By the early part of the 21st century December had become a month of celebration. Sparkling lights and decorated trees appear in people\’s houses and gardens and the streets of at least the more well-to-do shopping areas. Much partying went on during the month, more alcohol than usual being consumed and seasonal delicacies such as mince pies, puddings and cakes – all made with quantities of dried fruit, suet, sugar, eggs – particular to this time of year. The cakes, wrapped in almond and then white sugar icing were similar to those used for weddings, though any link between the two ceremonies has not come down to us.
But the main aim of the first 3 weeks of the month would seem to have been shopping, which people apparently loved and crowds flocked to highly decorated stores to buy presents, food, decorative items of all kinds – sometimes spending large sums on these items. It was not impossible for decorative ornaments, used only during the festival season, to cost as much as £40 or £50 in some of the more prestigious shops. (Some of our historians suggest even higher prices but given the relative value of the sums then and now and the lack of hard evidence we dismiss their claims as unlikely in the extreme.
The origins of this month of festivities are very ancient, having their roots in the midwinter festivals of pagan times, the Saturnalia of the Roman era and then the Christmas celebrations of the Christian church but few people, by 2014, seemed to know why they were celebrating or any of the stories behind the lights and the present-giving, the orgy of eating and drinking, or why they use fir trees rather than any other, or who Father Christmas really was meant to be.
The \”12 days of Christmas\” beloved of the Tudors and maintained by the church as the liturgical \”Christmas season\” had pretty much died out by the 21st century and decorations were taken down, some as soon as 27th, whilst for most the festival culminated on the night of the 31st with \”bringing in the New Year\”, after which the population generally settled down for a long winter, only the Christians hanging on for another 6 days until the \’Feast of the Epiphany\’ though indeed it hardly merited the name, everyone seemingly being heartily sick of food and drink by then and more than ready for work and a quiet winter and looking forward to the festival of Easter, chocolate eggs for which would shortly be replacing mince pies in the shops.
Journal Extract January 2215