Mentions of Christmas-specific activities were still few and most came from the very last years of the century, strengthening the idea that Christmas celebrations started to grow in popularity in Regency times, then picked up under Queen Victoria. The only mentions of Christmas - and they were very few - used it as a convenient date for things like taking possession of a house or demanding payment on debts. Did they mention balls, routs, assemblies, theatre performances, pantomimes or anything else festive specifically linked to Christmas? I did a careful search of East Anglian newspapers, decade by decade, and looked at what I found. What interested me was to discover what actually appeared in my favourite primary sources: local newspapers.
#QUERN WILLIAM SAYS PLUS#
I don’t want to repeat what’s already been written by others about the Georgian Christmas celebrations, which seemed to focus on special meals, generally taken with family and friends, and decorations based on evergreens plus small gifts for family and servants. It’s also common knowledge that mediaeval and Elizabethan Christmases were fairly riotous affairs and that the Puritans banned Christmas under Cromwell for that reason. These have been ‘supplemented’ by some European ones (like Christmas outdoor markets) and many more American ones. I think it’s fairly well known that many of our present-day Christmas customs were invented in the 19th century, mostly in England by Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria and her family.
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