On the third day of Christmas, Jane Austen gave to me… a new Christmas novella!
Elizabeth’s First Yule Log
Elizabeth sat in the upstairs sitting room, reading. Now things were returned to normal, a few minutes on her own proved pleasant, not isolating. Earlier that day, Darcy and Fitzwilliam had taken the children and Georgiana to cut decorations for the house. Evergreen boughs and Christmas roses adorned the mantle and filled vases on the tables throughout the house, the fruits of those labors.
What a change a few days and an alteration in company made. Though there had been a few frenzied moments in planning, all in all, peace had returned and with it a sense of the Christmastide season.
Mrs. Reynolds peeked into the room. “It is almost here, madam. The Pemberley tradition is for the family to gather in the parlor.”
Darcy and Fitzwilliam arrived a moment later.
“Come, my lady, your chariot waits.” Fitzwilliam bowed.
“I am quite capable in getting to the stairs on my own. I have become quite handy with these walking sticks now. Perhaps I might suggest them as a new fashionable accessory for the ton.”
Fitzwilliam sniggered. “Do not say that too loudly. All it would take is one of Almack’s patronesses to appear in company with them. The next day everyone will be clamoring for them. You might speak to Bingley. There could be a fortune to be made in selling fashionable walking sticks to ladies.”
Darcy snickered.
Oh, how lovely it was to hear him in good humor once again. The house was glum and dreary without his laughter.
They carried her downstairs to the parlor where the Gardiners awaited.
Soon she would attempt the stairs on her own. The novelty in being carried had worn off. She longed for the freedom to come and go as she pleased. Darcy, though, would probably regret the loss of the excuse to be so close to her in public. She would miss that, too.
The fragrance of evergreens enveloped them, the room bearing a veritable forest of boughs, decked with gay red and white ribbons. Mama decorated this way too. More than anything, this brought the feelings of the Yuletide season to life.
Georgiana pressed her nose to the glass. “I see them coming!”
The children crowded around her. They had never seen a Yule log before. In town, the Gardiners celebrated with a Yule candle.
“Is the hot cider ready?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes, madam, and there is bread and cheese in the kitchen for the men,” Mrs. Reynolds answered as she walked past the parlor door.
Elizabeth craned her neck to see out the window. A team of horses and several farmers, trundled up to the front of the house, a huge log chained to the team.
The front door groaned open and clanking chains and men’s voices filled the ground floor.
Elizabeth sat on the couch farthest from the door and gathered the children to her. They pressed close, eyes wide at the sight of the men wrestling the enormous log up to the fireplace.
Surely it would not fit. No, there was simply no way.
The children gasped and applauded.
How had they made it fit?
Darcy smiled at her from the other side of the room. He had promised her it would fit and was gloating in the glory of being right.
Dear man.
Darcy and Fitzwilliam thanked the men for their efforts, and Sampson ushered them back to the kitchen for an ample measure of Pemberley’s hospitality.
“That is the biggest Yule log I have ever seen,” Aunt Gardiner beckoned the children closer to the fireplace.
“Where did it come from, sir?” Matthew, the oldest, tugged Darcy’s coat sleeve.
Darcy hunkered down beside him. What an excellent father he would make.
“We have a cooper on the estate. The Yule log has always come from there. It is a log not suitable to his purposes, made a gift, suitable to ours.”
“Surely it is large enough to smolder until Twelfth Night,” Elizabeth said.
“That is the plan,” Darcy said. “Each year, it is the job of the youngest hall boy to sleep in the parlor from Christmas Eve until Twelfth Night. He tends the Yule fire and ensures it remains lit until throughout.”
“Do not fear, madam, the lad is well rewarded for his efforts, with all the apples he can roast and toast and cheese he can stuff himself with.” Fitzwilliam winked.
Elizabeth giggled.
Darcy waved them all close to the fireplace. He opened a silver box on the mantle and removed two crystal bottles and a silver box. He anointed the log with oil, wine and salt.
“May the fire of this log warm the cold; may the hungry be fed; may the weary find rest and may all enjoy heaven’s peace.”
He opened a second silver box and extended it toward them. “This is what remains of the last Yule log.”
Ashes filled the box. Along one side lay a long splinter.
“Fitzwilliam, would you care to light the log?”
Fitzwilliam rubbed his hands together briskly. “Afraid that you might not be able to manage to start it on the first try yourself, old man?”
