Victorian Christmas Traditions – Sarah Beeny’s Rise Hall Christmas – Christmas Documentary

Explore the captivating history of Christmas traditions at Rise Hall, from Georgian extravagance to Victorian family values. Discover the evolution of festive celebrations, decorations, and the birth of Christmas cards. Join Sarah Beeny and her family in uncovering the secrets of yuletide past.

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Join Sarah Beeny and her family on a heartwarming journey as they dive into the enchanting world of Christmas traditions in ‘Sarah Beeny’s Rise Hall Christmas.’ Delve into the origins and immerse yourselves in the rich history of cherished holiday customs. Discover the captivating stories behind why we celebrate Christmas the way we do. From festive decorations to joyful rituals, this show is a delightful exploration of the spirit and significance of the holiday season, sure to warm your heart and ignite your holiday cheer.

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After years of restoring rise Hall’s 97 rooms back to their former glory we’ve discovered layers of its history it was built for Grand entertainment and for over 200 years it seen the evolution of the biggest celebration of all Christmas today our Christmas traditions sell in the millions but turkey

Crackers and stockings above the fire were all at one point in history newly fashionable each of them has a story and in many cases were first adopted by the Gentry so we’re going to uncover the history and traditions of today’s Christmas by revisiting past festive Seasons at rise Hall first built in

1773 from the indulgent Georgians to the family loving victorians yes my love you’re going to be it right up to the make do and mend of wartime Britain we’ve got four presents cool slingshot along the way we’ll reveal how the victorians reinvented Christmas this would be worth about £10,000 now oh my

Goodness and how carols became its soundtrack what they want is figgy pudding they want Christmas pudding and they ain’t going till they got some we’ll eat Christmas food spanning 200 years of festive feasting hasn’t come on in 200 years it’s just as revolting it’s a pig’s head that’s been

Boiled for five or 6 hours until all of the flesh just melts away off it and we’ll discover the origins of the office snog as we deck the Hall’s Georgian style it’s floral Viagra my husband artist Graham Swift and I have owned rise Hall in East Yorkshire for over 10 years now now you can see how many people are coming and going and it’s all quite Manic and sometimes you just think oh gosh you need to catch a

We when we first bought rise Hall it was pretty cheap for our house this size but it was falling down was completely dered it been empty for 10 15 years it was so damp we sold a two-bedroom house in Southwest London and came and bought this it was so cheap because firstly

Nobody knew what to do with it and secondly the amount of money that needed to be spent on this house would have been more than it was worth at the time gam has gradually returned each room back to its former Splendor and now rise pays for itself as a busy wedding and events

Business it’s it’s running like clockwork it feels just like it would have done the bustle of a 17th 18th century house before we bought it this property had been in the hands of the bethl family since 1646 over 400 years the house Grew From an Elizabethan Mana house seen here in

This early Sketchbook to the Regency stately home you see today and it was in 1773 that rise Hall first became a grand country house and one of the greatest landed Estates of East Yorkshire so we begin our story of a British Christmas in Geor Gan times the most excessive era in a Country House history when Christmas luxury was almost exclusive to the Gentry in Georgia times although for the majority of the Country Christmas day wasn’t yet a holiday

Christmas in the country was a round of balls parties and feasting with guests staying for days at a time preparation started way back in November with decking the halls our favorite festive plants like Holly and Ivy all have Pagan associations and were believed by the Georgians to ward off evil spirits even

Now they’re linked with luck and Superstition but there’s one we use to grab a quick kiss that was as naughty then as it is now it is of course mistletoe florist Simon lyset has decorated many historical houses at Christmas including kening Palace we’ve come to his London Workshop to learn

More I wonder why ml toe is seen as being so very naughty one of the reasons it’s a parasitic plant and it is quite a magical mysterious weird thing so actually the Christian Church really isn’t a fan of this very Pagan plant no no I am a florist I’m not allowed to use

It in any Christian buildings with one exception and that is at Christmas time time and in of all places York Minster where it is welcomed and received at the altar and blessed so you guys in Yorkshire fill your boots be as Pagan as you like because it seems to me that up there

Anything goes yeah in a Georgian house mistletoe was used in a kissing bow a globe of greenery that hangs from the ceiling Simon uses an upturn stool to secure our about while we make it so you are going to hang it up and have a snog Fest beneath it so that’s the equivalent

