Читать книгу Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook - Regula Ysewijn - Страница 15

|

23

Introduction

swing. A few books detailing the celebration of

Christmas, such as Hervey’s The Book of Christmas

and The Keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall by

Washington Irving (1820), had come earlier, but

Dickens’s book quickly proved the most popular.

A Christmas Carol basically became the guide-

book for a traditional English Christmas, as it had

everything for a perfect holiday story: ghosts, an

evil tightwad in remorse, hard times and hunger,

charity, a feast with a large turkey, a decorated tree,

and a happy ending.

Inspired in part by Dickens, who quickly

turned out four more Christmas novels,Christmas

soon became the highlight of the annual calen-

dar, much in the same way centuries earlier it had

been a way of coping with the darkest and coldest

season of the year, especially for those living at

the lower rungs of society.To help working people

save up for this festive winter celebration, many

grocery stores and pubs operated Christmas clubs,

which enabled folks to put away a little money

every week or so for holiday luxuries.

But the upper class embraced these revived tra-

ditions, too,sitting down to a Christmas feast and

outfitting trees with candles and glittery decora-

tions.The Christmas tree, which was documented

in a more modest form in England as early as the

fifteenth century, experienced renewed interest

with the 1840 arrival in London of Albert, the

German prince consort. From that year forward,

Victoria and Albert included a beautifully deco-

rated tree at Windsor as part of their holiday cele-

bration, and as the monarchs were admired across

English society, houses both grand and simple

soon wanted a tree, too.

Nostalgia was selling well, so traders began

offering Christmas-branded items, such as

books and cards. Although the first Christmas

card in England was reportedly sent to James I

by a German physician in the early seventeenth

century, Sir Henry Cole, a civil servant and art

shop owner, is credited with commissioning and

marketing the first commercial cards in 1843.

Some cards showed happy families, but the two

best sellers depicted a Christmas plum pudding

in the middle of a festive table and a somewhat

bizarre rendering of a plum pudding dressed up

like a little man. What rarely appeared on the

cards was any reference to the birth of Christ.The

English Christmas favored the secular,and Father

Christmas, who first appeared in the mid-seven-

teenth century, was the traditional personifica-

tion of the season, having pushed the story of the

nativity further into the background.

By the Edwardian era,Selfridges,Harrods,and

other department stores were popularizing the

custom of buying Christmas gifts. They created

elaborate holiday window displays that were lit up

at night to catch the eye of passersby. Christmas

gift fairs and ingredients and guidelines for a per-

fect holiday meal were advertised in newspapers.

And more than ever, Christmas revolved around

the importance of family and not religion. In the

Downton Abbey Christmas episode at the end of

season 5, family togetherness is strong. Atticus

feels properly part of the family for the first time,

and family ties are making Tom doubt his move

to Boston with his daughter, Sybbie. Marigold is

accepted into the family as Edith’s daughter by

Robert, Mr. Bates and Anna are reunited, and

even Violet and Isobel are having a moment over

a cup of wassail.

In the spirit of the season,efforts were made to

put aside all differences and to forget all worries

to achieve the perfect Christmas. As Mr. Bates

puts it perfectly, “We’ll worry about everything

else later. But for now, let’s just have a very happy

Christmas.”