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The Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook

In the Tudor era, specifically during the reign

of Henry VII, who adored Christmas, the festi-

val became an even more lavish and rowdy affair,

with pageants and plays, games—backgammon,

chess, cards—and religious services, feasting and

imbibing. During the Christmas season of 1512,

on Epiphany, Henry VIII hosted a masked ball

inspired by Italy—“a thing not seen afore in

England.” Opulent displays, extravagant proces-

sions, lively holiday pantomimes played by cour-

tiers, and even mock hunting scenes became part

of the annual spectacle. One year, according to

English Forests and Forest Trees, published in 1853,

“an artificial forest was drawn in by a lion and an

antelope, the hides of which were richly embroi-

dered with golden ornaments; the animals were

harnessed with chains of gold, and on each sat

a fair damsel in gay apparel.” The royal feasting

table included the grandest of dishes, with swans,

peacocks, incredibly large and richly decorated

mince pies, and even larger fruitcakes. But the

most important dish at the Christmas feast was

the boar’s head,which had been secured by a royal

hunting party and was ceremoniously paraded

into the imposing dining hall.

The nobility of the period started to imi-

tate the Christmas splendor of the court—both

the feasting and the pageantry—at their own

stately homes and at the Inns of Court. The

working classes were allowed greater privileges

at Christmas, too. In 1494, during the reign of

Henry VII, an act that specifically forbade beg-

gars and vagabonds from engaging in unlawful

games to win the wages of workers also forbade