Of just hanging this little upside down with a red ribbon this is a much this is a posher genuinely Georgian version of your bunch of mistletoe hung up with a bow but before the mistletoe is added to the basket it’s stuffed with other winter Greenery so I’ve got some rather

Fabulous Holly which was always symbolizing everlasting life and they used to think it was very protective against sort of Storms and fires we are now going to transform our very pure and Christian kissing bow to something very naughty Saucy Georgian and very adult by adding in a sprig of this it’s floral

Viagra and the tradition was each time you had a kiss you picked a berry off whilst there was still a berry on the bow you could keep kissing so the Master of the House would been forcing fistfuls into this bow hold it up in primer houses mistletoe was only allowed

Downstairs while the rest of the house was decorated with huge garlands a really big house would have had lots of land so that they could gather all this foliage and lots of staff to go and gather it and and make these garlands so it was a display and a sign of great

Wealth rise Hall in Georgian times had nearly 30 dir staff all working for weeks to cover the house in garlands containing exotic fruits so what was Christmas like for Rise Hall’s poshest previous owners take the clothes off give them to us come on we’re going to find out for

Ourselves I think everyone needs a kissing bow a Gentry lady’s fitting for her many Christmas dresses took place in London earlier in the year and arrived 6 months before Christmas at a cost of up to a whopping £4,000 each in today’s money for the lord of the house

Christmas was the time to show off rise as a stately home by entertaining guests who would have come from the tiny Elite of great houses in East Yorkshire they would stay for days even weeks or long enough for the chat to run pretty dry Christmas Eve signaled the start of

12 days of religious reflection after all the Georgians were seemingly devout in you get it wasn’t much of an event for the kids as the Georgians hadn’t fully embrac the season as a children’s festival so um that’s it for Christmas that’s as good as it gets I’m afraid

Gift giving if any was on the 6th of December and there might be two Church attendances on Christmas Day and maybe I’ll be able to find you a walnut for Christmas as a present if you’re very good but for the adults behind closed door in a Gentry house it was about

Flaunting wealth and putting on a fabulous festive Show Entertainment started on Christmas Eve with the tradition of burning a log which doesn’t sound hugely entertaining right make way for the U log that’s a big one the reason we eat around 1.2 million chocolate log cakes every year comes

From the Pagan tradition of burning the Ule log it was bad luck if it didn’t burn for 12 days but even worse if it was touched by a barefooted woman or a flat-footed visitor heaven forbid oh Dam oh dear I feel quite fi that is quite a

Flat foot oh my move away from the Old Log please is it taking what hang on look look look 12 days that’s not going to burn for 12 days is it at least the Hope was it would burn long enough for the 12 days of opulent feasting that was to

Follow Christmas dinner in Britain with all its trimmings has become synonymous with feasting and it’s a tradition that goes back centuries although in Georgian times the emphasis wasn’t necessarily on Christmas day in fact in a Gentry house feasting took place on an epic scale every day of

The season it’s no wonder then that the dining room took center stage of any Georgian Christmas and Rise Halls is no exception does this one need to go over a bit slightly over over to the right when we bought rise the dining room had fallen into complete

Disrepair this room was one of the saddest rooms in the house when we bought it the fireplace had been nicked the ceiling was flaking and peeling and not in great Nick the AL Cove we hadn’t even we hadn’t even discovered was there now the room is in use again for dinner

Events and is used in almost the same way as it was in Georgian times this is the door that the guests would have come in from all the m rooms down at the front of the house and this towards the back of the house is where the servants

Would have come in and they would have brought food that would have been quite hot when it came from the kitchens over on the north side of the house and probably by the time they got here it would have been quite Tepid the owners of Rise Hall would have invited local dignitaries from nearby Estates to join them in gargant dinners of up to 20 dishes these were a wonderful opportunity to flaunt and boast about their endless supplies food historian Dr Annie gray has demonstrated Georgian feasts for years so in Georgian

Times how many people would have prepared this you’d probably have had six or seven kitchen staff and you’re probably looking at a very very good female cook a typical Georgian festive Feast includes two dishes we still have today Christmas pudding and minc pies Christmas pudding has been around

