 Christmas is a special time at The Jane Austen Centre.
Starting at the end of November, the staff take great delight in
decorating the various rooms in appropriate finery. The introductory
talk which always begins each visit changes to accommodate information
about the rituals of Christmas in the Regency period. The games,
the food, decorations and etiquette. It was a time of celebration
although quite different from how Christmas is celebrated today.
The Austen family would play games as described below:
“…We have all spent a very merry Christmas and I hope you have also. We
had different amusements every evening. First we had Bullet Pudding ,
then Snap Dragon. In the evening we dance or play at cards…”
Bullet Pudding
“…You must have
a large pewter dish filled with flour which you must pile up into a
sort of pudding with a peek at top. You must then lay a bullet at top
and everybody cuts a slice of it, and the person that is cutting it
when it falls must poke about with their noses and chins till they find
it and then take it out with their mouths of which makes them strange
figures all covered with flour but the worst is that you must not laugh
for fear of the flour getting up your nose and mouth and choking you:
You must not use your hands in taking the Bullet out…” Why not try it yourself? Use a marble for a bullet.
Snap Dragon
To play Snap Dragon first find a shallow bowl into which place a quantity of raisins, pour in some Brandy and light.
The aim is to pluck the raisins from the flaming bowl and pop them into the mouth. (Ouch!!)
Jane Austen's niece Fanny describes the fun and games to be had over the Christmas period.
'…a delightful Ball
… which began at 7, ended at 10. We had 12 dances and sometimes
5, 6 or 7 couples at different times. I danced 9 and played 3 –
we then had a game of Hunt the Slipper and ended the day with
sandwiches and tarts … I must not omit saying that the little
ones dressed up as usual and sang Christmas Carols…'
'…On Twelfth night we
had a delightful evening though not so grand as last year. Julia,
Sophia, W and A dined and spent the evening with us. Uncle and Aunt H B
Jane and Mary were here at the same time; about our dress King and
Queen, W Morris was King, I was Queen, Papa – Prince Busty
Trusty, Mama – Red Riding Hood, Edward – Paddy
O’Flaherty, G. – Johnny Bo-peep, H. – Timothy Trip,
W. – Moses… Soon after, according to a preconsented plan,
some of us retired upstairs to dress Jane as Punch’s wife, in a
witches hat, a green petticoat and scarlet shawl…'
From a letter sent by Fanny Austen,
(later Knight and afterwards Lady Knatchbull) to her ex-governess Miss
Chapman on 17 January 1804, written at Godmersham Park, Kent.
Fanny was the eldest daughter of Edward Austen.
Cards
Card games according to Robert Southey (contemporary writer
and the author of Watt Tyler 1794) formed an important part of the
Christmas celebrations:
…Gambling, dancing and
hunting are as favourite pastimes among the English as among savages.
The latter of these sports must be almost exclusively the amusement of
men; dancing requires youth, or at least strength and agility; but old
and young, hale and infirm can alike enjoy the stimulus of the dicebox
or the card table…
Ombre, Basset and Quadrille had their day; but Whist is as much the
favourite now as when it was first introduced. The more rigid
dissenters and especially the Quakers, proscribe cards altogether; some
of the old church-people, on the contrary, seem to ascribe a sort of
sacredness to this method of amusement, and think that a Christmas-day
cannot be duly celebrated without it. But a general and unaccountable
prejudice prevails against the use of them on Sundays. I believe that
half the people of England think it the very essence of
Sabbath-breaking.
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