Celebrations

Christmas wasn't the mass consumerist holiday that it is today in Jane Austen's era, but it was a celebrated holiday. People often mistake Christmas as not starting until the Victorian era as this is when Christmas trees started to emerge in England, but it is actually a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. As Jane was a pious woman from a religious family, it was natural that they celebrated the holiday.

 

Jane actually mentions in some of her novels Christmas celebrations by her characters. In Mansfield Park, Sir Thomas gives a ball for Fanny and her brother William; in Pride and Prejudice, the Bennets entertain relatives; in Sense and Sensibility, Willoughby dances from 8pm to 4am; and in Emma, the Westons have a party much to the dismay of Mr Woodhouse. In the Georgian/Regency era, attending parties and dinners was popular convention.

 

So did they exchange presents? Yes, presents were exchanged, but on St Nicholas Day rather than on 25th December. The holiday period actually commenced on St Nicholas Day on 6th December and finished on 6th January (Twelfth Night). Today when we think of "St Nick" we think of Santa Claus/Father Christmas, but this image wasn't fully adopted in England until 1870s and onwards. 

 

Jane gave her friend a gingham needle bag for St Nicholas Day in 1792 and wrote a poem, This little bag, to accompany the gift.

 

Christmas Day was a national holiday, so people were not expected to work on Christmas Day. They would go to church and then return home to enjoy feasts of food. For Christmas dinner it was popular to have a turkey or a goose, but venison was also very popular amongst the gentry. A lot of food would be prepared ahead of time for big parties, so cold meats would have been used. And for pudding... Christmas pudding! Although they were also called plum puddings at the time as they used plums and prunes.

 

The day after Christmas, now known as Boxing Day,  was called St Stephen's Day. On this day people gave to charity and the gentry presented their servants and staff with Christmas Boxes. This is why today St Stephen's Day is now called Boxing Day. 

 

When Twelfth Night arrived (6th January), this signalled the end of the Christmas season and there would typically be a Twelfth Night party with more dancing, drinking and eating!

 

The extended Christmas season was to disappear, after Jane's death and the Regency ended, with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and rural way of life. Employers needed workers to keep working through the festive period so the shortened Christmas period we know today came into effect sadly.

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Decorations

In Jane Austen's era, Christmas wasn't the consumer driven holiday that it is today. However, most did decorate their homes during the season in a different way to how we would today. There won't have been Christmas stockings hanging over the fire, Christmas cards around the room, tinsel or baubles. 

 

It was traditional to use evergreens to brighten up the home, some with natural boughs of holly, if they could be easily purchased. As Christmas was a Christian celebration, the holly symbolised a crown of thorns with the red berries symbolising Christ's blood. Other evergreens had been given Christian connotations too, such as ivy, which symbolised fidelity. Mistletoe, however, was frowned upon by the Christian church as, like today, it was associated with kissing games. 

 

The use of evergreens stems back all the way to the middle ages, and as well as holly, rosemary, bay and laurel were used. Mistletoe was sometimes demoted to the servants quarter. As well as the Christian connotations, the evergreens were symbols of eternal life or sometimes fertility. The candlelight and fire contributed to the warming symbolism. 

 

In the Northern hemisphere, the winter solstice is an old celebration. This was the shortest and longest night of the year, which would fall on 21st or 22nd December. It was believed that the sun was a god and when winter came, it meant that the sun god became sick and weak. Why then would they celebrate the winter solstice I hear you ask! Well, it was celebrated because it meant that the sun god would being to get better again from that date forward. The evergreen boughs reminded them of all the plants and trees that would grow again when the sun returned, and this tradition seemed to carry through the ages. 

 

There is little information out there regarding Christmas traditions in Jane Austen's day, but in Persuasion, she does describe the Harville children cutting up silk and gold paper for the Musgroves at Christmas. This could either be a diversion for the children or this is to make Christmas decorations. 

 

Germany is credited with the first ever Christmas tree (minus lights/tinsel etc.) in the 16th Century. Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert is sometimes credited as bringing the tradition to England, however, George III's wife Charlotte set up the first known Christmas tree in England at Queen's Lodge at Windsor in 1800. As we can see from other things, fashions tended to be influenced by royalty and by 1820s and 1830s after Jane Austen's death, the Christmas tree was an established tradition.