Since the 15th century and in Georgian times it was eaten right throughout the winter what’s the difference between that and Christmas pudding now tends to have a lot less sugar in it this one cuz if you regard it as being on the table at the same time as your beef and your

Potatoes and your Savory cses it makes more sense that way it’s not intended to be the sweet end of a meal on average Brits eat 27 mince pies each at Christmas but you may have struggled in georgean times because the mints really did have mints in it why would they have

Put meat into I’m surely it’s a a sweet thing is this a pudding or a mles it is sweet the minced meat that you’ve got here evolves slowly from a chea minced meat which would have had a large proportion of probably mutton in it and

The currents there to add a back note so what we’re adding is a very small amount of meat to quite a lot of currents so it’s evolved the minced pie has evolved through time from being a meat pie now it’s emasculated completely I mean you can get vegetarian minced meat really

Quality Meat was a privilege only the rich could afford it was the caviar of its day look what I’ve got for you like the flesh from this Pig’s head for example which apparently makes a nice patte called Brawn I’m not convinced that is absolutely rank you’re going to

Be eating that later certainly I’m not brwn is probably the most traditional English Christmas dish it’s a pig’s head that’s been boiled for five or 6 hours until all of the flesh just melts away off it all of that’s taken off pressed into a mold so when you turn

It out you’ve basically just got pate and never was meat used to such extremes than with a Yorkshire pie stuffed with as many different birds as you can kill from the estate and in Yorkshire often given as a Christmas gift this is the traditional Christmas pie so it’s

Effectively a three or five bird roast in pastry so I think we’ll do chicken a pheasant which I’ve already boned out so you can see what you’re aiming at and then a pigeon turkey wasn’t seen much at Christmas for at least another hundred years so it’s just pigeons and Pig’s head to

Prepare you don’t need to get the eyes out it’s F I’m not sure how I’ve been raped into this I really hate people who are screamish cuz I think it’s pathetic and I’ve realized I’m pathetic nowadays we think we spend ages preparing a Christmas Feast but compared to Georgian times especially at the

Upper end of society they really went to town and you couldn’t possibly eat all the food that they prepared and they prepared it for days and days and days so what did all this food looked like when it was served at Christmas dinner of course it was typical Georgian theatric

Guide books were printed to tell staff how to lay the table symmetrically dishes including asparagus soup Jerusalem Arch chokes Chocolate Drops bemon boozy madira jelly a Cod head and our three bird Yorkshire pie were all served at once this was called service alaf Fran what a feast the Georgian version of Christmas

Pudding apparently went well with a joint of beef as big as a small Child hasn’t come on in 200 years it’s just as revolting it’s meat and meat and meat and meat and meat and a bit more meat but if you got the meat sweats too soon you couldn’t call yourself a posh Georgian especially if you couldn’t handle your crimbo Brawn made from the

Stewed flesh of a pig’s head I I can’t quite get over the the fact that the the thing in front of me is pigs Head meat and fat squashed together in a cakey thing thank your lucky stars that they took all the ear wax out oh God don’t

Well actually it doesn’t smell bad pig’s ears it’ll just be a bit bitter come on nose fat you have some ear wax now honey as well it’s quite fatty isn’t it and of course spices fruit Brandy and Prime cuts of beef make up the ey wateringly expensive minced pies there

Isn’t even a hint of beef in that just tastes like a normal minced pie what’s the point in a pie containing beef which cost more money if you can’t taste beef no wonder they scrap the beef but throwing in extra meat was just another way of proving you could afford to be

Ridiculous it was all about being just like George III’s son the prince Regent who was famed for parties so big he had rivers of wine flowing through them and parties in the country were never more excessive than on the 12th night on the 6th of January in the Christian faith

This was the night of the Epiphany when God the father was recognized in his son Jesus Christ but in some country houses it was an excuse for a festive knees up right we need to drink up guests had often left and the STA we invited to join in some fancy

Frolics it’s here we find out the Christmas cake we all know and love has its origins in 12th cake iced in sugar as precious and rare as diamonds and just as tough to slice into it was shared with the staff who upon finding a pee or Bean in their slice became king

Or queen for the night you could have been a really lowly under elevated to Queen for the day just by getting up PE in the cake and often a card game would be played as well so everybody here would be picking a card we would all have characters to play for the evening