Darcy snorted, but held his peace.
Elizabeth snickered.
How like boys they were. But it was good. Fitzwilliam brought out a youthful, almost playful side in Darcy, one that needed release far more often. True, it was a mite prickly, but that could be shaped and softened with time and practice.
Fitzwilliam hunkered down beside the Yule log. Shadows drifted across his face. He stiffened and stared into the fireplace.
Darcy crouched beside him. “Are you well? Should I not have asked you to do this?”
Fitzwilliam swallowed hard and worked at words. “I … I … I can do this.” His hands shook
“Let us do it together.” Darcy moved close beside him and whispered to Fitzwilliam.
Elizabeth closed her eyes to listen better. He was reminding Fitzwilliam of boyhood times. Times spent in their hunting lodge, of Yule logs past. Of pleasant, peaceful things.
Slowly the trembling stopped, and Fitzwilliam began to breathe more normally.
Together, they struck the spark and fanned it into life. They lit the splinter and nursed the burgeoning blaze until the log burned, too.
Darcy stood and arranged the group around Elizabeth. He extended his hand toward her, and they joined hands in a circle.
“Let us consider the year past. Our faults, mistakes and bad choices. Let us allow the flames to consume those that we may begin the coming year with a clean slate. With that as our starting place, let us purpose to improve our faults, correct our mistakes and make improved choices.”
He squeezed her hand hard and peeked at her from the corner of his eyes. She squeezed his hand back.
This was a tradition different to her family’s. But it was very pleasing and she would look forward to it in the coming years.
They lingered a moment longer then released the circle.
A pair of maids entered bearing trays of cider, apples for roasting, bread and cheese for toasting.
Darcy tossed Fitzwilliam an apple. “You may have the honors of tending the roasting apples.”
Fitzwilliam bit into it instead. Darcy laughed heartily.
Yes, this was the sound to launch a proper Yuletide upon.
So what did you think? Do you observe the Yule log tradition or others in your family?
42 comments
Skip to comment form
I never knew about the Yuletide log until I started reading in English.
In Mexico we have the Posadas. In them we represent the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph asking for shelter in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. And then we defeat the capital sins by breaking a piñata with seven points that represent them. Much of these traditions have been lost but they still are celebrated in some places.
I grew up in an extended Polish-American family, and lived on a farm on the North Fork of Long Island until I moved to New York City in my 20s. When I was a child and teenager, my extended family would gather every year at my grandmother’s house for Christmas Eve, or Wigilia, as it is called in Polish. Some years, there would be as many as 40 or so of us, eating dinner in three rooms, as my grandmother had raised five children of her own and six foster children.
On the afternoon of December 24th, I would set up the large wooden table with all its leaves in the main room, being sure to put a mound of straw, which represented the manger at Bethlehem, in the center of the table, underneath the cross stitched tablecloth my grandmother had bought from an itinerant peddler years before. A plate of blessed Christmas wafers – oplatki – would be placed over where the mound of straw sat.
That evening, my grandmother would lead us in a prayer in Polish, and then we would each break off a large piece of oplatek, so that we could go around the room and break off pieces from each others’ wafer. Then the meatless meal would commence, everyone having brought something to contribute. There would be a good selection of fish, fried eels, pickled herring, golabki [cabbage rolls], my mother’s sweet potato with marshmallows casserole, bread rolls soaked in water and covered with poppy seeds, assorted vegetables, glazed poppy seed cake, and so on. We would eat and later open presents until it was time to head to church for Midnight Mass in Polish. Christmas Day seemed to pale a bit in comparison after all this, but most of us were together again for another large family meal.
After my grandmother passed, my mother kept the custom going for a number of years, but as my generation – the second born in America – grew up and married, the tradition became more one of individual family celebrations.
My grandmother’s cross stitch tablecloth was eventually handed down to me, and every time I see it at this time of the year, I fondly remember those long-ago Christmas Eves.
I come from a working class family from Derbyshire so sadly the only Yule Log we grew up with was a chocloate one my Mum would make! Brilliant to get a new book from you now as Mrs Drummond has finished. Happy Christmas to you and yours x
What a lovely start to my morning reading this lovely excerpt. I am British but have never done the yule log. Perhaps we should start. Christmas is my favourite time of the year. We always go to a Victorian Fayre on 23 December. We are going to Wallington Hall in Northumberland this year which is run by the National Trust. This year all family are foming to my house on Christmas Day and so are the neighbours. My daughter is travelling in Central America at the moment and is due to return home on Christmas Eve. Thank you for this Christmassey little snippet!
