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The Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook

Down with the rosemary, and so

Down with the bays and mistletoe;

Down with the holly, ivy, all

Wherewith ye decks the Christmas hall; . . .

CHRISTMAS GIFTS

In 1847, Thomas “Tom” Smith, a London baker

and confectioner who operated a shop on Goswell

Road, patented the Christmas cracker. These

still-popular holiday table decorations were ini-

tially simply pretty paper wrapped around candies.

Later, Smith added a strip of paper printed with a

lucky motto or a love message to each cracker, and

later still, sweets-filled crackers coexisted alongside

crackers containing inexpensive jewelry or other

gifts. Smith did not add the “crack”to his invention

until 1860, when a strip of saltpeter was slipped

into each cracker. After Smith’s death in 1869, his

sons took over the business, and by the Downton

era, paper hats and more elaborate gifts were being

tucked into the crackers. In season 2, episode 9,

the Downton staff is seen wearing crown-like hats

from their Christmas crackers at their holiday

lunch.(To make Christmas crackers for an authen-

tic Downton period celebration, see page 207.)

Tom Smith and Company’s advertisements at

Christmastime always showed an iconic Father

Christmas and outlined all the “Christmas nov-

elties” on offer. There were fancy boxes, decora-

tive wreaths, and French, English, and American

confections, as well as “Santa Claus surprise

stockings”—filled with toys and games—an idea

imported from America.

Christmas grew in importance in the Victorian

era, and gift giving, which had been traditional at

New Year’s, moved to Christmas. In the begin-

ning, the gifts were modest—sweets or other

foods, handmade trinkets—and were often hung

on the tree. As the gifts grew in size and value,

they moved under the tree.

In Downton Abbey, we witness gift giving in

season 2. The year is 1919, and the staff is gath-

ered around the Christmas tree. Each is given a

useful item, such as fabric for a new frock, tied

with a piece of string, for the women. Lady’s

maids and butlers would maybe receive a little

extra, as we also see when Mr. Carson is given

a book about the royal families of Europe and

Lady Mary tops Anna’s gift of cloth with a heart-

shaped brooch. None of the gifts for the servants

is wrapped, as festive wrapping paper was still a

novelty, sold for the first time commercially in

the United States, in Kansas, in 1919. It is pos-

sible that Cora’s mother sent her daughter a few

sheets, because when we see the family exchange

gifts during their traditional Christmas lunch, we

see boxes wrapped in colorful paper. Unlike the

gifts the family gives to the staff, the ones they

exchange among themselves were not meant to be

useful.They were solely for pleasure.

By 1920, Christmas shopping was widely

advertised, and towns were typically full of shop-

pers ahead of the holiday. Newspapers printed

extra Christmas supplements full of advice and

stories to get readers through the celebration.

In that same year, the Sheffield Independent pub-

lishedThe Book of Christmas Cheer,which included

chapters on how to cook a turkey and make a

plum pudding and on how to play all kinds of

parlor games. Another chapter was devoted to

Christmas presents and how to select the ideal

gift for a friend.Consumerism was taking off,and

Christmas became all about spending your hard-

earned cash for the perfect Christmas.

By Christmas 1924, festive wrapping paper

had become more common, even for the working

class, and we see Mrs. Hughes hiding in her office

wrapping gifts for Mr. Carson. She even uses

brightly colored ribbons for the bows.