Jolly Japes all around and why do we set our Christmas pudding on fire one of the reasons for the flammable fun is the Georgian game of Snapdragon 1 2 Y where players would compete to pull raisins from a flaming bowl of Brandy the Clarett selling Georgia loved playing games especially ones which

Involved groping like Blind Man’s Bluff played well into the early hours of the morning the Georgian Christmas was solely an adult Affair a magical Christmas for kids was still a twinkle in Santa’s eye today whilst we still all Splash out and Gorge ourselves on luxuries adult fun has given way to

Family Fun which is more about children and this is something we can thank the victorians for by the time Queen Victoria took the throne the bethl family had already added Greek Revival stone columns at the front and extended much of the house the family were now at the peak of

Their wealth you know it was bringing in an income of about 177,000 quid which in today’s money is about 8 million it’s just extraordinary and if you think about the fact that they had about 30 staff here and a Butler’s wage was about £40 you know no wonder they had so much

Money to spend on other stuff but behind the Splendor and wealth of the facade of a country or state inside the focus at Christmas was family the family who lived in this house they had the money to really indulge their family and to keep up with the latest

Trends the fashion of a family Christmas was inspired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert their family image promoted a Sentimental view of children they are The Reason Why Us parents today bust a gut finding the right toys for our kids at Christmas historian Kate Williams can explain more the children’s

Culture the idea that children should have their own food their own toys their own books their own belongings that really came in in the Victorian times and Christmas it was all about toys these days we spend around 1 billion on toys the kids get bored of by the end of

January but what did these toys that only the wealthy could afford 150 years ago look like so this enormous Ark here and all of these toys would have all been handcarved these had all been handcarved probably in a in a toy factory which was set up mainly in the

East End of London we didn’t import toys at that time it was all made in Britain any Victorian child who received this would practically faint with excitement is the equivalent of getting iPads for the modern child which have seen perfect for the victorians because it was religious it was educational in my

Utopian dreams I part of the reason I had children is because because it was going to be like a Victorian Christmas and they were going to play with wooden toys like this but actually they want to watch Telly and play football as the era progressed so did

The toys from puppets to dolls like this one from 1880 this is a wax doll Queen Victoria herself had hundreds of dolls and unlike now where little girls have dolls that are often babies what they want is adult dolls they will be playing with a doll well into their

Teens by the end of the 19th century toys were becoming more costly this mechanical game was £4 Shilling and9 about £25 in today’s money you put your money in here for the gambling and then you send the horses around so here we go there’s incredible advances in industrial Innovation that make this

Kind of mechanical toy possible this sort of game really would stand a test of time now and you really I mean this to me is the Victorian age in my new sh and any child who got this you were a very wealthy and privileged and rather spoiled little girl or

Boy so what did a Victorian Christmas look like at rise Hall with just five family members but 30 living staff Christmas was well planned and executed Gentry ladies were now taking their fashion queue from The Virtuous Queen Victoria and ganss were less revealing than the Georgians after all a Victorian lady

Must seem to be the perfect wife and mother at rise Hall Mrs Betha was known for her charitable donations to the local workhouses charity at Christmas was key for the reputation of the house meanwhile a Victorian man was expected to appear as a strict patriarch who surely loves nothing more than time with

His children in 1844 The Illustrated London news printed a picture of the Royal Family standing around something which was at the time A New Concept to the people of Britain the Christmas tree the tree came from Albert’s native Germany although they had been used privately in the palace since Victoria was a child but when the palace made it public the wealthy ached with desire to copy them I think this is the most beautiful Christmas tree I’ve ever seen it’s

Amazing isn’t it decorations were all lovingly Handmade by the staff now that sugar was cheaper edible treat like candy glazed fruits and also popcorn string were hung in the tree we hang on you’re not meant to be eating at all we’re meant to be decorating the tree I don’t think the

Edible tree decorations massively work looking at the children yes my love you’re going to be sick but there was an alternative to sugary decorations in a German Town known for glass blowing one worker came up up with a decoration that could be reused every year the bble you think we should put these

Lovely BBL on the tree at first they sold for a whopping 5 Shillings 20 in today’s money but when down to a penny in the early 1900s they were flying off the shelves at Woolworths oh R that’s perfect to remind Children of the religious context of Christmas the

