Beware! Do not kiss an unwilling maid under the mistletoe in the 18C

"Christmas gambols, or a kiss under the mistletoe" (etching published by Laurie & Whittle, 1794)

Christmas gambols, or a kiss under the mistletoe depicts servants in an English kitchen. A groom wearing spurred top-boots holds the cook round the waist under a bunch of mistletoe. She (smiling) nourishes a ladle and holds his pigtail queue. Two men-servants seated on a settle (left), one with a frothing tankard, watch with amusement, as does a fourth man standing on the right. Behind is a large open fire with a cauldron hanging from a chain. Cooking-utensils, a lantern, &c, are ranged on the chimney-piece. Above the settle is a sporting picture.  Below the image, a poem is included.

Beneath the title:
'Bridget the Cook on Christmas day,
When all was Mirth & Jollity,
Was rudely kissed, by Saucy Joe;
And that beneath the Mistletoe,
But she returned it with the Ladle,
And laid about, when he was Addle,
For Maids are not to be thus taken
And all their Virgin Honor shaken.'

Published 22d. Octr. 1794 by Laurie & Whittle, N°.53, Fleet Street, London.

19C England's First Christmas Trees

Queen Charlotte's 1800 Christmas Tree

"Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, is usually credited with having introduced the Christmas tree into England in 1840. However, the honour of establishing this tradition in the United Kingdom rightfully belongs to ‘good Queen Charlotte,’ the German wife of George III, who set up the first known English tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, in December, 1800.

Joshua Reynolds (English artist, 1723–1792) Queen Charlotte, Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 1744 - 1818. Queen of George III About 1763

"Legend has it that Queen Charlotte’s fellow countryman, Martin Luther, the religious reformer, invented the Christmas tree. One winter’s night in 1536, so the story goes, Luther was walking through a pine forest near his home in Wittenberg when he suddenly looked up and saw thousands of stars glinting jewel-like among the branches of the trees. This wondrous sight inspired him to set up a candle-lit fir tree in his house that Christmas to remind his children of the starry heavens from whence their Saviour came.

"Certainly by 1605 decorated Christmas trees had made their appearance in Southern Germany. For in that year an anonymous writer recorded how at Yuletide the inhabitants of Strasburg "set up fir trees in the parlours ... and hang thereon roses cut out of many-coloured paper, apples, wafers, gold-foil, sweets, etc." In other parts of Germany box trees or yews were brought indoors at Christmas instead of firs.

"The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) visited Mecklenburg-Strelitz in December, 1798, and was much struck by the yew-branch ceremony that he witnessed there, the following account of which he wrote in a letter to his wife dated April 23rd, 1799: "On the evening before Christmas Day, one of the parlours is lighted up by the children, into which the parents must not go; a great yew bough is fastened on the table at a little distance from the wall, a multitude of little tapers are fixed in the bough ... and coloured paper etc. hangs and flutters from the twigs. Under this bough the children lay out the presents they mean for their parents, still concealing in their pockets what they intend for each other. Then the parents are introduced, and each presents his little gift; they then bring out the remainder one by one from their pockets, and present them with kisses and embraces."

"When young Charlotte left Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1761, and came over to England to marry King George, she brought with her many of the customs that she had practised as a child, including the setting up of a yew branch in the house at Christmas. But at the English Court the Queen transformed the essentially private yew-branch ritual of her homeland into a more public celebration that could be enjoyed by her family, their friends and all the members of the Royal Household.

"Queen Charlotte placed her yew bough not in some poky little parlour, but in one of the largest rooms at Kew Palace or Windsor Castle. Assisted by her ladies-in-waiting, she herself dressed the bough. And when all the wax tapers had been lit, the whole Court gathered round and sang carols. The festivity ended with a distribution of gifts from the branch, which included such items as clothes, jewels, plate, toys and sweets.

"These royal yew boughs caused quite a stir among the nobility, who had never seen anything like them before. But it was nothing to the sensation created in 1800, when the first real English Christmas tree appeared at court.

"That year Queen Charlotte planned to hold a large Christmas party for the children of all the principal families in Windsor. And casting about in her mind for a special treat to give the youngsters, she suddenly decided that instead of the customary yew bough, she would pot up an entire yew tree, cover it with baubles and fruit, load it with presents and stand it in the middle of the drawing-room floor at Queen’s Lodge. Such a tree, she considered, would make an enchanting spectacle for the little ones to gaze upon. It certainly did. When the children arrived at the house on the evening of Christmas Day and beheld that magical tree, all aglitter with tinsel and glass, they believed themselves transported straight to fairyland and their happiness knew no bounds.

