A Victorian Christmas

Hi,

My Christmas posting is finally here, sorry it's taken so long but I've barely had chance to eat a mince pie over the last couple of weeks!

Your ancestors would have had different experiences of Christmas according to their social class, and the time period that they lived in. Poor Victorian families aren't likely to have had all the trimmings of a stereotypical Dickensian Christmas - the children may have had one, very simple, toy (often made by a family member) or a new dress for an existing doll, for example. Much of Christmas day would have been taken up by going to church or chapel services, particularly for the very religious such as many chapel-going coal-mining families in the South Wales valleys. Many would have heated their dinner (particularly the goose etc.) in the local baker's ovens, being unable to afford large enough ovens to cook them at home.

Richer families would have bought their children more elaborate toys - dolls houses, rocking horses, and toy soldiers, for example. They would also have had more extravagant dinners, and more parties and social gatherings.

Of course, some of the older traditions would have been as familiar to your ancestors as they are to us: carol singing, mince pies and a Christmas tree (though this would have been a fairly recent tradition to the Victorians) would have played a part in many families' Christmases. The name Santa Claus would have been unheard of in the UK however - the figure with the white beard being given the more genteel name of Father Christmas.

And of course, to many, particularly the more literate, Christmas will have meant a Dickens story.

Happy Christmas to all of you!