Victorians came up with lighting candles as a symbol of the starry heavens 3 minutes the Christmas tree is going to gone up and smoked in the early Victorian era gifts were small trinkets like miniature dolls accessories when hung in the tree they tumbled into naked Flames causing thousands of house fires in the

1800s that’s going to burn down oh oh my God oh my God is a is a tree on fire is this our Victorian fire alarm this is the Victorian firearm yeah eventually the victorians realized as gifts grew bigger they were safer under the tree and candles were cautiously lit just long

Enough for the moment to be remembered the victorians really introduced the Christmas tree into our homes and I look at it now and think this is a massive big Christmas tree on an amazingly Grand scale but actually what would all our Christmases be like now without a Christmas tree this is CLE

Where Christmas was born but the Victorian Christmas tree was just the start of a commercial Christmas explosion thanks to the booming Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century nearby Hull was supplying fish and other Goods to the south on impressive new Railways which at last connected rise Hall in Yorkshire to the

Rest of the country the Royal Male made the most of the railways with a penny post which made letter sending cheaper and faster than ever and the clever victorians were about to find a smart way of making the most of this for Christmas they came up with something that in Britain we spend

148 million p on each year the Christmas card over 1.8 billion Christmas cards are sent in the UK alone the card was the brain wave of civil servant Henry Cole as an alternative to writing lengthy letters at Christmas historian Kate Williams has an original this is the first Christmas card by Henry Cole

In 1843 unbelievable that we still have it now is that actually an original from the year that he printed them in 1843 if you were Henry Cole’s friend you would have received this there’s only 10 of these in circulation and this would be worth about £10,000 now oh my goodness

This card was incredibly popular it caught on so fast people immediately started buying and they started sending them and they really started bankrupting themselves on Christmas cards cuz this was put on sale for six pennies which makx it a very luxury item simply the poor could not afford something like

That the car depicts a lively Pub scene with adults and children boozing away whilst outside the poor were given some leftovers the victorians was an age of ultimate hypocrisy really they believed into philanthropy they they put behind them the Georgians the naughtiness the Mistresses and they push that all under

The carpet and they have this kind of external excessive philanthropy that we really see here so they going to give the poor a few little pennies but they really don’t believe the poor are their equals we’ve got small children here drinking huge amounts of wine yeah it looks like our [Laughter]

Christm the concept of sending a decorated card took off rapidly and in just 30 years 4 million were being sold every Christmas now Christmas greetings could be posted Christmas time for the Gentry just like the Royals was a time for private family celebration it was the night before

Christmas went all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse on Christmas Eve children waited for gifts to be delivered by a new mystical figure and this figure was of course father Christmas many people think the image of Father Christmas started with Coca-Cola ads in the

1930s but cartoonist Thomas Nast was first to draw him with fur trims seen here in 1881 although before then the victorians imagined him sometimes as a green ELF and as a Turkish Bishop in red robes called St Nicholas either way he definitely exists and in Britain today 750,00 thousand

Children write to him each year Legend has it to avoid coming face to face with his charitable subjects St Nicholas once dropped coins down a chimney into some drying stockings that were hanging above the fire l so do you think if I hung a lot of stockings that might happen there

Might be pots of gold that fall into it I have a suspicion that if you asked extra specially nicely he might give you some chocolate coins in fact coins the original stocking filler did eventually become chocolate in the early 20th Century long before W sir Cliff or the exactor dominated the Christmas charts in Victorian Britain at the top of the pops it was all about the Christmas Carol we’ve come to St Thomas’s Church in London to meet conductor Charles Hazelwood who has conducted some of the world’s greatest Orchestras glor now that is everything about Christmas it sums up immediately it makes you think about all things Christmas yes carols uh were actually a much older things and they’re not necessarily to do with Christmas at all back in the Middle Ages I mean a Carol is a round dance it might

Be some to celebrate somebody’s birth or somebody’s wedding but it was only when the victorians came along they got all kind of nostalgic about the idea that maybe these beautiful old British Tunes could be re-calibrated to work with songs which express the magic of Christmas now I heard that they sent

Composers out into the countryside to go and hear what was fash at the time and make them Christmas CS they started to think wouldn’t it be interesting if we took some of those amazing old songs which are about to disappear from our culture Al together give them new words

