M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

An 18^th Century Christmas: Photo Essay of Colonial Williamsburg
by Scot Facer Proctor

Maurine and I recently took another trip to Colonial Williamsburg. I can't adequately tell you how delightful it is to visit there, but perhaps I can show you. Yes, I had my trusty little digital camera again and thought you might like to see Williamsburg around the holidays. What we enjoyed as much as anything on this holiday-season visit was the myriad of ideas for decorating and just pure delight. I'm not sure that we will truly sit down and make a pomegranate wreath or a pineapple and tangerine spray to go over our doorway, but we truly enjoyed seeing them. I will smatter the photographic essay with a few facts and quotes and original documents from the 18^th century. I think if you will take the time to read and look at this carefully it will give you a sense of heritage, a sense of patriotism and perhaps a mild case of nostalgia for an era long past.

Williamsburg now welcomes more than 4,000,000 visitors each yearómore people than were in the entire Colonies in the early days of the 18^th century. Things that come to mind as one visits the Williamsburg area are the ëColonial Life,' the search for American Independence, and the formation of the model of democracy that would be used throughout the world. For 300 years Williamsburg has been the center of monumental clashes, of minds, ideas, wills and forward thinking.

"I am a young Woman, and have my fortune to make, for which reason I come constantly to Church to hear Divine Service, and make Conquests; but one great Hindrance in this is, that our Clerk, who was once a Gardener, has this Christmas so over-decked the Church with Greens, that... I have scarce seen the young Baronet I dress at these last three Weeks, though we have both been very Constant at our Devotions. ... The Church ... looks more like a Greenhouse than a Place of Worship. ... The pulpit itself has such Clusters of Ivy, Holly, and Rosemary about it, that a light Fellow [said we] heard the Word out of a bush, like Moses."
-- Spectator, 1712

It was from the historic area of Williamsburg centered around the Duke of Gloucester Street that the ideals about democracy were formulated. These same ideals and ideas subsequently changed modern history in the ëfour corners of the earth.'

Here the colonists and the legislators who were permitted to make recommendations to the King began to understand that they did not have to be ruled by a foreign power, but could manage their own country which they themselves developed by community consensus, discussions and voting. And all this began taking place well over a century before the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Here in Williamsburg you can actually walk through and actually dine in the same Taverns where the arguments took place between the `Crown Loyalists'... and the `Revolutionaries'... and where the concepts that became the America Constitution were discussed by the likes of George Washington and Patrick Henry.

Just down the street stands the College of William & Mary which was providing radical ideas to young law students like Thomas Jefferson.

The second oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, William & Mary began the Honor Society that was based on individual Responsibility.

"The Evening I spent at Mr. Guy's. I sung for an Hour, at the good Peoples Desire, Mr. Watt's admirable Hymns. I myself was entertain'd; I felt myself improv'd; so much Love to Jesus is set forth. So much divine Exercise."
--Philip Fithian, Christmas Eve, 1775

With 278 restored or original buildings, 173 acres, a folk art center, a decorative arts gallery, an archaeology museum, 90 acres of formal gardens, and a plantation house on the James River, Colonial Williamsburg is more than a world-class living history museum. It is a way for visitors to step back in time and experience first hand life as it was in the 18th Century.

Restored to its 1770 grandeur as the economic and political hub of Britain's largest colony in the New World, Colonial Williamsburg is alive with people: young, old, male, female, famous, unsung, black, white, rich, and poor, each aptly costumed and in character. It is 1770, and the colonists, who lived through the trials of Jamestown, now find themselves under the thumb of an insufferable King, and, knowing that freedom must be won at any cost, are on the verge of a revolution.

Magnificent in its restoration, architecture, and period furnishings, historic Williamsburg is fascinating, educational, and sometimes heart-wrenching in its accurate depiction of a young country struggling to become a great nation.