"Dr John Watkins, one of Queen Charlotte’s biographers, who attended the party, provides us with a vivid description of this captivating tree "from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds and raisins in papers, fruits and toys, most tastefully arranged; the whole illuminated by small wax candles." He adds that "after the company had walked round and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets it bore, together with a toy, and then all returned home quite delighted."

"Christmas trees now became all the rage in English upper-class circles, where they formed the focal point at countless children’s gatherings. As in Germany, any handy evergreen tree might be uprooted for the purpose; yews, box trees, pines or firs. But they were invariably candle-lit, adorned with trinkets and surrounded by piles of presents. Trees placed on table tops usually also had either a Noah’s Ark or a model farm and numerous gaily-painted wooden animals set out among the presents beneath the branches to add extra allurement to the scene. From family archives we learn, for example, that in December 1802, George, 2nd Lord Kenyon, was buying "candles for the tree" that he placed in his drawing room at No. 35 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. That in 1804 Frederick, fifth Earl of Bristol, had "a Christmas tree" for his children at Ickworth Lodge, Suffolk. And that in 1807 William Cavendish-Bentinck, Duke of Portland, the then prime minister, set up a Christmas tree at Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire, "for a juvenile party."

"By the time Queen Charlotte died in 1818, the Christmas-tree tradition was firmly established in society, and it continued to flourish throughout the 1820s and 30s. The fullest description of these early English Yuletide trees is to be found in the diary of Charles Greville, the witty, cultured Clerk of the Privy Council, who in 1829 spent his Christmas holidays at Panshanger, Hertfordshire, home to Peter, 5th Earl Cowper, and his wife Lady Emily.

"Greville’s fellow house guests were Princess Dorothea von Lieven, wife of the German Ambassador, Lord John Russell, Frederick Lamb, M. de la Rochefoucauld and M. de Montrond, all of whom were brilliant conversationalists. Greville makes no mention of any of the bons mots that he must have heard at every meal, however, or of the indoor games and the riding, skating and shooting that always took place at Panshanger at Christmas. No. The only things that really seem to have impressed him were the exquisite little spruce firs that Princess Lieven set up on Christmas Day to amuse the Cowpers’ youngest children William, Charles and Frances. "Three trees in great pots," he tells us, "were put upon a long table covered with pink linen; each tree was illuminated with three circular tiers of coloured wax candles – blue, green, red and white. Before each tree was displayed a quantity of toys, gloves, pocket handkerchiefs, workboxes, books and various other articles – presents made to the owner of the tree. It was very pretty."

"When in December, 1840, Prince Albert imported several spruce firs from his native Coburg, they were no novelty to the aristocracy, therefore. But it was not until periodicals such as the Illustrated London News, Cassell’s Magazine and The Graphic began to depict and minutely to describe the royal Christmas trees every year from 1845 until the late 1850s, that the custom of setting up such trees in their own homes caught on with the masses in England."

See Alison Barnes' in History Today, Volume 56, Issue 12, December, 2006

1769 A Pair of Handmade Ruffles & a Poem for Ben Franklin at Christmas in London

 

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Benjamin Franklin moved to 6 Craven Street in London, a merchant’s house, near the River Thames & not far from the Houses of Parliament, where Franklin lived between 1757 & 1775.  Craven Street was the center of Franklin’s domestic life from the 1st week he arrived in London in 1757 to the day he left in March 1775.

During that time, Franklin spent only 18 months back in Philadelphia. In London, Franklin had a platonic relationship with his landlady, the widow Margaret Stevenson. He was like a father to her daughter Polly. They rapidly became his London family & home-base with Mrs. Stevenson managing the daily household details for him.  

Mary (Polly) Stevenson (1739–1795) was the daughter of Franklin's landlady, Mrs. Margaret Stevenson. Polly’s  devotion to him was a major influence in her life. She had acquired an unusually good education  & by the time Franklin arrived at Craven Street in 1757, she was spending most of her time as companion to an elderly aunt, a Mrs. Tickell, in Wanstead, a village about 10 miles from London, apparently with the belief that the aunt would leave her a comfortable estate. 

