Christmastime in Samuel Johnson’s life looked slightly different from how we celebrate the festive period today. Most of our Christmas traditions come from the Victorian Era - when Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort - brought the tradition of the Christmas tree to England and the Royals included it in their festive celebrations at Windsor Castle. Instead of trees, Georgians had Kissing Boughs and Yule Logs.
Snapdragon and Bulletcake
Celebrations centred around Family, Friends, Fun and Food; gift-giving was not the priority. Festivities started on the 6th of December (St. Nicholas’ Day) and involved gift-giving among families, gifts between families and friends were small and personal and not the most significant part of the festivities. Gifts were also given on St. Stephens Day, the 26th of December. Traditionally, these were charitable gifts from the wealthy to the poor, from employers to their servants in the form of ‘Christmas Boxes’, this paved the way for what we now call Boxing Day and would be useful items such as food, money or clothing for the year ahead. Games were a large part of Georgian Christmas gatherings, residues of which remain today. People played games called Hunt the Slipper, Snapdragon, Bulletcake, Blind Man’s Buff, and Puss in the Corner. Johnson’s dictionary directly mentions Snapdragon.
Nowadays, Christmas is festooned upon us by companies as early as September and October. For the Georgians, a rather superstitious and religious bunch, festivities were shorter. Decorations were put out on December 24th and taken down on Plough Monday (the first Monday after January 6th). The Georgians believed that to have them up longer than that was bad luck.
Kissing Boughs and Yule Logs
Decorations often came in Evergreen plants in the form of Kissing Boughs and Wreaths. Although Christmas trees (traditionally a Germanic decoration) were not popularised until Victoria and Albert’s time, Queen Charlotte is noted to have brought one into the Palace in 1800. Kissing Boughs were small logs or branches woven with evergreen plants such as ivy, mistletoe, holly, rosemary and yew; they were called Kissing Boughs for a couple of reasons: if a gentleman were to find and pluck a berry from one of the plants he would give it to a lady and it would grant him the chance to kiss her on the cheek. This tradition has remained somewhat in mistletoe decorations.
Kissing Boughs were kept in the entryway to buildings and were in upper and lower-class homes, they presented a space for pause when greeting friends and visitors over the festive period. The Yule Log was another very popular Christmastime decoration. Although Yule begins on the winter solstice, Yule Logs were brought into homes and lit on December 24th and were kept lit for the twelve days of Christmas. Yule is a pagan festival celebrating the return of light and warmth after the long, dark winter and the tradition remains in the burning of Yule Logs for the Georgians. They were kept lit throughout Christmas and New Year as a way of burning off the old and welcoming the new.
Twelfth Night Cakes
The key to Christmas of Dr. Johnson’s lifetime was, most importantly, marked by celebrating with loved ones and food. Food was, and still is, vital to Christmas celebrations. Decadent cakes, vast cuts of meat and spiced punch. Dinner included Venison, Goose or Turkey, with sides of beef, mutton and poultry. People regularly drank Wassail, a spiced punch or wine. Plum pudding was eaten with Christmas dinner, after visiting church. Johnson specifically mentions something called Twelfth Cake, writing that
People used to stop and stare into the windows of pastry cooks at the gorgeous Twelfth Night Cakes on sale.
Twelfth Cakes marked the Twelfth Night of Christmas, January 5th. Modern-day Christmas fruit cakes, with dried fruits, brandy and lavish icing. Also traditional to the Twelfth Night Cake was a secretly placed dried pea and dried bean. The two people to have those in their slice of cake were given the title of King or Queen of the household for the night, regardless of their position. This particularly speaks as part of the focus of Christmas during the Georgian period. Christmas was and continues to be, about sharing and enjoying time with loved ones and helping those in need.
Sam Moore-Verity
Sam Moore-Verity, Writer-in-Residence
This autumn we were pleased to welcome Sam Moore-Verity as Writer-in-Residence at Dr Johnson's House. Sam joins us on a placement from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. Her work has involved researching our library and collections to produce articles and poetry for our website, alongside gaining practical experience in heritage site management best practice.
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