Children in 18^th Century Christmas
There are no eighteenth-century sources which highlight the importance of children at Christmastime - or of Christmas to children in particular. In a diary entry of Philip Vickers Fithian dated December 18, 1773, he tells about "the Balls, the Fox-hunts, the fine entertainments." None was meant for kids, and the youngsters were cordially not invited to attend. Sally Cary Fairfax was old enough to keep a journal and old enough to attend a ball at Christmas 1771, so she was not one of the "tiny tots with their eyes all aglow." The emphasis on Christmas as a magical time for children came about in the nineteenth century. So what did the children of Williamsburg do to celebrate Christmas in the eighteenth century? If they were old enough, they might attend church, stick some holly on the window panes, help prepare a great dinner, go to a party, and perhaps visit friends. (See A Colonial Christmas in Williamsburg. Much of the material that follows has been graciously given to this article from this site: http://www.history.org/history/index.html )

Feasting and celebration were a big part of the Christmas season in colonial Virginia. Then, as now, families and friends gathered to celebrate the holiday with the best their tables could offer. In eighteenth-century Virginia, the holiday season began on December 24 and ran through Twelfth Night on January 6. For centuries, Twelfth Night was really the highlight of the holiday season. Although this celebration was not deeply rooted in the American colonies, in the eighteenth century it was celebrated in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

. "On Thursday the 26th of decem. Mama made 6 mince pies, & 7 custards, 12 tarts, 1 chicking pye, and 4 pudings for the ball."
-- Sally Fairfax, Christmas, 1771

"Christmas a very large rock [fish] from Chickamony: saddle of the finest mutton I ever saw, ham of new bacon, wild ducks and roast turkey, veal's head, cabbage pudding, colliflowers, artichoakes, cheese-cakes, gooseberry tarts, jellys, creams, raisons, grapes, nuts, almonds, apples &c.
-- Martha Blodget, Christmas, 1796

. "My landlord tells me, when he waited on the Colonel at his countryseat two or three days (ago), they heard the Slaves at worship in their lodge, singing Psalms and Hymns in the evening, and again in the morning, long before break of day. They are excellent singers, and long to get some of Dr. Watt's Psalms and Hymns, which I encourage them to hope for."
--John Wright, January 6, 1761

Here are two colonial recipes you might like to try in your family:

Place in a cheesecloth sack:
1 Tablespoon whole cloves
1 Tablespoon whole allspice
2 sticks cinnamon

This is great cooked in a crock pot. Let it simmer very slowly for 4 to 6 hours. You can add water if it evaporates too much. Your classroom will smell wonderful and the students will love it! Serves 20.

GINGERBREAD
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup melted margarine
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup unsulfered molasses
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon lemon extract
4 cups stone-ground or unbleached flour, unsifted

Combine the sugar, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Mix well. Add the melted margarine, evaporated milk and molasses. Add the extracts. Mix well. Add the flour 1 cup at a time, stirring constantly. The dough should be stiff enough to handle without sticking to fingers. Knead the dough for a smoother texture. Add up to ½ cup additional flour if necessary to prevent sticking. When the dough is smooth, roll it out º inch think on a floured surface and cut it into cookies. Bake on floured or greased cookie sheets in a preheated 375 F oven for 10 to 12 minutes. The gingerbread is done when they spring back when touched.

Two Carols to Sing

HERE WE COME A WASSAILING
A Seventeenth-Century Carol

Here we come a wassailing among the leaves so green,
Here we come a wand'ring so fair to be seen (refrain)

Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too,
And God bless you and send you a happy New Year,
And God send you a happy New Year.

We are not daily beggars that beg from door to door,
We are neighbors' children whom you have seen before (refrain)

Good master and mistress as you sit by the fire,
Think of us poor children who wander in the mire (refrain)

God bless the master of this house, likewise the mistress too,
And all the little children that round the table go. (refrain)

JOY TO THE WORLD
by Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

Joy to the World! The Lord is Come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to World! The Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ.. While fields and foods, rocks, hills and plains, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, Repeat, the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace. And makes the nations prove. The glories of His righteousness. And wonders of his love, And wonders of His love, and wonders, wonders of his love.

