Is this your idea of an old fashioned Christmas?
"a gregarious and largely adult affair, held amidst the laden tables of baronial halls, and imbued with the concept of a time of license and the suspension of the normal rules of society."According to the December newsletter (pdf) of the The English Diaspora Project that was the nature of the pre-Victorian Christmas, as depicted by Dickens in ‘Mr Fessiwig’s Ball’ in A Christmas Carol.
From the same project comes this short video on St George's Societies - Ottawa and Toronto even get a mention.
1 comment:
Another who enjoyed a good ole English Christmas was Washington Irving. Irving devoted a few chapters about his participation of in Christmas festivities in England in his superb book The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon. BTW this book also includes his classic Headless Horseman and Rip van Winkle tales.
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