Yule log? Yule log? What on earth is that? Lol. In case you cannot tell, the Yule log is not a big part of Australian Christmas culture. And to be honest, it has only been in the reading of historical novels that I even know the name. Australia is fairly well split on the traditional hot lunch, a barbie (bbq), and a cold seafood lunch. In my family we tended to do a hot lunch and a seafood evening dinner. Now, however it’s split. The kids and I spend the morning/lunch with my family, and then they have the afternoon/evening with their dad.
In Italy we don’t have this tradition. We usually set up a “presepe”, a nativity scene made with little statues representing Mary, Joseph and Jesus but also all the shepherds and common people who went to see the child.
Usually the manger remains empty till Christmas night when baby Jesus is put in it.
That was a delight to read, and it made me nostalgic for something our family has never done. This year we have a fireplace, and since our furnace just died, it sounds especially wonderful to celebrate with a Yule Log. What a lovely visit with the Darcys this was. The new furnace will be installed within the next week, but the warmth and light from this story is already here. Thank you for a lovely post to start the day off with a smile.
No, I have never had a Yule log, but this slice of the Darcys and their loved ones was so inviting! It would be a lovely tradition. I particularly liked the interaction between Darcy and Fitzwilliam in this excerpt.
I love this scene. Thank you for sharing.
Wonderful! I am enjoying Christmas with my newlywed husband and we are starting our traditions. I am going to give him “Twelve Days of Christmas” gifts. Just small, silly things but want it to be a new tradition for me. Like rereading all of my wonderful Jane Austen books and wonderful adaptions. Love this!
Never had a Yule log tradition – lack of fires may be the reason
Thank you for the excerpt..now the whole concept of the Yule log makes so much more sense! One of the things that I so love about historical fiction is that is makes history come alive and helps me understand the culture.
I love the idea of a Yule log, if only I had a fireplace… though I’d probably also need a hall boy to tend to it while it burns for twelve straight days!
When I was young we all used to gather at my Gram’s and sit around and stuff ourselves and play Christmas movies (It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th St, White Christmas) and everyone would out quote each other and argue over politics and religion. It was something I will always remember. As an adult we don’t do any of that anymore and I miss it.
We love christmas and all its traditions at our house. We bake things, we have 12 days of christmas, we have a huge family dinner, we visit our friends, we decorate inside and out etc etc. Christmas is the best time of year. One of the things we enjoy the most is our “intangible gifts”. We give something that doesn’t cost any money such as a service or something we already have that someone else would like. It is great fun and brings us closer together.
Thank you for sharing this with us. We had no fireplace, so no yule log, but it sounds like it was a wonderful event to share in. Thanks again!
I already purchased my copy of The Darcy’s First Christmas and have thoroughly enjoyed it. 🙂
Most of our traditions revolve around Advent, with the Advent wreath on the table and the hand-sewn huge Advent calendar on the wall with pockets for every day. Each pocket has a Scripture verse attached to be read, and I put candy in the pockets. We’ve wrapped small toys when the kids were little.
Thanks for this lovely excerpt, Maria Grace!! 🙂 You are a gem!!
Advent blessings,
Susanne 🙂
This is a lovely tradition for the Holidays. Hadn’t heard about this tradition until reading all Christmas variations of Pride and Prejudice. Would be a tradition to add, but several years ago I converted my two fireplaces to gas. Wouldn’t be a good idea to start this tradition now. The tradition I remember most was staying with my aunt and grandparents baking all kinds of Christmas cookies enough to feed hundreds of people. Some of the thicker decorated cookies were tied to the tree and used as ornaments. Grandma didn’t mind, because next year we started all over agaovely excerpt.
This is a lovely tradition for the Holidays. Hadn’t heard about this tradition until reading all Christmas variations of Pride and Prejudice. Would be a tradition to add, but several years ago I converted my two fireplaces to gas. Wouldn’t be a good idea to start this tradition now. The tradition I remember most was staying with my aunt and grandparents baking all kinds of Christmas cookies enough to feed hundreds of people. Some of the thicker decorated cookies were tied to the tree and used as ornaments. Grandma didn’t mind, because next year we started all over again. Lovely excerpt.
Mistake in the first post. No way to edit!
