A Jane Austin Christmas: Historic Holiday Traditions

Maria
Grace

Each year it seems the holiday season begins earlier and earlier. Complaints about holiday excesses and longings for ‘simpler’ and ‘old fashioned’ holiday celebrations abound. But what exactly does an ‘old fashioned Christmas’ really look like? Many of our Christmas traditions and our images of ‘old fashioned’ holidays are based in Victorian celebrations. If we go back just a little further, to the beginning of the 19th century, the holiday Jane Austen knew would have looked distinctly odd to modern sensibilities. How odd? Christmas trees were uncommon. Gifts were not a main focus of festivities. Most events were adult oriented, with children largely consigned to the nursery.  Holiday events, including balls, parties, dinners, and even wedding celebrations, started a week before Advent (the fourth Sunday before Christmas) and extended all the way through to Twelfth Night in January.

Read the entire article in the Dec/Jan 2014-15 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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