Around this thing called Christmas which we all love and feel very kind of you know sentimental about and thus was born what we now know is the Christmas carol most famous One Is We wish you a Merry Christmas we wish you a merry you think about it what they want is figgy pudding

They want Christmas pudding and they ain’t going till they got some sounds very very similar to our kids actually but caroling or a Gooding is actually a Victorian rebranding of a far older tradition Wasing now wasel could have been sung about like a new Apple Harvest

Just as much as it could have been sung about Christmas or any other kind of feast day during the year and the idea of a westel was you or a bunch of you stand outside a pub you sing a song in order to gain entry to the pub so that

The Publican will give you free food and and and beer effectively there’s already a sense of oh yes everyone’s getting the spirit you know within a few bars do you want to sing that song to me do you know that one God rescue mered gentlemen we all know that

One 2 3 4 God resue gentlemen let you dism for Jesus Christ ouri was born on Christmas Day Tove us all from sat the Caroling victorians those who could actually remember the words were now spreading good cheer through the Land and Christmas was deemed important enough for workers to get a day off in 1834 the 25th of December became a national holiday for all after attending church the day was centered around its Masterpiece Christmas dinner today Christmas dinner for 10 million families in the UK is defined by

One thing and that is of course roast turkey turkey came to Britain from America in the 16th century and was bred in Norfolk bard of goose wealthy victorians salivated over this exclusive bird each year flocks of them wearing little shoes were walked for miles from Norfork to London to be

Sold look at this WOW delicious in a wealthy Country House dinner turkey may be served as one course out of many alongside beef salmon and oysters look at that but deboned and stuffed turkey was often the main event food historian Annie gray has skewed DARS with prawns

And truffles a popular addition for the super rich the turkey a really big bird so it’s a bit more kind of logical to have something like that than a massive lump of beef necessarily but as you’ve seen in your menu you also have your beef your beef shows how English you are

Your turkey is beginning to be really associated with Christmas but turkey wasn’t the only new addition to the dinner table a confectioner of the time called Thomas Smith came up with a table decoration so unique it caused hisor amongst the upper classes one evening while sitting by the

Fire Mr Smith was startled by the crackle of a falling log it gave him the perfect idea he would add a bang to his newly paper wrapped suets which could be pulled apart by two people inside the wrapping he would include love messages and treats and so the Christmas cracker

Was born okay really hard three these days we pull around 300 million crackers a year that’s around five corny jokes five ill-fitting hats and five plastic toys each that is a bottle are really good for beer but whilst the family celebrated servants downstairs were working Round the Clock

They even had their own Christmas dinner at 10:00 a.m. leaving enough time to create a perfect Christmas Day upstairs but Christmases supported by scores of staff and wrapped in luxury were not to last over the coming years country houses in Britain lost great wealth thanks to Rising ing death duties and the Depression the final death nail for many including rise was the start of the second world war when income plummeted and the staff were called up for Duty so what was Christmas like for a Yorkshire estate whilst the country was at war with the Nazis when the war started in 1939

Britain believed it would all be over by Christmas but five more years of war were to follow rise Hall became headquarters for the auxiliary territorial unit who raised the alarm for incoming Nazi raids it was a vital role nearby H at this time was the second most bombed City in

Britain after London due to its importance as a shipping port with the staff sent off to War and the house taken over by the military the Bethal moved to the back servants quarters this part of the house was the last to be restored the old servants kitchen is now Graham’s

Workshop this is the original kitchen that we’re in now there’s a whole load of different smaller rooms coming up the north side which would have been for just storing vegetables and flowers and sort of all the things all the produce that you’d have taken from the home farm

And the estate around you and then during the war time the family reverted back to these parts of the house as smaller bits that used to be the staff accommodation and the working Hub of the house at this time the owners lived in a few rooms above the servants kitchen and

Had just two part-time members of Staff with frequent Air Raids over Hull the people of East Yorkshire were prepared for a tough Christmas just as they were in Hull’s Southern counterpart London the nation has made a resolve that war or no war the children of England will

Not be cheated out of the one day they look forward to all the year so far as possible this will be an oldfashioned Christmas in England at least for the children despite days of waiting for news of loved ones in bunkers and sellers it was down to resilient adults

