The holidays are fast approaching and it seems like an ideal time to indulge in our favorite thing at Austen Variations.
When I wrote Twelfth Night at Longbourn, I found myself neck deep in research about Regency era holiday traditions. Learning but them was such great fun that I couldn’t keep it to myself, so I had to publish all the research too. I hope you enjoy an excerpt of A Jane Austen Christmas.
Celebrating a Jane Austen Christmas
Each year the holiday season seems to begin earlier and earlier. Complaints about holiday excesses and longings for ‘simpler’ and ‘old fashioned’ holiday celebrations abound. But what exactly does an ‘old fashioned Christmas’ really look like?
Many Christmas traditions and images of ‘old fashioned’ holidays are based on Victorian celebrations. Going back just a little further, to the beginning of the 19th century, the holiday Jane Austen knew would have looked distinctly odd to modern sensibilities.
How odd? Families rarely decorated Christmas trees. Festivities centered on socializing instead of gift-giving. Festivities focused on adults, with children largely consigned to the nursery. Holiday events, including balls, parties, dinners, and even weddings celebrations, started a week before Advent (the fourth Sunday before Christmas) and extended all the way through to Twelfth Night in January.
As today, not everyone celebrated the same way or observed all the same customs, but many observances were widely recognized. Some of the traditions and dates that might have been observed included:
Stir it up Sunday
On the fifth Sunday before Christmas, the family would gather to ‘stir up’ Christmas puddings that needed to age before serving at Christmas dinner.
December 6th: St. Nicholas Day
In a tradition from Northern Europe, the day might be celebrated with the exchange of small gifts, particularly for children. House parties and other Christmastide visiting also began on or near this day.
December 21st: St. Thomas Day
Elderly women and widows went ‘thomasing’ at the houses of their more fortunate neighbors, hoping for gifts of food or money. Oftentimes landowners cooked and distributed wheat, an especially expensive commodity, to the ‘mumpers’ who came begging.
December 24th: Christmas Eve
Holiday decorating happened on Christmas Eve when families cut or bought evergreen boughs to deck the house. The greenery remained in place until Epiphany when it was removed and burned lest it bring bad luck.
December 25th: Christmas day
Families typically began the day with a trip to church and might pick up their Christmas goose from the local baker on the way home. Though gifts were not usually exchanged on Christmas, children might receive small gifts and cottagers might give generous landowners a symbolic gift in appreciation of their kindness.
The day culminated in a much anticipated feast. Traditional foods included boar’s head, brawn, roast goose, mince meat pies, and the Christmas puddings made a month earlier.
December 26th: Boxing Day
After receiving their Christmas boxes, servants usually enjoyed a rare day off. Churches distributed the money from their alms-boxes.
Families might attend the opening day of pantomimes. The wealthy traditionally enjoyed fox hunting on this day.
December 31: New Year’s Eve
Families thoroughly cleaned the house before gathering in a circle before midnight to usher out the old year and in the new.
Some Scots and folks of northern England believed in ‘first footing’—the first visitor to set foot across the threshold after midnight on New Year’s Eve affected the family’s fortunes. The ‘first footer’ entered through the front door and left through the back door, taking all the old year’s troubles and sorrows with him.
Jan 1: New Year’s Day
The events of New Year’s Day predicted the fortunes for the coming year, with a variety of traditions said to discern the future like ‘creaming the well’, or the burning of a hawthorn bush.
Jan 6th: Twelfth Night
A feast day honoring the coming of the Magi, Epiphany or Twelfth Night, marked the traditional climax of the holiday season and the time when celebrants exchanged gifts.
Revels, masks and balls were the order of the day. With the rowdy games and large quantities of highly alcoholic punch, they became so raucous that Queen Victoria outlawed Twelfth Night parties by the 1870′s.
45 comments
Skip to comment form
I had thought that Twelfth Night was celebrated on the evening of January 5, and then Epiphany on January 6. Did the Epiphany tradition of the King’s Cake with a crown (coin) baked in start after Jane Austen’s time? The one who had the coin in his/her slice wore a paper crown and had a year of good luck ahead. 🙂
Our little Anglican Church in Southern California celebrates Twelfth Night with the burning of the greens, evensong, and then Christmas trifle and sherry. We play games and have general revelry. 🙂 When our kids were small, we gave just stockings on Christmas Day and gave the kids their big family gift on Epiphany. 🙂
Thanks for the wonderfully informative post, and I wish you all a blessed Advent season! 🙂
Warmly,
Susanne 🙂
PS This California girl would most like Mr. Darcy’s Pledge as I adore all of Abigail Reynolds’ books but can’t afford to buy the ones I can’t get through my library. I would also love the Jane Austen prints and Christmas cards.