An Authentic Christmas Scent to Try

A CHRISTMAS SCENT

Sometimes scented flowers and herbs were placed in churches and homes for providing a pleasant holiday scent. The following receipt can be used to produce an authentic 18th-century holiday scent:

1/2 cup dried Rose Petals
2 tablespoons dried Lavender flowers
2 tablespoons dried Rosemary leaves
2 tablespoons dried Bayberry leaves
Combine and enjoy

How did people in eighteenth-century Virginia prepare for Christmas?
There are many ways to prepare for any holiday, but a good start might be to look seriously at how eighteenth-century people prepared spiritually to celebrate Christmas. The Christmas season is foreshadowed by the four-week season of Advent. Advent is the beginning of the Christian liturgical year and is considered to be a separate season from Christmas. For most of Virginia's devout Anglicans, the season of Advent was a penitential time of reflection, anticipation, and expectation for the coming of Christ. This spiritual preparation was reflected most clearly in the liturgy and prayers of the church during Advent. The daily and Sunday readings from the Book of Common Prayer are highlighted by the two great heralds of Christ-- the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist. Fasting, the consumption of only one full meal (often meatless) during the day, was recommended as another form of self-examination in preparation for Christmas. The Advent season emphasized the timeless dialogue between darkness and light, evil and good. Perhaps at a time of the year when daylight is at an ebb, the joy of the expectation of the holiday became even greater for people of the past.

Lavender, rose petals, and pungent herbs such as rosemary and bay were scattered throughout the churches, providing a pleasant holiday scent. Scented flowers and herbs were chosen partially because they were aromatic and thus were considered an alternative form of incense. The Reverend George Herbert, an Anglican clergyman from Maryland, urged "that the church be swept, and kept clean without dust, or cobwebs, and at great festivals strewed, and stuck with boughs, and perfumed with incense." Virginians decorated homes in the same way, but they most likely reserved one or two main rooms in the house for the Christmas observance.

How long was the Christmas season?
The holiday, or more accurately the holy days of Christmas/Epiphany, fall into a forty- day cycle. This cycle was (and still is) a commemoration of the infancy narratives found in the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew. Four major events involving Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are commemorated in the forty-day cycle. They are:

• December 25: The Nativity of Jesus
• January 1: The Circumcision of Jesus (Eight Days after Christmas)
• January 6: The Epiphany of Jesus (Twelve Days after Christmas)
• February 2: The Purification of the Virgin (Forty Days after Christmas)

How popular were Christmas music, carols, and hymns?
Very popular! The Christmas season in Virginia was filled with festive entertainment, which included singing and dancing to the accompaniment of musicians. Traditional carols and contemporary hymns were sung in the company of friends and family. On Christmas Eve in 1775, Philip Fithian wrote in his diary from Staunton, Virginia:

The Evening I spent at Mr. Guy's--I sung for an Hour, at the good Peoples Desire, Mr. Watt's admirable Hymns--I myself was entertain'd; I felt myself improv'd; so much Love to Jesus is set forth--So much divine Exercise.

Fithian sang the hymns of Isaac Watts (1674-1748), an English Congregationalist minister and theologian. Watts's hymns, and his hymn book, were a favorite of many Virginians including the slaves. And of course we still sing many of his hymns in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today.

Was Christmas celebrated throughout all the colonies?
No. The celebration of Christmas was outlawed in most of New England. Calvinist Puritans and Protestants abhorred the entire celebration and likened it to pagan rituals and Popish observances. In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts forbade, under the fine of five shillings per offense, the observance "of any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forebearing of labour, feasting, or any such way." The Assembly of Connecticut, in the same period, prohibited the reading of the Book of Common Prayer, the keeping of Christmas and saints' days, the making of mince pies, the playing of cards, or performing on any musical instruments. These statutes remained in force until they were repealed early in the nineteenth century. In 1749, Peter Kalm noted that the Quakers completely dismissed the celebration of Christmas in Philadelphia. Kalm made another interesting observation about the Presbyterians as well. He wrote in his diary:

Christmas Day. . . .The Quakers did not regard this day any more remarkable than other days. Stores were open, and anyone might sell or purchase what he wanted. . . .There was no more baking of bread for the Christmas festival than for other days; and no Christmas porridge on Christmas Eve! One did not seem to know what it meant to wish anyone a merry Christmas. . . .first the Presbyterians did not care much for celebrating Christmas, but when they saw most of their members going to the English church on that day, they also started to have services.

Christmas Day in 1775 must have been a great disappointment for the Presbyterian missionary, Philip Fithian. A year earlier he had experienced the finest of Virginia Christmases the residence of Robert Carter, Nomini Hall. But in 1775, Fithian toiled as a missionary in the western counties of Virginia among the Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The following is part of his diary entry for December 25:

Christmas Morning--Not A Gun is heard--Not a Shout--No company or Cabal assembled--To Day is like other Days every Way calm & temperate-- People go about their daily Business with the same Readiness, & apply themselves to it with the same Industry.

Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Moravians celebrated the traditional Christmas season with both religious and secular observances. These celebrations in eighteenth- century America were observed by the aforementioned communities in cities such as New York and Philadelphia, in the Middle Atlantic colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and in the South.

Garlands and greens
Decorations for the midwinter holidays consisted of whatever natural materials looked attractive at the bleakest time of year--evergreens, berries, forced blossoms--and the necessary candles and fires. In ancient times, Romans celebrated their Saturnalia with displays of lights and hardy greenery formed into wreaths and sprays. Christian churches have long been decorated for Christmas. The tradition goes back so far that no one knows for certain when or where it began.

No early Virginia sources tell us how, or even if, colonists decorated their homes for the holidays, so we must rely on eighteenth-century English prints. Of the precious few--only half a dozen--that show interior Christmas decorations, a large cluster of mistletoe is always the major feature for obvious reasons. Otherwise, plain sprigs of holly or bay fill vases and other containers of all sorts or stand flat against windowpanes. (I cannot tell for sure how these last were attached; perhaps the stems were merely stuck between the glass and the wooden muntins.)

Christmas trees. If we had to choose the one outstanding symbol of Christmas, of course it must be the gaily decorated evergreen tree with a star at the very top. German in origin, "Tannenbaum" gained acceptance in England and the United States only very slowly. The first written reference to a Christmas tree dates from the seventeenth century when a candle-lighted tree astonished residents of Strasbourg. Nothing can be found recorded in the eighteenth century about holiday trees in Europe or North America. By the nineteenth century a few of the " German toys" use Charles Dickens's phrase) appeared in London. But these foreign oddities were not yet accepted. When a print of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's very domestic circle around a decorated tree at Windsor Castle appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848, the custom truly caught on.

At about the same time, Charles Minnegerode, a German professor at the College of William and Mary, trimmed a small evergreen to delight the children at the St. George Tucker House. Martha Vandergrift, aged 95, recalled the grand occasion, and her story appeared in the Richmond News Leader on December 25, 1928. Presumably Mrs. Vandergrift remembered the tree and who decorated it more clearly than she did the date. The newspaper gave 1845 as the time, three years after Minnegerode's arrival in Williamsburg. Perhaps the first Christmas tree cheered the Tucker household as early as 1842.

Christmas foods
Everyone wants more and better things to eat and drink for a celebration. Finances nearly always control the possibilities. In eighteenth- century Virginia, of course, the rich had more on the table at Christmas and on any other day, too, but even the gentry faced limits in winter. December was the right time for slaughtering, so fresh meat of all sorts they had, as well as some seafood. Preserving fruits and vegetables was problematic for a December holiday. Then as now, beef, goose, ham, and turkey counted as holiday favorites; some households also insisted on fish, oysters, mincemeat pies, and brandied peaches. No one dish epitomized the Christmas feast in colonial Virginia.

Please visit Colonial Williamsburg's Website at: http://www.history.org/history/index.html

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