Christmas traditions – english-stuff.com

Changing Christmas Celebrations: What Lies Ahead?

Christmas Card Depicting Botanical Ornamentation by newyorkpubliclibrary is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

English-stuff has various posts on Christmas traditions, mainly relating back to the Victorians (see https://english-stuff.com/2024/12/07/the-history-of-christmas-pudding-a-timeless-tradition/ – https://english-stuff.com/2021/12/22/a-victorian-christmas-dinner/ – https://english-stuff.com/2020/12/19/a-victorian-christmas/ )

But what about Christmas today?

Which elements of a 21st century Christmas celebration in the UK could change in the future?

The early start

I promise you that I have actually seen Christmas paraphernalia on sale in August … and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if anyone has spotted Christmas merchandise even earlier than that. It was not always this way. The commercialisation of Christmas makes it come round more quickly every year.

Once we get to the end of October and Halloween is over, on 1st November the gloves are off. It’s an absolute free-for-all with Christmas publicity, offers, gifts, decorations, and foodstuffs in your shops. These things are on your TV and in your face till the day itself arrives.

A tongue-in -cheek question ….will the day arrive when we end one Christmas and immediately start preparing for the next?

Christmas cards

Christmas cards are greeting cards that people give or send to each other to send a message which can convey love, or a religious or humourous message. In the UK it is a way of celebrating the Yuletide season.

Christmas Greeting Card (ca. 1922) by newyorkpubliclibrary is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Christmas cards became popular during the reign of Queen Victoria, like several of our other festive customs. (see https://english-stuff.com/2020/12/19/a-victorian-christmas/ ) The Christmas card industry is now worth approximately a whopping £1.4 billion.

But with the advent of digital messages, WhatsApp, AI and who knows what else, will this tradition be affected? There is still a huge quantity of Christmas cards in the 2025 post but there has been a slight decline in volume in recent years due to different consumer habits such as online messaging, plus the rise in postage costs. The Guardian published this article today: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/12/card-factory-issues-shock-profit-warning-during-peak-christmas-period

But it’s not all down to AI taking over. We are also probably more aware of the environmental costs — the carbon footprint and the paper involved.

Do you think Christmas cards will become extinct as time goes by?

Christmas stamps

https://png.pngtree.com/png-vector/20220926/ourmid/pngtree-sets-of-winter-christmas-stamp-postage-collection-snowman-christmas-vector-png-image_4105806.jpg

The first set of Christmas stamps were produced in 1966. But should we stop sending Christmas cards, will we lose our Christmas stamps too? Answers on a postcard with a Christmas stamp please.

Christmas crackers

If you are reading this from outside the UK, you may have no idea what this is – although the Commonwealth countries also have this tradition. Basically it’s a paper wrapper that generally contains a trinket, a joke and a paper crown. You pull the cracker with another person at each end at the Christmas dinner table. It makes an explosive sound. The contents then tumble out, hence the name cracker.

Invented in the mid-nineteenth century, crackers slowly became popular items on the Christmas table. Millions of Christmas crackers will be pulled apart this year. Yet revenue from sales has dipped slightly in recent years. This is mainly due to the tough economic climate and the fact that crackers are considered an option rather than an essential.

But it’s not all bad news, there’s evidence of innovation in the Christmas cracker business – for example, luxury crackers or joke-focused editions.

Christmas dinner

What to say about Christmas dinner? A traditional Christmas dinner includes roast turkey or a roasted joint of meat. It comes with crispy roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables (which must include Brussels sprouts even if you don’t like them), stuffing, and gravy. People also like to add their favourite accompaniments – for example, Yorkshire puddings, pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese. And why not?

Industry data shows a decline in turkey consumption at Christmas over recent years. Fewer households are choosing turkey. Instead, they are opting for lamb, gammon or chicken.

Many members of the younger generation go one step further and ignore the traditional fare altogether – they might choose curry or pizza or Mexican food or whatever preference they have. And let’s not forget vegans and vegetarians.

Roast turkey remains part of British Christmas tradition, but its role is evolving. Fewer households are sticking exclusively with turkey, and a growing number of people are choosing alternatives or multiple mains for their festive meal. This reflects broader shifts in eating habits, costs and cultural preferences in the UK.

What do you think about these changes? Are they positive or negative?

Have you seen any other changes that could happen in the future?

The History of Christmas Pudding: A Timeless Tradition

Sweet Christmas

A Christmas pudding is a British emblem of Yuletide. Love it or loathe it, no traditional British Christmas meal is complete without one. Similar to Brussel sprouts, (which tend to be more loathed than loved but also still make an appearance) our Christmas dessert, in my humble opinion, is part and parcel of the Christmas festivities.

Our beloved Christmas pudding has history – it’s been around for longer than you might think.

Who made the first Christmas pudding?

Sadly, we do not know the name of the person who invented our pudding. But we do know that its forerunner, a type of pottage, a mixture of beef, suet, dried fruit and spices existed in England in the Middle Ages. Pottage was the name for a soupy kind of stew, generally eaten by peasants, and comprised of ingredients that were readily available to them – mainly vegetables and pulses. If the nobility chose to eat pottage, then more expensive items such as spices and meat would be included.

Many pottages later, around the end of the Tudor era, our pudding gained a more solid form, and a new name, plum pudding, but beef still figured amongst its ingredients. It was also a possibility that there were actually no plums in the pudding, plum being used to refer to various different fruits. At the same time the humble pottage was also still in existence and no doubt the size of your wallet would decide which version you chose.

A Christmas pudding hanging on a hook to dry. Photographed by DO’Neil.

In the 18th century, pudding cloths arrived, supplanting the animal intestines that had been used before ( yes, better not to think about it…). The mixture would be left in a muslin cloth for some time, followed by a lengthy cooking process. This is when plum pudding began to acquire the spherical shape that we know so well today. It was generally eaten alongside beef, if you were well-heeled enough to afford it, of course.

The golden age of Christmas pudding

Fast-forwarding to the Victorian era, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were known to enjoy lavish meals at Christmas, (see: https://wordpress.com/post/english-stuff.com/1197 ) with plum pudding often on the menu. Charles Dickens also promoted the idea of a Christmas pudding as a special delicacy at the end of A Christmas Carol when Mrs. Cratchit presents a sweet, round pudding, blazing in ignited brandy.

A Christmas pudding being flamed. Author Ed.g2s

Two years after the publication of A Christmas Carol, our dish appeared as an official “Christmas pudding” in Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery for Private Families, a bestseller in 1845. This was Christmas pudding as we would recognise it – that is, a round sweet pudding, with no beef, but plenty of fruit and spices. The pudding mixture could be moulded to give it a more ornate shape. It was however, still served alongside the meat course.

Vintage Plum Pudding Image. Author : Graphics Fairy

Demise of the Christmas pudding?

During the twentieth century, this sweet dish became exactly that – the dessert we instantly recognise, served with cream, custard or brandy butter. Supermarkets began to stock a convenient packaged version, which only needs to be heated and served.

But times continue to change. Nowadays many older Brits, (but certainly not all), are still attached to Christmas pudding, maybe because it has been part of our lives for so long. However, the younger generation, it seems, are not particularly supportive of the Christmas pud, probably as it usually follows a very rich and heavy first and second course. The Royal Mint in a 2024 survey found that a whopping 59% of the British population said they did not consider the Christmas pudding to be essential to the festivities. What do you think?

Christmas pudding has been with us in various guises for hundred of years. It is still cherished by some. But do you think Christmas pudding will survive in the future? Do you love it or loathe it? Let me know!