Charles Dickens is often credited with creating the Christmas we recognise today; but Christmas had long been celebrated as both a Pagan and a Christian festival, and many of the traditions that we now hold dear can be traced back to the dawn of time, but then it was never Dickens intention to design a picture postcard Christmas. Rather, he sought to revive a series of ancient mores and traditions as a response to the hardships and social iniquities that so blighted Victorian society, and to remind people of what might, or could be lost.

The first reference to Christmas in England can be traced back as far as 1043, it had by then of course become a predominantly Christian festival (Christians had celebrated the 25 December as Christ’s birthday since it was such ordained by Pope Julius I  in AD 354. It had previously been celebrated on 6 January, though no actual date is provided for his birth in the pages of the Bible). Its origins, however, were firmly Pagan.

The Druids had always celebrated the Winter Solstice and provide for us the origins of the Yule Tide Log. A log would be burned for 12 consecutive days to represent the coming 12 months of the year. The depths of Winter were always a particularly frightful time, the dark nights, the cold weather, and the barren land. The Yule Tide Log ensured that Spring would come and promised a good harvest. The Druids also celebrated the veneration of trees as symbolic of eternal life and constant rebirth.

By Medieval times the celebration of Christmas had become more firmly entrenched as a festival and formed part of the Charivari. The Charivari was a festival that saw the inversion of the social norms of the day. Men dressed as lords would serve the common people, clergy would be seen to ride backwards on donkeys, and men would dress up as women and act out in mime comic scenarios. This was the origins of pantomime and very quickly became a popular form of entertainment. Hot drinks made up of ale, honey and spices would be drunk to the toast of “drinc hael”, drink and be well; and pies would be eaten consisting of the humbles of deer, heart, liver and brains. This would earlier have been served to the local lords and ladies who would have received the choice cuts. The scrapings were then taken from the table, gathered up by the poor and made into pies. These were then baked and became known as humble pies, hence the phrase, “to eat humble pie.” Mince pies also became a tradition during this time. To ensure good fortune in the coming year a mince pie had to be eaten every day throughout the 12 days of Christmas, and each mince pie had to have been baked by a different person. Carol singing was also popular, though it was at first frowned upon by the Church, if only because the content of the carols were considerably more bawdy than what we might expect now and the religious element a little less obvious. This was also the time when mistletoe and ivy became associated with Christmas. Homes would be strewn with the plants as they were believed to possess magical powers. Mistletoe, however, was banned from Churches because it was believed to be an aphrodisiac and was closely linked to increased fertility.