Actually, I’d love to have *all* of it except for Twelfth Night at Longbourne as I just won a copy last week and am already buried in it…. 🙂
Warmly,
Cassandra 🙂
I enjoyed reading the summary of the festive season. Thank iou for the informative post. I love how Christmas was celebrated in Jane’s time, with simplicity, compared to today. Socialization as the center. I finally know what Boxing Day is! Thank you for the post and for the generous give away.
Thank you for sharing some of the past’s Christmas traditions. I’m familiar with them but of course I need to refresh my memory come December time. Thank you to all authors for their generous contribution. Good luck, everyone!
What a wonderful giveaway. Cannot wait to be able to enter. Such Holiday goodies from you to us! Thank you.
I love this information. History is sort of my thing anyway, and to see it related to the Regency time period is so much fun (especially for Christmas time!!). Thanks for all you guys do. I wish everyone a fabulous holiday season!
What an amazing bag of goodies! Thanks for the very generous giveaway and for kicking off the celebrations with all those delicious tidbits of Regency Christmas fun!
Oops, sorry, didn’t read the instructions. I live in the UK and I think I have all the e-books on offer (except those not released yet 😉 ) but I’d love to win any of the other goodies. Have a great run up to Xmas, everyone!
live in Canada – and I am interested in Mr Darcy’s Challenge, and Mr Darcy’s Proposal –
I actually don’t know anything about old fashioned Christmas and Twelfth Night as I don’t celebrate the occasion, though I am interested in reading about the subject
meikleblog at gmail dot com
What a wonderful give away! I am a US resident and would love to win anything but a Jane Austen goodie bag sounds divine.
Wishing you all a very happy set of winter holidays 🙂 And hoping for a fantastic 2015!
What a great post! I thoroughly enjoyed `Twelfth Night at Longbourn` and remember many of these traditions in it! Thank you all for your generosity and wonderful prizes!
They really had a quite a long holiday season compared to ours. Fascinating, Maria Grace!
Thanks for the giveaway opportunity. Very generous everybody! US resident. I would love to win: The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen, Plains of Chalmette, Mr. Darcy Christmas Calendar or any of the non-book prizes.
Thanks for sharing this post and giveaway! I am going to have to pay attention this year to ‘first footing’ and see what kind of luck I have in store for 2015, – New Year’s Eve is actually my birthday, So I may be the one stepping into my home 1st after midnight 🙂
I am US and if I win a prize I prefer ebooks 🙂 Otherwise no preference.
WHEW! What an extended holiday season for Jane. I think it would have become quite a blur.
I live in Texas and have no gift preference as they are all EPIC!
I love P&P especially Christmas theme ones. Can’t wait to read all the books, I’m adding some of them that are not already on my TBR list!
Thank you for the giveaways!
Thank you for the history lesson. It will surely help when I read books from that time period.
Kathy
Very interesting information. Thank you for sharing with us. I enjoyed reading it. Sometimes I wish we had something like this!!!
Great idea! I want everything!
Thanks for Happy giveaway items!
Thank you for this very interesting post about Regency holiday celebrations! I am a US resident and would love to win any of the paperbacks!
Very interesting summary of the holiday season. Thank you! I still get hung up on things like “stirring up puddings” that have to age a month before you eat them… that sounds like a questionable proposition for your stomach, especially before refrigeration!
I love Abigail Reynolds books and WWMDD is my favorite of them. Of course, I already have it in hard copy and kindle versions but hey what’s a girl to do?
Interesting post. Being from the US, I have always wonder how correct the depictions of the holiday season in Regency books actually are.
Very interesting post! I looked up a recipe for ‘brawn’ – eeks, I would have to touch a pig’s head and cut it apart. Eww! I will stick to the Christmas pudding instead; sounds safer.
