English Christmas Traditions
Around this time of year, I’ve often indulged myself in writing about Christmas pudding (for more, watch this video). This English dessert is a rich, dark fruit cake best enjoyed heated with heavy cream. It is an acquired taste, and our children were each offered one brief opportunity to develop a taste for it.
While the mouthful was pondered I quickly swept the plate away – because a new Christmas pudding devotee means sharing the meagre supply. It is a decidedly unhealthy dish, including suet (animal fat) which adds to the glorious flavor. But the desired result has been achieved, and our children have advised our grandchildren to avoid it too.
Job done.
My wife and I brought other Christmas traditions from England. Christmas crackers are pulled by two people, and when ruptured out pop a colored paper crown, a cheap plastic toy and a lame joke. First time Christmas visitors often look relieved when the cracker pulling leaves the silly hat on their neighbor’s plate. However, there is one cracker per person, so nobody is free of the obligation to wear one. It’s the Monty Python spirit.
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Britain once ruled an empire because we don’t take ourselves too seriously – or perhaps it was in spite of that.
Turkey is the traditional meat served at the English Christmas table – after all, there’s no Thanksgiving in the UK. Goose was often served at wealthy tables during the time of Charles Dickens, but not in my experience.
As a young boy I remember Christmas dinner was always planned as a late lunch but wound up being dinner. This is because the men of the house stopped by the local pub while the women were cooking and shockingly returned home later than promised. I’m happy to report that our family life is decidedly less chauvinistic. We left that tradition behind.
Fans of Downton Abbey will know that Boxing Day is when the staff enjoy their Christmas, the day after working all day to serve the family. Since my family never had any household staff, we simply treated Boxing Day as a low-key follow-up. It means eating leftovers, because there’s always ample turkey left and the people who cooked the day before are exhausted.
The Christmas period nowadays includes a packed Premier League schedule. For two weeks there are games on TV almost every day. Boxing Day is an extravaganza. This year is typical – the first game kicks off at 730 NY time and the last one finishes at 5pm. They’re planned to limit the traveling that visiting fans must endure, so often local teams play one another.
I remember pleading unsuccessfully with my mother to let me go to Arsenal v Chelsea (two London clubs) back in the 1970s when I was around twelve. Violence was a regular feature and more likely between fans of two nearby clubs, probably on a pub crawl before the game.
Dramatically more expensive tickets and CCT that identifies troublemakers both inside and outside stadiums have fueled a customer upgrade.
Few games were televised live back then either. A Boxing Day packed with Premier League action was not yet a tradition.
Some traditions come under threat. I continue to put up outside Christmas lights and a wreath above the front door with the help of my younger daughter (see Of Christmas Lights And Ladders). It is our tradition but looks increasingly amateurish compared with our neighbors who hire professionals. They can turn a center hall Colonial into a suburban version of Saks Fifth Avenue, looking like an oversized gift box adorned with a ribbon and countless wreaths, all identical and hung symmetrically.
Given the expense involved, it’s little surprise that many ignore another English tradition, that decorations be removed on the 12th night of Christmas, its official conclusion. I smile to myself at their lack of sophistication while packing away our jerry-rigged lighting until it’s needed next year.
Christmas memories are formed during childhood, and while we’re making new ones every year with our own children and grandchildren, I fondly remember the excitement of my own early Christmases. It’s many years since I last spent Christmas in the UK, but we’ve simply brought our traditions to the US.
To all our regular readers I wish you a wonderful Christmas or holiday time with your families. If you’re reading this the day after Christmas, there’s a good chance I’ll be watching Premier League English football, yelling at Arsenal to put one in the net and enjoying a last slice of Christmas pudding. I hope your Christmas is just as convivial.
We have two have funds that seek to profit from this environment: