Timetravelling after work to Christmas Past

With baubles, fir trees and tinstle popping up in offices across the capital, the festive frolics have arrived. But if you’ve ever wondered about the origins of Christmas trees, puddings and stockings, all is revealed at the Geffrye Museum’s fascinating Christmas Past exhibition.  From 17th century parlours to cutting-edge warehouse conversions, Christmas Past traces the homes, decor, food and rituals that have shaped Christmas over the last four hundred years.

Victorian farmyard toys at the Christmas Past exhibition at the Geffyre Museum

Office Breaks Christmas Past at the Geffrye Museum

Tucked away in gentrified Hoxton, the Geffrye Museum is an urban oasis nestled in 18th century almshouses and surrounded by manicured gardens. The museum’s collections depict the lives and homes of the urban middle classes over the last four centuries with the Christmas Past exhibition being a regular calendar highlight over the last twenty-five years.

17th century parlour at the Christmas Past exhibition at the Geffrye Museum

Office Breaks Christmas Past at the Geffrye Museum

The exhibition kicks off in the stiflingly austere ambience of a 17th century hall – the pride and joy of a typically well-to-do London family.   In contrast to the somewhat sombre surrounds, the New Year’s Day Feast, (pictured here), offers a surprising array of playful sugary treats fashioned in the guise of chequer boards, pears and bacon and eggs.

close up sweet treats at Christmas Past at Geffrye Museum

Office Breaks Christmas Past Geffrye Museum

The sweet second course indulgence is a rare and luxurious treat – highlighting the expense of sugar during this time.  The sparse trail of Ivy hanging limply over the fireplace is a nod to ancient pagan traditions. Around this time In the mid-17th century Christmas was banned by the Puritans and not fully restored until the early 19th century.

Zipping along to the 1790’s, the next room is again simple and understated and could do with a few crackers to lighten the mood.  While turkey was introduced in the 1530’s, beef remained the Christmas dish of the day up until the late 19th century. A rudimentary form of plum pudding, made of suet, eggs, flour and dried fruit, was dished up alongside the beef as the precursor to today’s Christmas pudding. The twelve days between Christmas Eve and New Year would typically be spent entertaining, dancing and performing elaborate games of disguise where the servant would frequently replace the master.

18th century dining table at the Christmas Past exhibition at the Geffrye Museum

Office Breaks Christmas Past at the Geffrye Museum

It wasn’t until Queen Victoria’s reign in the 1850’s that Christmas trees first appeared in Victorian drawing rooms. Contrary to misconception, it was not Prince Albert but Princess Caroline who first introduced Christmas trees to the UK from Germany where they had been a fixture since the 1600’s. As the focal point of a typical 1870’s drawing room, the tree would be laden with candles, toys, animals and baskets of sweets. Toys strewn with careless abandon across the table below hint at a more laid-back Christmas where children are a the heart of the festivities.

Christmas stockings were first mentioned in the 1823 version of “Twas the night before Christmas” when Saint Nicholas reportedly dropped coins down the chimney of a widower’s house.  The coins landed inside stockings which were hung up to dry by the fireplace.   A fable that endures today in the gold-wrapped chocolate coins that lurk at the bottom of the Christmas stocking.

Victorian farmyard toys at the Christmas Past exhibition at the Geffyre Museum

Office Breaks Christmas Past at the Geffrye Museum

Whizzing forward to the swinging sixties, formal dining rooms are swept away by the laid-back vibe of open-plan living spaces typical of town houses in the 1950s-1960s.  Here central heating has moved the room’s focus away from the fireplace to the television – where guests can slump and snooze after the indulgence of the Christmas Day meal.

1950s living room at the Christmas Past exhibition at the Geffyre Museum

Office Breaks Christmas Past at the Geffrye Museum

The final room brings us bang up to date with modern living with an envy-inducing warehouse conversion in Shoreditch.  Here the trendy 30-something media types are tucking into a Nigella Lawson’s roast turkey.

20th century living room at the Christmas Past exhibition at the Geffyre Museum

Office Breaks Christmas Past exhibition at the Geffrye Museum

 

The room is tastefully decorated with a few choice baubles from Heals and the pagan traditions of yesteryear continue with a haul of tasteful greenery dragged back from Columbia Road flower market. The home owners don’t hang around for long though as a New Year ski trip beckons them to Gatwick.   An event that would seem inconceivable to our 17th century predecessors.

Christmas Past is open from Tuesday 24 November until Sunday 3 January 2016.
Free entry, no advance booking required.
Opening times: 10.00am-5.00pm Tuesday – Sunday.

 

 

 

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