This article explores Christmas 1899 and some traditions surrounding the festive season. The local newspapers were advertising Christmas and New Year cards and an array of gifts for both occasions, proving that commercialization was alive and well and is not confined to recent years.
Christmas Shopping 1899: Shop displays were a source of awe and wonderment, especially for the children, with many families saving their pennies for some extra treats and home comforts. Your ‘Fancy Christmas Cake’ would set you back 2½d (pence). ‘Honeycomb Quilts’ to keep warm and cosy on those long winter nights without central heating cost 2s. – 6d, and you could add a pillowcase for 4d. The finest quality ham was 7½d per 1lb. Lipton’s Tea was one shilling per ¼lb.; the price included the tea canister. Potatoes were 4d per stone and mutton 3d per lb.; beef 6d per lb.; salmon 1s per lb. and flour £9-3s per ton. Bargains from Francis McNamara in the Colonial Buildings included new season jams, fresh cream at 6d a jar, fresh sausages and the finest creamery butter was on offer every day in the run-up to Christmas. Miss Mulligan of William Street made her ‘Celebrated Cakes’ in assorted flavours including: Plain, Seed, Sponge, Cherry, Victoria, Neapolitan, Madeira and Prince of Wales.
McCullagh’s near Eyre Square had many exotic Christmas gifts and trinkets from far-off, exotic places like India and Japan for the special people in your life. He sold Gramophones for the princely sum of £2 that provided endless hours of entertainment for the whole family on Christmas day. This state-of-the-art technology was hailed as the ‘wonder of the age’ and brought the ‘sound of celebrated performers; choirs’ into your home. His list of Christmas books included a local annual Almanac. This was a must as it could predict the most favourable time for farmers to sow crops; when young people should marry; the fate of any child born during that year; when to travel; when to ask for favours; when to buy, sell and sign contracts etc. McCullagh’s also had a fine selection of musical and mechanical toys, and their footballs and cricket bats were very popular. The latter may seem unusual today, but we must remember that County Galway Cricket Club produced no less than twelve international players between 1870 and 1914. Stephen Faller had moved his business from Dominick Street to Williamsgate Street by Christmas 1899. His novelty gifts were made in ‘solid silver’ and could also be purchased from the Christmas list and for those living abroad, the postage was free.
Christmas Tree: The Christmas tree tradition dates from the late medieval period in central Europe and possibly originated in Germany. It has also been suggested that it was Irish monks going abroad who came up with the idea of the Christmas tree. By the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, items of tinsel, paper flowers, candles, barley sugar, gingerbread and wax shapes were being used to decorate the trees. The first Christmas tree in England appeared during the eighteenth century. In 1848, the Illustrated London News published its first image of a Christmas tree, and its popularity grew in both England and Ireland. The use of fairy lights is believed to have originated with Martin Luther during the sixteenth century. It seems that while walking through a snow-covered woods he was inspired by the stars twinkling through the trees and recreated this image by placing candles on the branches of his own tree. The idea began to spread throughout Europe, and by 1882 the first fairy lights in a modern sense were invented.
Christmas Cracker: The Christmas Cracker was invented in 1847 by Tom Smith, a London baker. It seems that in 1840, while visiting Paris, Smith came across the ‘Bon Bon’, an almond sweet wrapped in ‘twisted’ paper. He had never seen these sweets before and liked the taste so much that he began selling them in London. They became very popular, particularly as gifts from young men to their sweethearts. Smith was a clever entrepreneur always on the lookout for new promotional initiatives, and inspired by the idea of the ‘Chinese fortune cookie’, he introduced small slips of paper inside the wrapping which contained short love verses. One evening, while relaxing by his fire, he came up with the idea of replicating the crackling sound from a burning log. After much experimenting, he managed to reproduce a similar sound and spark by using two strips of thin card coated with saltpetre. Smith’s new invention became immensely popular and was called ‘Cosaques’, after the cracking of Cossack’s whips. Some ten years later, they came to be known as Christmas Crackers. He later added small novelty toys to his crackers, which was an instant success. The attractive design and wrapping made them a huge success, so much so that they began selling them in packs of six or twelve. His crackers became so popular that they gave rise to many competitors, forcing Smith to patent his invention under the company name, ‘Tom Smith Crackers’. Success continued, and by 1900, Smith sales had reached thirteen million crackers.
Mince Pies: These pies have been on the Christmas menu for centuries. However, mince pies were far more significant during the sixteenth century. The original mince pies were made with thirteen ingredients to represent Jesus and the twelve apostles. They were traditionally shaped like a crib and contained a variety of fruit, spices; and some mutton which represented the shepherds. For the landed gentry, there was also the ‘Tudor Christmas Pie’ which consisted of a pigeon stuffed inside a partridge; inside a chicken; inside a goose; inside a turkey; which was then cooked in a pastry case called a ‘coffin’. This lavish meat feast was served at the table of medieval lords surrounded by an array of fine wines, rare fruit, game birds and a hare for good measure.
Christmas Cards: Christmas Cards evolved in Victorian England, with children writing greetings to their parents in their best handwriting. Some adults also wrote Christmas letters to each other, but this was quite laborious. The invention of the printed Christmas card solved the problem. The tradition of sending Christmas cards first began with the aristocrat, Sir Henry Cole, who commissioned the artist, John Horsley, to design a card for him. While this was initially an expensive custom, the introduction of the ‘penny post’ in 1840 made it possible for people to send greetings by post; creating a new tradition and much-needed employment for postmen.
