Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Tudor Christmas > Status Update

‘The Tudor monarchs also gave gifts, usually items of plate, such as cups and bowls chased with the royal cipher, each weighted according to rank. Every person at court, even the most menial members of the royal household, got something. In one year, 1511, Henry VIII spent over £800 (over £400,000 today) on New Year’s presents.’

‘The wooden wassail bowl, decorated with ribbons, contained hot ale, beer or cider, apples, sugar, spices, rosemary and a crust of bread at the bottom. People would pass the bowl, crying, ‘Wassail!’ and each recipient would take a drink and pass it on, saying, ‘Drinkhail!’ The crust of bread at the bottom of the wassail bowl was reserved for the most important person in the room’

‘Plum porridge was much enjoyed as an appetiser to line the stomach before the rich dinner to come. It was a thick broth of mutton or beef, boiled in a skin with plums, spices, dried fruits, breadcrumbs and wine. In the later sixteenth century, flour was added to it to make a pudding or cake. Centuries later, the Victorians would remove the meat and turn plum porridge into the rich Christmas pudding we know today’

‘Because of Advent, tradition demanded that houses were not decorated for the festive season until Christmas Eve. On that day, cloaked and gloved against the cold, adults and children went merrily out in the countryside and into woodlands to gather evergreens such as holly and ivy, which they used to festoon their homes and their local churches.’

‘Henry VIII’s expenses for the first Christmas of his reign in 1509 show that the nineteen-year-old King outlaid the equivalent of a staggering £13.5m. His total revenue for the year was £16.5m. The money went on food, entertainment and gifts. Beneficiaries included choirboys, musicians, actors and servants.’

‘The history of Christmas does not begin with Christ, as our Christmas rituals evolved from pagan rites. Pagan people celebrated the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year. The winter solstice was immensely important at a time when communities could not be certain of living through the winter.‘