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Edwardian Christmas

Some extracts from Alice Hooper Beck's article, published in 'Housewife' in December 1953. This monthly magazine cost 1s 9d (equivalent to £2 - £5 in 2010 according to a 'MeasuringWorth' website depending on which price index is used) and content suggests it was aimed at the well-to-do or those aspiring to be. Think of a family in The Butts.

SUGAR AND SPICE AND ALL THINGS NICE

For us, growing up in the first decade of this century, Christmas really began on the day early in December when Grandmother, wrapped to the chin in a moth-eaten bearskin rug, drove up to the front door in her dog-cart. Living 25 miles away across country, and 16 miles from a railway station, she thought nothing of such a journey and neither did we. Announcing that she would stay a night or two she and mother set off by train for a shopping spree in the city.

Next day Grandmother started for home laden with what she called 'the fruits of civilization'. A farm cart followed at a respectful distance with the overflow and all our luggage.

We children were invited to stay with Grandmother a week ahead of our elders. They were not expected until Christmas Eve. This splendid arrangement, it was explained, allowed Grandmother to see something of her own grandchildren. Equipped with a footwarmer and a gigantic picnic basket, we made the journey in a cab hired from Clegg's Livery Stables, and if Mr. Clegg did not make too many mysterious 'calls' on the way we arrived well before dark.

From lunch time onwards Grandmother had been listening for the sounds of wheels so when we turned into her gateway at last the lamps were lit in every room. That night we ate huge tray suppers in our dressing gowns in front of roaring peat fires and went to bed on high goose-feather mattresses that seemed like the clouds of heaven itself after the hard beds considered so good for us at home.

We awoke in a house going full tilt at Christmas preparations. At home kitchen and larders were mostly out of bounds, but here there were no such rules. We could go where we liked and as soon as possible this was into the kitchen to help Teresa, Grandmother's housekeeper and our devoted friend.

We always hoped she would be making rum butter, a delicacy our governess considered highly unsuitable for children. As Teresa tied down great bowls of it we helped ourselves to inch-thick chunks.

Then the cake icing began. Every September Teresa and Grandmother between them made twelve Christmas cakes, one for each daughter of the house to take home with her and half a dozen over. The biggest one, which was cut for tea on Christmas Day, was iced with lacy white. The others were thickly covered with rich marzipan and decorated with angelica leaves and cherries.

As we cut the angelica into strips Grandmother stood at the range making sweets. Every year she made pounds and pounds of toffee and butter scotch to give away. She also made a speciality of her own: orange peel first candied and then dipped in a bitter-sweet chocolate. The peel was boiled in four separate waters until it was tender enough to be pierced with a broom straw, then candied, cut into the thinnest strips and dipped in chocolate. When it was crisp and dry this confection was packed into charming little boxes and presented to a few of Grandmother's special cronies...

...packages arrived from 'the stores' in London, from Dublin shops and local tradesmen... almonds came in great drums, Carlsbad plums in flat wooden boxes...

At Christmas, Edwardian tradesmen 'remembered' good customers with fascinating gifts. Boxes were handed in at the kitchen door addressed 'To the young ladies and gentlemen with R.D. Lindsay's compliments.' Mr Lindsay was the grocer and his present was sometimes Edinburgh rock or a Scotch Bun of such tremendous richness that it could only be eaten in inch-sized squares.

Other tradesmen sent tins of sugared biscuits and boxes of tangerines. A small dairy we went to for honey occasionally once sent us a sitting hen on a nest of eggs, all made in butter.

Published December 2012