I would love a copy of Jack’s new book, ‘Plains of Chalmette.’ Love the Cajun Cheesehead!
~ junewilliams7 {at} yahoo {dot} com
I learn something new each time that I visit this blog. Christmas traditions are so interesting.
I am from Canada, so I guess that makes me International! I would love to receive the ecopies of Mr. Darcy’s Pledge 1 & 2, unless you would like to send me a print copy of Mr. Darcy’s Christmas Calendar! Either one would be great! Thank you!
Although I live in the U.S. now, I loved learning about European holiday traditions while living in Germany years ago. Thank you for sharing your research into Regency celebrations. Thanks also to all the authors for such lovely offerings. I’d love a copy of Mr Darcy’s Challenge or The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen, but really any of the gifts would be a treat.
Austen Variations is the best blog ever…at least for me. All my other blogs are technical, stressful and boring. All of the authors are so nice and generous with their giveaways. I enjoyed the descriptions of the Christmas Traditions. Also really enjoyed 12th Night at Longburn. That entire series was excellent. Thanks for all the Holiday Cheer!
I own Maria Grace’s book and found it fascinating. Because there are so many differences between how we celebrate the Holiday season in the U.S. and how the U.K. celebrates even now, I wonder what the differences were during the Regency. Down here in the New Orleans area, though, Twelfth night heralds both Epiphany and Mardi Gras season! Yes, the Big Easy is different!.
puddings that age before Christmas dinner is just such a bizarre concept to me. We have a tradition in my family of giving a small gift on Christmas eve, which seems similar to the small gifts given to children in Austen’s time
I live in the US. All of the prizes are fantastic & I would love any of them with the exceptions of the ebooks for 12th night, Mr. Darcy’s Pledge & Mr. Darcy’s Challenge because I already have them. Thank you for offering this give away.
I’m international and here are my preferences from most coveted to the least:
1) Mr Darcy’s Christmas Calendar
2) The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen
3) Mr Darcy’s Challenge
4) Box of Jane Austen goodies
5) The Plains of Chalmette
6) Jane Austen Prints
7) Jane Austen Christmas cards
No audiobooks, please as I’m not a fan. And I want to thank all the authors again for donating the prizes.
I live in the US. I would love Jane Austen Christmas Cards, Jane Austen Prints, Box of Jane Austen Goodies and no audiobooks please. A wonderful and interesting feature.
Oh how I have often wondered about the Twelfth night traditions. I really love all the history behind them and would like to learn more. ebooks or regular books are good for me. I am also interested in… Mr Darcy’s Christmas Calendar
3) Mr Darcy’s Challenge
4) Box of Jane Austen goodies
6) Jane Austen Prints
I am in the US, thank you for this wonderful give away 🙂
Thank you for this opportunity.
very informative! We missed stir it up Sunday, but I’m thinking of making a Christmas Pudding this year – unlikely from scratch. 😉
Hi. Thanks for the wonderful post with the info and the giveaway. I am international, like reading ebooks on my kindle and i am interested in 1)Jane Austen’s Christmas, 2)Mr Darcy’s Christmas Calendar and 3) Holiday Man as i have already all the other books
Lovely post on the Christmas traditions. I would far rather spend time with family and friends than shop endlessly for fripperies.
I always love the little gems in the stories that teach is about the regency era. This was fun to read and the contest is wonderful! I am looking forward to Mr. Darcy’s Christmas Calendar.
What a wonderful holiday season 🙂 We always celebrate St Nicholas day on December the fifth… I’m international and would love to read A Jane Austen Christmas
Hi! What a beautiful giveaway! I’m French and you are very lucky to have so many books to read about Jane Austen’s stories. But France begins to translate some ones and French readers are really happy and I am!
I dont know if for France it’s possible but I would like “The Persuasion of Miss Jane Auste”. It seems really interesting! Thank you for what you make!
I live in the US. Mr Darcy’s Christmas Calendar sounds like a wonderful read! Thank you for the opportunity to win.
Thanks for the giveaways. I just love these books.
I loved reading all about the different traditions. Thanks for the giveaway. I am a US resident and I would love any of the prizes. tresha_7at msndotcom
I would love to have Mr Darcys Christmas Calendar book or the journal set I think it is (bottom row in the middle) 🙂 They all are wonderful gifts though! Thank you 🙂