In 1770 she married William Hewson, a brilliant young physician & anatomist, who 4 years later died from an infection incurred while dissecting a cadaver. Polly devoted the rest of her life to the care & education of her 2 sons & daughter. 

From 1775, Franklin tried to persuade her to move to America, & in 1784–85 she & the children did visit him in the new nation. Finally in 1786, she brought her family to Philadelphia, & was at Franklin's bedside when he died (1790), 5 years before her own death at her son’s home near Bristol, Pa.

About 170 letters between the bright, spirited woman, & the fatherly philosopher survive. They are full of humor & good will, plus serious science to speculation on marriage & public affairs, & later reports on growing children & grandchildren. 

In 1783 he wrote: “In looking forward,—Twenty-five Years seems a long Period; but in looking back, how short! Could you imagine that ’tis now full a Quarter of a Century since we were first acquainted! It was in 1757. During the greatest Part of the Time I lived in the same House with my dear deceased Friend your Mother; of course you & I saw & convers’d with each other much & often. It is to all our Honours, that in all that time we never had among us the smallest Misunderstanding. Our Friendship has been all clear Sunshine, without any the least Cloud in its Hemisphere.” 

See:

“From Benjamin Franklin to Mary Stevenson, 9 January 1765,” Founders Online, National Archives

The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 12, January 1, through December 31, 1765, ed. Leonard W. Labaree. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967, pp. 16–17

 James M. Stifler, “My Dear Girl” The Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin with Polly Stevenson, Georgiana & Catherine Shipley (N.Y., 1927). 

Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., “‘All Clear Sunshine’: New Letters of Franklin & Mary Stevenson Hewson,” APS Proc., c 1956, 521–36, which describes the extent & character of their correspondence.

"For You My Needle With Delight I Plied" In The Words of Women

Eight of Franklin's letters to her appear in his 1769 edition of Experiments & Observations on Electricity. 

8 Winter Solstice Celebrations Around the World

8 Winter Solstice Celebrations Around the World

Since long before recorded history, the winter solstice and the subsequent “return” of the sun have inspired celebrations & rituals in various societies around the world.

History.Com: Sarah Pruitt, a writer & editor in seacoast New Hampshire.

Updated: September 26, 2023 | Original: December 20, 2016

The winter solstice is the shortest day & longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, it takes place in late December; in the Southern Hemisphere, it occurs in June. From Ancient Romans to Indigenous Americans, cultures around the world have long held feasts & celebrated holidays around the winter solstice.

1. Saturnalia

Western culture owes many of the traditional midwinter celebrations—including those of Christmas—to Saturnalia, an ancient Roman solstice celebration dedicated to the Saturn, the god of agriculture & time. Though it started out as a one-day celebration earlier in December, this pagan festival later expanded into a riotous weeklong party stretching from December 17 to 24. During this jolliest & most popular of Roman festivals, social norms fell away as everyone indulged in gambling, drinking, feasting & giving gifts.

2. St. Lucia’s Day  Winter Solstice

This traditional festival of lights in Scandinavia honors St. Lucia, one of the earliest Christian martyrs, but was incorporated with earlier Norse solstice traditions after many Norsemen converted to Christianity around 1000 A.D. According to the old Julian Calendar, December 13 (the date that is traditionally given as the day in 304 A.D. when the Romans killed Lucia for bringing food to persecuted Christians hiding in Rome) was also the shortest day of the year.

As a symbol of light, Lucia & her feast day blended naturally with solstice traditions such as lighting fires to scare away spirits during the longest, darkest night of the year. On St. Lucia’s day, girls in Scandinavia wear white dresses with red sashes & wreaths of candles on their heads, as an homage to the candles Lucia wore on her head to light her way as she carried the forbidden food in her arms.

3. Dong Zhi

The Chinese celebration of the winter solstice, Dong Zhi (which means “Winter Arrives”) welcomes the return of longer days & the corresponding increase in positive energy in the year to come. Occurring only six weeks before the Chinese New Year, the festival has its own significance for many people, & is believed to be the day when everyone gets one year older. The celebration may have begun as a harvest festival, when farmers & fisherman took time off to celebrate with their families.

Today, it isn’t an official holiday, but remains an occasion for families to join together to celebrate the year that has passed & share good wishes for the year to come. The most traditional food for this celebration in southern China is the glutinous rice balls known as tang yuan, often brightly colored & cooked in sweet or savory broth. Northern Chinese enjoy plain or meat-stuffed dumplings, a particularly warming & nourishing food for a midwinter celebration.

