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What Is The Christmas Story? 9

What is the Christmas

story? The history behind

our festive traditions and

Santa Claus

How many of us stop to think how it
all began? Discover where our
Christmas traditions come from and
how we celebrate Christmas Day on
the 25th of December

They're the essential bits of Christmas.
Squeezing a fir tree into your living room.
Eating an odd-looking bird. Welcoming an
intruder who breaks in by coming down the
chimney. Gazing at your fifth mince pie of the
day and finally wondering what on Earth might
be in it.
with top-of-the range gifts such as jewellery, Oliver Cromwell in 1647 as "lewd behaviour"
How many of us stop to think how it all
ivory carvings, perfume and miniature dolls. By and that particular law has never been repealed.
began? Dennis Ellam did... and today he
1900 he was selling 13 million a year. Mincemeat at first meant what it said.
explains where our festive traditions come
But we can't blame Tom for the corny There were bits of shredded meat among the
from.
jokes and paper hats. They came later. dried fruits and spices.
The first recipes were probably brought
Father Christmas
Mistletoe back from the Middle East by the Crusaders.
But it was the Victorians who realised
Red robes, white beard, waist-slapping jollity
Kissing under the mistletoe really took off a the concoction might taste better with the meaty
and booming ho-ho-hos. He's been around for
couple of centuries ago, but the plant's racy bits left out.
ever, hasn't he?
reputation dates back much further than that.
Well, actually only since 1935, when
In 300BC, the ancient Druids cut sprigs Christmas pudding
Haddon Sundblo, a Madison Avenue
of the climber from the trunks of oak trees with
advertising man, created Santa Claus for a
Coca-Cola campaign. a golden knife. They believed it had sexual A close relative of the mince pie. And just as
powers and, boiled with the blood of a pair of challenging to the waistline.
In previous lives he was thinner and
sacrificial white bulls, that there wasn't a finer It first appeared on the table in the 14th
paler, a character based on a 4th Century Asian
aphrodisiac. Century when it was more like a porridge made
bishop called Nicholas, who became the patron
Its reputation lived on. By the 18th of beef and mutton, with currants, prunes,
saint of children in most of Europe.
Century mistletoe balls, trimmed with ribbons, raisins and spices stirred in, plus a liberal
It was in Holland, where they called him
hung in the best hallways, where demure young lashing of wine, thickened with breadcrumbs
Sinterklaas, that he earned his reputation for
ladies could stand waiting underneath, lips and egg.
giving stuff away. A small pair of wooden shoes
puckered. In the 1700s, minus the meat, it became
would be left by the fireplace and he would fill
them with sweets. No question of trying to fit in The magic wears off, though. After each a fruity end to the Christmas meal. And in the
kiss, the gentleman should pull off a berry until 1830s Eliza Acton - the Delia of her day -
a fashionable bodkin, let alone a Nintendo Wii.
there are none left, after which the rest of it included a Christmas pudding recipe in her
Different countries still have their own
should be ceremonially burned, otherwise it's 12 cookbook.
variations on the theme, but that fat bloke in a
months of bad luck and celibacy. For a humble pud, it's shrouded in
red suit has pushed them all to the cultural
superstition. You're supposed to stir it in an east
margins.
Turkey to west direction, representing the journey of
What about Rudolph the red-nosed
the Three Wise Men.
reindeer? Debt-ridden shopworker Robert Mays
invented him in 1947 as the hero of a bestselling Goose was the popular choice for Christmas A silver coin hidden inside brings good
book that made him a fortune. The song, written dinners for generations. Middle-class families luck to whoever finds it. Unless, of course, he
by an adman and a professional composer, came with lots of relatives might go for a boar's head, swallows it.
two years later. Who says Christmas isn't while the seriously rich showed off with a swan.
magical? The turkey didn't arrive until the 1600s, (Continued on Page 11)
when merchants brought it back from America
Christmas crackers and marketed it as an exciting new festive taste
- if you stuffed it with sage and onions and laced
it with cranberries, that is. And ignored its
The mastermind behind the Christmas cracker
natural dryness.
was a London sweetshop owner called Tom
It really took off with the Victorians
Smith. In 1847, after spotting French bonbons
after Charles Dickens had Scrooge ordering a
wrapped in paper with a twist at each end, he
turkey in A Christmas Carol.
started selling similar sweets with a "love
Nowadays a turkey isn't just for
motto" inside.
Christmas. It's for sandwiches well past Twelfth
They were so popular as a Christmas
Night. Followed by curries if you're not careful.
novelty that Tom made them bigger and
included a trinket. But the real flash of
Mince pies
inspiration came when he poked the fire and a
log exploded with a sharp CRACK! That gave
him the idea for a package that went off with a Strictly speaking, it's illegal to eat them on
bang. December 25, so watch out.
He launched his "Bangs of Expectation" Feasting at Christmas was banned by