This weekend marked the unofficial beginning of the Yuletide season—both
here in the US, with Friday’s kickoff of holiday shopping, and across the
pond, with yesterday’s (or today’s, as I’m writing this) Stirring-Up
Sunday: the day when English families traditionally make their Christmas
puddings. And thus it marks the beginning of an annual tradition here at
*#MyrtleMondays*, too: when I stir up your holiday spirit by filling your
inboxes weekly with all things Victorian Christmas! This year we have some
familiar classics and some fun new features planned. Let’s get started!
In *Cold-Blooded Myrtle*, we discover that Myrtle (not to mention her
erudite alter-ego) has some Strong Opinions regarding holiday food.
When carolers sing, “Bring us some figgy pudding,” they mean a British
pudding—a solid, cakelike pastry made of breadcrumbs, fruit, and sugar
steeped in alcohol. It may or may not contain figs or plums, but raisins
and currents are definitely traditional.
*Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management *includes this color plate of
recommended holiday dishes, including a most magnificent plum pudding
Plum pudding, figgy pudding, Christmas pudding, whatever you term it, 19th
century Christmas wasn’t Christmas without the pud.
This collectible illustration from the 1896 *Pears Annual* (a holiday
magazine produced by English soap company Pears) celebrates the arrival of
this most quintessential dish. Charles Green’s painting depicts a Christmas
feast of a much earlier age—note the old-fashioned clothing of the diners
from three-quarters of a century before. Even the Victorians were nostalgic
about Christmas!
Plum pudding was made weeks in advance, to allow the alcohol and other
ingredients to become fully… potent. The last Sunday before Advent, known
as “Stirring-Up Sunday,” became the traditional day for families to make
their puddings. In the Book of Common Prayer, the church service for that
Sunday begins, *“Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy
faithful people.”* And what better way to get into the faithful spirit of
Advent then stirring up some Christmas cheer?
If you want to plan a traditional 19th century holiday feast, you’ll
appreciate the guidance and recipes of Isabella Beeton, the guru to whom
generations of cooks and housewives *have turned for advice since 1861*. A
bestseller for well over a century, *Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household
Management* contains all you need to know to cook up the perfect Victorian
Christmas dinner. You may consult all of Mrs. Beeton’s recipes at Project
Gutenberg at the link above.
If you’re a last-minute cook, she also offers an alcohol-free version:
But the holiday meal only begins—and ends–with the pudding. F.W. Dawson’s
treatise on the history of the holiday, *Christmas: Its Origins &
Associations* (1902) contains no fewer than sixteen illustrations featuring
Christmas food and feasting through the centuries, including this look at
Renaissance wassailers:
Wassailing was an early incarnation of Christmas caroling, in which people
went door-to-door to toast the season with their neighbors (“Wassail,” or *waes
hael,* is an Anglo-Saxon toast meaning “Good health”). A popular carol from
the mid-1800s immortalizes the tradition:
*Here we come a wassailing, among the leaves so green Here we come a
wand’ring, so fair to be seen. Love and joy come to you, and to you your
wassail too, And God bless you and send you a happy new year!*
Revelers fortunate enough to be invited inside would be welcomed with a
holiday spread for the ages (including, if they were lucky, the figgy
pudding!).
“Christmas Eve Dinner,” 1904 by Swedish artist Carl Larsson
Charles Dickens, *who did much to promote Christmas to an eager Victorian
audience*, offered several lively depictions of grand holiday meals (even
among his characters of modest means).
*There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was
such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were
the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed
potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs
Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon
the dish), they hadn’t ate it all at last! Yet everyone had had enough, and
the youngest Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the
eyebrows!* *—A Christmas Carol, 1843*
This particular goose is from the Cratchits’ celebration of Christmas
Present (of course, they later have an even *more* spectacular goose,
thanks to Scrooge). But where would the poor Cratchits have gotten such a
meal? From their local Goose Club.
The mysterious goose from “The Blue Carbuncle,” Sidney Paget, 1891
Goose Clubs were a type of layaway, sponsored by neighborhood pubs or other
organizations, in which families could put in a few pence each week and be
sure to have a nice fat goose for their Christmas tables. A sinister twist
on this custom (including quite a detailed explanation of its workings)
appears in *the only Sherlock Holmes story set at Christmas, “The Blue
Carbuncle.”*
Although Victorian Christmas celebrated time-honored traditions (even if
they were brand new), some on-trend revelers were eager to try new
delicacies. A dish making the rounds at the end of the century was France’s *bûche
de noël*, or Yule log cake. Last year, this tradition became part of our
own holiday feast.
*Read more here: Joyeaux Noel!*
Have fun stirring up some holiday cheer in your own kitchens this year!
Wassail!
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Bunce.