Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Victorian Christmas Book > Status Update

‘Christmas has always been a time for charity. Following the example of their Queen who annually distributed her Royal Bounty to well over 2000 people, the Victorians threw themselves into charitable works with enthusiasm, giving Christmas Boxes - presents of food and money - to all the deserving poor of the parish, usually on the day after Christmas.’

‘One of the most popular of all Victorian Christmas games was ‘Snapdragon’. A shallow bowl filled with spirit and currants was put on the floor and the spirit was ignited. The players then tried to snatch the currants out of the flames and put them into their mouths. The trick was to move quickly and to close the mouth over the burning currant and extinguish the flame.’

‘Bob Crachit’s salary was fifteen shillings a week. How could he afford a goose of such magnificence? The answer lies in one of the great Victorian working-class institutions - The Goose Club. Even the lowest paid worker could enjoy a goose at Christmas with his family by contributing to his local Goose Club a small part of his week’s wages throughout the year.’

‘For most middle-class Victorians, mattins on Christmas morning was one of the focal points of the day. It was only after duty was done that the presents and the midday meal could be enjoyed. Among the working classes, however, religious observation was by no means so widespread. Tradesmen still traded - bakers kept their ovens alight to cook the local families’ Christmas geese’

‘The first known collection of English carols was published in 1521 by Wynkyn de Worde, and a fragment of it remains in the Bodleian Library. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries many carols were undoubtedly sung, but few were published, it was the Victorians who collected, composed and published old and new carols’

‘But no matter when the presents were given, and no matter what they cost, the Victorians were adamant on one point. It was the thought that counted. As the poetess Ella Wheeler Wilcox put it: ‘... it is not Art, but Heart, which wins the wide world over.’ The humblest home-made gift was more precious than a casquet of jewels; the child’s sampler worked with love more treasured than silver or gold.’