Chinese traditional dragon lantern illuminated at night during Chinese / Lunar New Year.

4. Shab-e Yalda

On the longest night of the year, Iranians all over the world celebrate the triumph of Mithra, the Sun God, over darkness in the ancient festival of Shab-e Yalda (which translates to “Night of Birth”). According to tradition, people gather together on the longest night of year to protect each other from evil, burning fires to light their way through the darkness & performing charitable acts. Friends & family join in making wishes, feasting on nuts, pomegranates & other festive foods & reading poetry, especially the work of the 14th-century Persian poet Hafiz. Some stay awake all night to rejoice in the moment when the sun rises, banishing evil & announcing the arrival of goodness.

5. Inti Raymi

In Peru, like the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is celebrated in June. The Inti Raymi (Quechua for “sun festival”), which takes place on the solstice, is dedicated to honoring Inti, the sun god. Before the Spanish conquest, the Incas fasted for three days before the solstice. Before dawn on the fourth day, they went to a ceremonial plaza & waited for the sunrise.

When it appeared, they crouched down before it, offering golden cups of chicha (a sacred beer made from fermented corn). Animals—including llamas—were sacrificed during the ceremony, & the Incas used a mirror to focus the sun’s rays & kindle a fire. After the conquest, the Spaniards banned the Inti Raymi holiday, but it was revived in the 20th century (with mock sacrifices) & continues today.

6. Shalako 

For the Zuni, one of the Native American Pueblo peoples in western New Mexico, the winter solstice signifies the beginning of the year, & is marked with a ceremonial dance called Shalako. After fasting, prayer & observing the rising & setting of the sun for several days before the solstice, the Pekwin, or “Sun Priest” traditionally announces the exact moment of itiwanna, the rebirth of the sun, with a long, mournful call.

With that signal, the rejoicing & dancing begin, as 12 kachina clowns in elaborate masks dance along with the Shalako themselves—12-foot-high effigies with bird heads, seen as messengers from the gods. After four days of dancing, new dancers are chosen for the following year, & the yearly cycle begins again.

7. Soyal

Like the Zuni, the Hopi of northern Arizona are believed to be among the descendants of the mysterious Anasazi people, ancient Native Americans who flourished beginning in 200 B.C. (As the Anasazi left no written records, we can only speculate about their winter solstice rites, but the placement of stones & structures in their ruins, such as New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, indicate they certainly took a keen interest in the sun’s movement.)

In the Hopi solstice celebration of Soyal, the Sun Chief takes on the duties of the Zuni Pekwin, announcing the setting of the sun on the solstice. An all-night ceremony then begins, including kindling fires, dancing & sometimes gift-giving. Traditionally, the Hopi sun-watcher was not only important to the winter solstice tradition, as his observation of the sun also governed the planting of crops & the observance of Hopi ceremonies & rituals all year long.

8. Toji

In Japan, the winter solstice is less a festival than a traditional practice centered around starting the new year with health & good luck. It’s a particularly sacred time of the year for farmers, who welcome the return of a sun that will nurture their crops after the long, cold winter. People light bonfires to encourage the sun’s return; huge bonfires burn on Mount Fuji each December 22.

A widespread practice during the winter solstice is to take warm baths scented with yuzu, a citrus fruit, which is said to ward off colds & foster good health. Many public baths & hot springs throw yuzu in the water during the winter solstice. Many Japanese people also eat kabocha squash—known in the United States as Japanese pumpkin—on the solstice, as it is thought to bring luck.

1763 Ben Franklin celebrates Christmas with Friends, Nuts, Apples, & Mince Pies

Benjamin Franklin's correspondence gives only a glimpse into his celebration of Christmas. Franklin usually spent Christmas away from his wfe & family.  

He wrote to Isaac Norris in 1763, that he had given,"for customary New Year’s Gifts, and Christmas Presents to Door-keepers and Clerks of the Publick Offices."  

He also noted Christmas Gambols in a letter in 1765, & Christmas dinner in 1766. 

He wrote to his wife that he was spending "the Christmas Holidays" with the friend of a Bishop in 1771; and in a letter to Nathaniel Falconer in 1773, he thanked him for his present of nuts and apples.

