Whether we’re harking back to the days in which we left out a mince pie for Santa or put on a pair of homemade angel wings for the school nativity play – or we’re even trying to recreate some of that same magic for our own children – Christmas holds a special significance among the youngest members of the family. Many of the Christmas traditions that were introduced by our ancestors are still enjoyed today, and it is no surprise that the customs that put children at the heart of Christmas are those that have stuck around the longest.
In terms of longevity, children’s favourite bringer of gifts Santa Claus – also known as St Nicholas – arguably has the strongest claim. His history is murky, however. Believed to have begun life as an old monk who helped the poor in the 3rd century, by the 16th century St Nick had transformed into a figure delivering sweets and lumps of coal to children in the Netherlands on the eve of his saint’s day – 6 December – depending on how good they had been. It wasn’t long before the legend of old St Nick and his sack of presents became linked with Father Christmas, the British personification of Christmas, and the tradition of giving gifts.
A trip to see Father Christmas brought as much delight to our forebears as it does to children today. Reports of Father Christmas meeting children are commonplace in old newspapers, but perhaps the most touching involve his visits to the sick and impoverished in the 19th century. In December 1895, the Hull Daily Mail described an appearance by Father Christmas at the Victoria Hospital for Children. “He was the old, familiar Santa,” the eyewitness wrote, “in a red gown, with red cap, decorated with holly… he was quite fascinating! What more, then, must he have been to the little ones who had, amidst their sufferings, waited days and nights watching for the annual ‘dispenser’ of ‘all good things'".
The hanging of stockings to be filled with presents is shrouded in mystery too. Christmas historians have mooted Holland, Italy and Spain as possible locations of origin, but most agree that the idea of shoes or clogs as receptacles for gifts eventually led to the custom of stocking-hanging. There is also a consensus that the tradition was popularised following American writer Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem A Visit from St Nicholas, in which “ ’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; / The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, / In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.”
Early stockings would have been nothing more spectacular than a family cast-off, but as the custom became commercialised, elaborately designed and pre-filled stockings that were bursting with sweets and toys became available. In December 1898, the Marlborough Times reported that a philanthropic campaign had begun to distribute thousands of stockings to “many of the poor and friendless children of the alleys and the slums… whose Christmas is a dreary and joyless day”. According to the newspaper, the stockings would contain “a plain wholesome cake of a large size, a box of good sweets, an unbreakable toy, and a Christmas card”.
Taking part in a school nativity play is a childhood rite of passage. Often fraught with terrifying memories of wrong lines, or worse, dropping baby Jesus, the nativity play has been part of the seasonal events calendar for centuries. The nativity story is of course central to the Christian celebration of Christmas, but as the festive season became more child-focused in the later 19th century, plays performed by children became a useful way to retell the story for both entertainment and as a reminder of its religious importance.
In the 1920s, the nativity play entered its golden age when a performance of Cornish vicar Bernard Walke’s dramatisation Bethlehem – which was based on a medieval miracle play – was broadcast on the radio in 1926, and became wildly popular. By the end of the decade, the nativity play had become a much-anticipated part of the school calendar. Audiences had certain expectations, however. In 1929, George Street Sunday School in Burton upon Trent performed a nativity play in modern dress. The reporter for the Burton Observer objected to Herod’s “evening clothes and cigarettes”, while Mary was, shockingly, played by “a pretty girl in a frock too short to reach her knees”.
In the same way that nativity plays became the domain of schoolchildren, so too did pantomimes. Pantomimes have a rich history dating back centuries, and were originally for adults – special performances for children were a rarity. But in the mid-19th century, theatres began to capitalise on the new family-centric mood of the festive season and produced children’s shows every winter, drawing on fairytales and legends to capture the magic of Christmas.
The royal seal of approval was secured when Queen Victoria took her children to a performance. She commented in her journal during Christmas 1857, “We dined earlier & went with Alice, Lenchen [Helena], Louise, Bertie & Arthur to the Princess’s [theatre] where we saw the Pantomime of ‘Aladdin
& the Wonderful Lamp’, which was very good.”
Many secular Christmas traditions have their roots in religious practices, particularly Advent – the period spanning the four Sundays that lead up to Christmas and culminates on Christmas Eve. What began as a period of fasting, prayer and reflection in the 3rd and 4th centuries had by the early 20th century evolved into an exciting daily Christmas countdown involving sweets, treats and opening tiny doors. In 1908 German publisher Gerhard Lang invented the first commercially printed Advent calendar. Doors that opened onto biblical verses were added in the 1920s, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the calendars became a Christmas favourite in Britain. “From the continent comes an unusual calendar for Christmas, especially for children – the Advent calendar,” announced the Leicester Evening Mail in 1956. “It is a brightly coloured picture with sections semi-cut, each bearing a number from one to 24. These open like
a little door. Behind each door is a different picture.”
Germany also gifted us gingerbread houses. It has been suggested that these edible structures originated between the 16th and 18th centuries, and were popularised following the publication of the story of Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. Originally the fairytale house was made of bread and sported a cake roof, but in subsequent retellings was built out of gingerbread. Queen Victoria was known to have given her spaniel Dash “two bits of gingerbread surrounded with branches of holly and candles” for Christmas in 1833, and she continued the tradition with her children. On Christmas Eve 1856, she recorded in her journal that Prince Albert had arranged for St Nicholas to visit the children. The “formidable looking” St Nicholas “came in asking the Children, who were somewhat awed & alarmed, ‘are you a good child,’ & giving them gingerbread & apples”.
The rest of the population could look to the newspapers, which published plenty of suitable recipes for a children’s party. An article in the Daily News in 1936 suggested a “Hansel and Gretel gingerbread house” with piped lattice windows and even “little elves and gnomes, fixed by a dab of icing”. A similar gingerbread centrepiece featured at the children’s Christmas party at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne in 1949 – although judging by the report in the Eastbourne Chronicle it may have been upstaged by a “large, electrically illuminated lighthouse entirely made of sugar”. Guests delighted in a 20-foot Christmas tree, dancing, games, a magic show, Punch and Judy, ice cream and a tea that included “cakes, jellies and spicy buns”. They were also sent home with a goodie bag containing “sweets, apples, oranges, and balloons as a memento of a very happy party”.
