Tag Archives: Christmas

Christmas puddings: a taste of tradition

More than any other holiday time, Christmas has always been about food and drink. Thomas Tusser, an East Anglian farmer, wrote his verse calendar of the year Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, published in 1557 and still full of … Continue reading

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Exchanging Christmas cards: the actress and Queen Victoria

What do you do with your Christmas cards at the end of the festive season? By tradition cards and decorations should be taken down on 6 January, Epiphany. E-cards and Facebook messages may be convenient, but they don’t have the same … Continue reading

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Christmas at court: Queen Elizabeth’s wardrobe raided

  You’re at work again and everything is getting back to normal.  Spare a thought then for those who are busiest at Christmas – those who entertain us. In spite of the more sophisticated offerings available today, people still enjoy pantomimes. … Continue reading

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A view of Christmas

Christmas Day is always a time for looking back at the year that’s ending and forward with hope.  I’ve known this picture of Christmas celebrations in an English village all my life as it used to hang in my parents’ … Continue reading

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Celebrating Christmas with the Royal Shakespeare Company

At Christmas, the RSC traditionally gets into party mood by putting on a special show. This year the company has two: Matilda in London, after its successful premiere in Stratford last year, and The Heart of Robin Hood, at the … Continue reading

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Shakespeare’s Christmas through the eyes of the Victorians

This year I’ve received a Christmas card featuring an engraving dating back to 1846, originally published to illustrate “A Story about a Christmas in the seventeenth century”*. It’s a charming picture, but one thing is certain: Christmas in the seventeenth … Continue reading

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Elizabethan Christmas: carols

Now we’re getting really near to Christmas, let’s have some music to get us in the mood. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania contrasts the long summer evenings with the cosiness of winter round the fire: The human mortals want … Continue reading

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