Timeline of Judaism/Christian History to Colonial America

Timeline of Judaism/Christian History

Judaism developed among the ancient Hebrews. Judaism is characterized by a belief in one transcendent God who revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, & the Hebrew prophets & by a religious life in accordance with Scriptures & rabbinic traditions. Judaism is the complex phenomenon of a total way of life for the people, comprising theology, law, & innumerable cultural traditions.  The history of Judaism can be divided into major periods: biblical Judaism (c. 20th–4th century BCE), Hellenistic Judaism (4th century BCE–2nd century CE), Rabbinic Judaism (2nd–18th century CE), and modern Judaism (c. 1750 to the present).

c.2100 BC Calling of Abraham - the Father of the nation.

c.2000 BC Birth of Jacob, Israel. 12 tribes of Israel are named after Jacob's sons.

c.1900 BC Joseph slavery Egypt. Israelites become captives in the land.

c.1446 ?      Exodus begins by Moses, Israelites leave Egypt & settle in Canaan.

c1010 BC David becomes king of Israel, making Jerusalem his capital.

c970 BC David's son Solomon becomes king & builds a temple in Jerusalem..

c930 BC Kingdom is divided into 2 sections: Northern (Israel) & Southern (Judah).

753 BC Traditional date for the founding of Rome.

722 BC Fall of the kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians.

586 BC Babylonians take Jerusalem & destroy  temple. Jews taken to Babylon.

c538 BC Return of some of the exiles. Start of reconstruction of the temple.

c512 BC Completion of the temple.

c330 BC  Conquest by Alexander the Great. Rise of Hellenism (Greek culture).

c.250 BC  Translate the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek. 

63 BC Roman rule of Israel begins.

Christianity is a faith tradition that focuses on the figure of Jesus Christ. Christianity is more than a system of religious belief. It has generated a culture, a set of ideas & ways of life, practices, & artifacts that have been handed down from generation to generation, since Jesus first became the object of faith. The agent of Christianity is the church, the community of people who make up the body of believers.

c.4 BC Birth of Jesus Christ, in Bethlehem.

c30 AD Death of Jesus Christ.

c33    Pentecost & the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).

c33 Stephen - First Christian martyr (Acts 7).

c.48 Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15). Gentiles included

c.60 First Gospel published (often thought to be that written by Mark).

62 Martyrdom of James, "The Lord's Brother."

c.67-68 Apostles Peter & Paul martyred in the reign of the Roman emperor Nero.

70 Judaism rebellion on Roman empire ends. Destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

Fr 70 Christianity moves to Antioch, Alexandria & Rome.

c.90 Book of Revelation & Gospel of Saint John written.

161-80 Persecution of Christians by Emperors Marcus Aurelius. Decius & Diocletian.

301 Armenia becomes 1st country to adopt Christianity as the state religion.

312 Rome emperor Constantine envisions a flaming cross "By this sign conquer." 

313 Edict of Milan by Constantine - Christianity is religion in the Roman empire.

325 Nicene Creed declares "Begotten, not made; of one being with the Father"

367 Saint Athanasius is the first to list all 27 New Testament books

381 Ecumenical Council at Constantinople revises Nicene creed to current form.

c.382 Saint Jerome begins translating the Bible into Latin.

397 Synod at Carthage ratifies the 27 books of New Testament as sacred.

431 Ecumenical council at Ephesus where Mary is declared "Mother of God"

449 At Ephesus, Pope Leo I defends orthodox belief & claims Papal supremacy.

589 Insertion of  "and the son" into the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

597 St. Augustine becomes the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

664 Synod of Whitby ratifies the authority of the Pope in England.

731 Bede writes his Ecclesiastical History.

800      Charlemagne is crowned emperor of Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III.

988 Conversion of Prince Vladimir to Christianity in Russia.

1054 Great Schism - Eastern Orthodox & Western Catholic churches separate.

1095 Pope Urban II orders the 1st Crusade to recover the Holy Land from Moslems.

1099 Crusaders conquer Jerusalem.

1182 Massacre of Latin inhabitants of Constantinople.

1187 Jerusalem recaptured by a Moslem army.

1189 Third Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart of England.

1204 Sack of Constantinople during the 4th crusade.

1216-23 Papal approval of the Dominican & Franciscan orders.

1266-73 Thomas Aquinas writes of systematic Theology: Summa Theologiae.

1305 Papacy moved to Avignon following a dispute with Philip IV of France.

c.1376 John Wycliffe writes for reform of the church.

1378 Return Papacy to Rome, Antipopes emerge. Ends in 1417 with Pope Martin V.

c.1380 John Wycliffe translates the Bible into Middle English.

1453 Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks.

1517 Martin Luther posts 95 Theses in Germany; begins the Protestantism.

1525 William Tyndale completes his translation of the Bible into English.

1534 Ignatius of Loyola founds the Jesuits.

1534 Act of Supremacy passed - Henry VIII becomes head of the English church.

1536 John Calvin publishes his Institutes of the Christian Religion.

1545-63 Council of Trent - Roman Catholic counter reformation.

1549 Book of Common Prayer published  in England (revised in 1662).

1555 Peace of Augsburg ends religious wars in Germany.

1611 Publication of the King James Version of the Bible.

1618-48 Protestant/Catholic conflict in Germany (30 Years War).

1738 John & Charles Wesley form the Methodist church in England

1730-60 The "Great Awakening" - A revival movement among Protestants in the USA.

Christmas Pudding from the Middle Ages

 Presenting the plum pudding

Although the Christmas Pudding took its final form in Victorian England, the origins of Christmas pudding lie back in the middle ages, in the now-forgotten ‘plum pottage’. Pottage was a general term for a mixture of ingredients, usually meat and vegetables, boiled together in a cauldron for several hours. It was very versatile and was a staple of the English diet for many centuries. Plum pottage, the ancestor of the Christmas pudding, generally contained meat, dried fruits, a little sugar, and mixed spices (cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger). As with mince pies, the meat was included because many livestock were slaughtered in the autumn due to a lack of fodder in the winter, and cooks had to find a good way of both preserving and serving up the meat. Plum pottage didn’t necessarily contain any plums or prunes; it got its name from the fact that in the Elizabethan era, prunes became so popular that they started to be used to refer to a wide variety of dried fruits.

 Hurrah for the Christmas Pudding 1909

Over the course of the 18th century, pottage and porridge became unfashionable as sophisticated cuisine increasingly took its cues from France. In 1758 Martha Bradley, the author of The British Housewife: or, The Cooke, Housekeeper’s and Gardiner’s Companion said of plum porridge that “the French laugh outrageously at this old English Dish.” Her own recipe for ‘plumb porridge’ sounds very rich; it contains a leg and a shin of beef, white bread, currants, raisins, prunes, mace, cloves, nutmegs, sherry, salt and sugar. As plum pottage died out, the plum pudding rose to take its place. Thanks to cheap sugar from the expanding West Indian slave plantations, plum puddings became sweeter and the savoury element of the dish (meat) became less important. By the Victorian period the only meat product in a Christmas pudding was suet (raw beef or mutton fat). At this point it had really become Christmas pudding as we know it, with the cannonball-shaped pudding of flour, fruits, suet, sugar and spices topped with a sprig of holly, doused in brandy and set alight.

How exactly plum pudding got to be associated with Christmas is the next mystery. The earlier plum pottage was apparently enjoyed at times of celebration, although it was primarily associated with harvest festivities rather than Christmas. There is an unsubstantiated story that in 1714, King George I (sometimes known as the Pudding King) requested that plum pudding be served as part of his first Christmas feast in England. Whether this actually happened or not, was can see that recipe books from the 18th century onwards did start associating plum pudding with Christmas. In 1740, a publication titled Christmas Entertainments included a recipe for plum pudding, which suggests that it was increasingly eaten in a Christmas context. The first known reference to a ‘Christmas pudding’ is, however, not to be found until 1845, in Eliza Acton’s bestselling Modern Cookery for Private Families.

Joseph Clark (1834-1926) A Christmas Dole

At the time when Acton was composing her cookbook, Christmas puddings were traditionally made four or five weeks before Christmas on ‘Stir-up Sunday’. The name, rather amusingly, comes from the collect in the Book of Common Prayer for that Sunday, which reads “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth good works, may by thee be plenteously required; through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Traditionally everyone in the household gave the pudding mixture a stir and made a wish whilst doing so. It was a common practice to include either a threepence or a sixpence in the pudding mixture which could be kept by the person who found it. For children this was a welcome piece of pocket money and for adults it was supposed to bring wealth in the coming year. Other common tokens included a tiny wishbone to bring good luck, a silver thimble for thrift, and an anchor to symbolize safe harbor.

Text only from the very entertaining blog Dance's Historical Miscellany