No Yule logs in our family but your story is delightful! I can hardly wait to see what mischief befalls the Darcy’s on their first Christmas. Jen Red
So lovely. I could almost smell the greenery !
No yule log here on so Louisiana. Or sw Mississippi where I am moving
Can’t wait to read the rest!
Merry Christmas Maria grace!!
No yule log for me either. No fireplace. It sounds like a lovely tradition, though. 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful excerpt and for the great giveaway!
I’ve never had the experience with the Yule log, but it sounds nice. Thanks for the chance to win a book.
We have a daily Advent Calendar, and everyday we open it to find a Christmas activity to do that day — some big, some small. The kids and adults can’t wait to open it every morning.
I would love to have a Yule log, but alas we have no fire … apart from it being totally the wrong season in NZ!
Instead we put out mince pies and a cold drink for Santa, and a carrot for the reindeer. We always have pavlova for dessert for Christmas day, so this is made on the 24th.
Christmas is our favourite time of year, but no fireplace so no yule log sadly. We have many traditions we follow every year from the hunt for a live tree to where and how decorations are displayed. We make merry the whole month.
Great to see you have a new story out. Thanks for the chance to win.
Though we’ve never had a Yule log, we do light a fire in the fireplace nearly every night during the holiday season. On New Year’s Eve, we write down the one thing we wish to forget from the past year, toss it in the flames, and as Darcy says in your excerpt “allow the flames to consume those that we may begin the coming year with a clean slate.”
This well-written, delightful story provided good insights to Regency celebration of Christmas by the wealthy. And, of course, this information was intertwined with a delightful new story.
Thanks for the excerpt–it’s always nice to get a new bit of P&P to read. Too bad Jane herself isn’t still writing, but then there wouldn’t be so many fun fan stories!
We never had a yule log, but we did light a fire in the fireplace a few years on Christmas eve. Our tradition was late service at church.
Congratulations on the new release!
What a wonderful excerpt! I love the imagery and could really picture and feel the excitement! Thank you for posting!
Wonderful excerpt. Thank you for the giveaway.
I also grew up in Derbyshire (not far from Lyme Park – Pemberley 1995) We only had a chocolate log as well – but it was very nice! In my house now I don’t have a real fire so couldn’t have one anyway. I loved the excerpt and would really like to win a copy of this book – thank you for the giveaway.
I’ve never experienced the yule log tradition, which I assume to be very much a northern hemisphere tradition, but have heard of it in many stories. I find the idea of Christmas traditions interesting as they seem to be either cultural or family based, both of which are steeped in history of one kind or another. Traditions being so makes them rather suitable for a P&P story 🙂
We don’t do Yule Logs much in the States. We only had gas fireplaces after we moved into a house. I remember quite a bit of cooking. Mom always made mince meat pie for my older brother and the good china came out for dinner.
The most memorable Christmas was very quiet and very small. My brothers and sisters couldn’t come home so I was the only one of the “children” there. My older brother was in Viet Nam and my sister-in-law and their 2 small sons came from California for Christmas. Daddy saw a tree in the window at Sears that was beautiful. We always had had live trees until then. Daddy wanted that Christmas to be special for his Grandsons. He and I went to get the tree….he never drove so I had to take him since this was a suprise for everyone else. He bought that tree decorations and all. It was beautiful. I still have the garland and the decorations from that tree. It’s been 45 years but I think of him everytime I decorate my tree.
Your story, as always, was wonderful and a pleasant start to the morning.
We have a yule log dvd that we put on every christmas day. though now we heard about the hallmark channel yule log with a dog and will be checking that out this year
This seems like a really fun read and I would love to win it.
We do not have a yule log tradition in my family.
I heard of Yuletide log before, but did not really read much about it until reading JAFF stories. Sounds like a fun tradition.
We always watch the yulelog Christmas music channel on Christmas Eve, it’s the closest we can get having a gas fireplace in our house! Sounds a bit silly but it reminds me of Christmas Eve fires from my childhood! I can’t wait to read the rest of your story, the exempt was lovely.
Sweet story, Maria Grace!
This excerpt has certainly made me curious of what is going on! Thank you for the giveaway. One of our traditions is to sit down on Christmas day for a large, delicious breakfast. (Even as adults, they still expect the breakfast whenever they come home!) Only afterwards, were gifts opened and each child opened one at a time so all could be part of it and it would extend the joy of opening gifts.