The Victorian Christmas Book

The author of Food Through the Ages presents a festive overview of Dickens-era Christmas traditions—from decorations and songs to games and recipes. Anna Selby discusses how the Victorians invented many of the Christmas traditions we enjoy today from Christmas trees and cards to carols and Father Christmas himself. Dickens and Prince Albert shaped how many people view the British Christmas, an idea explored in the opening chapter. There is an emphasis on Victorian food, including authentic wassailing recipes and an easy introduction to planning traditional Christmas foods and traditional decorations. It offers readers a chance to enjoy a traditional Christmas, one centered around the home, family, and simple decorations made from nature, a far cry from the materialistic Christmases we have today. This lovely book reminds us all just how enjoyable Christmas really is and shows us how to recreate our favorite traditions and recapture the magic of Christmas.

Using traditional Victorian methods of decoupage and painting techniques such as faux-plaid and simple gilding, the authors have designed ten Christmas gifts that anyone can make. In addition to complete instructions, the book also contains a history of all the customs and rituals of Victorian Christmas, charming festive quotations from literature, and seasonal recipes. 75 embossed cut-outs.

At the darkest moment of the year, when the nights seem endless and the days very short, comes that most joyful of festivals. Christmas is a truly magical season, bringing families and friends together to share the much-loved customs and traditions that over the centuries have come to surround this heart-warming and deeply symbolic occasion. Each family has their own personal traditions, and ways they celebrate the special day. Yet underneath the tinsel, fairy lights and wrapping paper are many long-standing traditions that we all know and love. Why do we drag a fir tree inside our house and decorate it? How long Santa has been delivering gifts to good children? What would Christmas be like without mince pies? We owe a lot to the Victorians. They transformed the way Britain celebrated Christmas in the 19th century and we continue with their traditions today. In 1848 a British confectioner by the name of Tom Smith came up with the idea of wrapping sweets inside a package that snapped when pulled apart. It was the Victorians that really centred Christmas round the family, with the eating of a Christmas dinner together, giving gifts and playing games. All these things have become central to a British Christmas Day.

The first-ever collection of Victorian Christmas ghost stories, culled from rare 19th-century periodicals During the Victorian era, it became traditional for publishers of newspapers and magazines to print ghost stories during the Christmas season for chilling winter reading by the fireside or candlelight. Now for the first time thirteen of these tales are collected here, including a wide range of stories from a diverse group of authors, some well-known, others anonymous or forgotten. Readers whose only previous experience with Victorian Christmas ghost stories has been Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" will be surprised and delighted at the astonishing variety of ghostly tales in this volume. "In the sickly light I saw it lying on the bed, with its grim head on the pillow. A man? Or a corpse arisen from its unhallowed grave, and awaiting the demon that animated it?" - John Berwick Harwood, "Horror: A True Tale" "Suddenly I aroused with a start and as ghostly a thrill of horror as ever I remember to have felt in my life. Something--what, I knew not--seemed near, something nameless, but unutterably awful." - Ada Buisson, "The Ghost's Summons" "There was no longer any question what she was, or any thought of her being a living being. Upon a face which wore the fixed features of a corpse were imprinted the traces of the vilest and most hideous passions which had animated her while she lived." - Walter Scott, "The Tapestried Chamber"

A new anthology of twenty ghostly tales of Yuletide terror, collected from rare Victorian periodicals Seeking to capitalize on the success of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843), Victorian newspapers and magazines frequently featured ghost stories at Christmas time, and reading them by candlelight or the fireside became an annual tradition, a tradition Valancourt Books is pleased to continue with our series of Victorian Christmas ghost stories. This third volume contains twenty tales, most of them never before reprinted. They represent a mix of the diverse styles and themes common to Victorian ghost fiction and include works by once-popular authors like Ellen Wood and Charlotte Riddell as well as contributions from anonymous or wholly forgotten writers. This volume also features a new introduction by Prof. Simon Stern. "Before me, with the sickly light from the lantern shining right down upon it, was--a cloven hoof! Then the awfulness of the compact I had made came to my mind with terrible force ..." - Frederick Manley, "The Ghost of the Cross-Roads" "By the fireplace there was a large hideous pool of blood soaking into the carpet, and leaving ghastly stains around. I am not ashamed to confess that my brain reeled; the mysterious horror overcame me ..." - Lillie Harris, "19, Great Hanover Street" "A fearful white face comes to me; a horrible mask, with features drawn as in agony--ghastly, pale, hideous! Death or approaching death, violent death, written in every line. Every feature distorted. Eyes starting from the head. Thin lips moving and working--lips that are cursing, although I hear no sound." - Hugh Conway, "A Dead Man's Face"

Prosperous families of the 1800s loved to surround themselves with lavish, beautiful objects creating Christmas traditions that are still carried on today. Victorian Christmas shows how the traditions of decorating the evergreen tree, gift-giving, Christmas caroling, and even jolly old St. Nick were started and embraced during the Victorian era. Full color.

Although people may not realize it, the modern Christmas book market carries on a Victorian legacy. An explosion of Christmas print matter reinvigorated and regularized the holiday during the mid-Victorian period, infusing Christmas with emotionally-charged expectations of reading. Tara Moore elucidates the evolution of Christmas publishing trends that dictated authors writing schedules and reflected gift-giving rituals. As Victorian shopping customs evolved, publishers satisfied consumers with a range of holiday print matter, including novels, ghost stories, periodicals, children s books, and poetry. Ultimately, Victorian Christmas in Print analyzes how the revitalized holiday and the flurry of texts supporting it contributed to English national identity.