To extend wartime Spirit into the spirit of Christmas imports from overseas were attacked by enemy ships so Food Supplies were limited even for the Gentry rise Hall lands were handed over to the dig for victory scheme in which the nation was asked to grow crops estate produce was stretched across

Local communities so rich and poor alike registered at the local shop for rations Annie gray is going to explain our ration books here it is look at that you would hand it to me and I would look at what you’d got and then I would take

My stamp and I would say preserves stamp and I’d gave you the whole book stamping to show that you’d had it and all of this you pay for it but it’s all controlled by the government each adult was given butter sugar preserves 8 ounces of meat and cooking fats but by

1942 the government allowed a little bit extra for Christmas 1 and A2 l pounds of sugar 8 penny worth of meat 4 P fresh meat 4 P corn meat half a pound of sweets for children and the over 70s his these are the extra Christmas rations but some foods couldn’t be

Guaranteed no Christmas would be complete without chocolate and sweets today but they along with many other harder to come by items were controlled by points families at Christmas now face the Dilemma of necessity over festive Lu luy okay kids come on we got 20 points we need to choose what we’re going to

Have what what do you want Billy what do you like the look of I’ll start with golden syrup so hang on so you get a whole tin of golden syrup or what a piece of chocolate golden syrup and 8 oz of chocolate how much is the same points

Would you rather have a tin of golden syrup or this chocolate for a whole month Su each person had 16 points a month but but at Christmas it was raised to 20 everyone has a budget for Christmas and and making the budget work every year is

Really hard work but in the wartime you may have had the money but if you didn’t have the points you couldn’t have it so the people of Britain were forced to get creative and dream up ideas that would give the illusion of festive normality it doesn’t scream Christmas to

Me factories were handed over to the war effort and consumer goods in the 1940s were scarce magazines were printed to teach Families how to make decorations from anything lying around the house this is washing up brush bristles and wire this really is a feat of the imagination to

Take an old scrubbing brush and turn it into a Christmas tree it doesn’t scream Christmas to me I think it’s very made do amend the most surprising decoration came from the Luft faffer as well as bombing Hull they dropped small metal strips called window to confuse our

Radar when collected from the ground it was used to make a shimmery wrap for the tree known as tinsel that’s good isn’t it yeah very festive very festive dear tinsel ironically came from Germany it was invented in urberg in 1610 and made from strips of real silver to create the

Effect of icicles on winter garlands let’s pop it around your neck lovely gifts among adults were often National saving certificates bonds which raised £1 million for the war effort or the government message was to make do and mend your own presence ideas published included spam in cars I’m not

Sure that I can tweet this anymore I think that’s almost perfect just as it is Teddy bears from old felt what you think I that’s brilliant and catapults made with underwear elastic this is proper making do and mending though isn’t it cutting out Lor’s knickers to make a catapult for Billy probably if

It’s not long enough you have to cut up my Knickers we’ve got four presents cool slingshot raffy what have you got there it’s a teddy bear oh that is so cool look at that Lori I make do mending the present his name is Jake not a bad name oh my wind [Laughter] been in the years after the war due to

Crippling debt and zero income from the land important country houses like rise Hall were demolished every fortnite throughout the 1950s those that weren’t knocked down tried to find other ways of surviving and Rise Hall became a girl school for 40 years it even had a school gym added

At the back of the building which is now a ballroom by the time we bought it in 2001 it had been empty for years and was crumbling to the Ground today the fun of Christmas has returned to rise hor with family and paying guests making full use of the building the house has come full circle really it’s got it show back it’s back to show business time really but without us being the guests these days we the owners use a

Much smaller part of the house for Christmas dinner the kitchen the irony of it is that I quite like the coziness of of all being in one room and the kids playing over there and us being here I think this open plan living probably fits our lifestyle a bit

Better than a 30 bedroom house present oh darling yes really want one although Christmas has evolved as you look around the room there are telltale signs of Great British Christmases gone by all over the place but for me the best thing is hearing Christmas carols The Gentry might once have had the money to Splash out on luxuries that weren’t afforded to everyone else but now Christmas is on sale in shops and supermarkets to everyone but no matter how you package or sell Christmas I think it’s actually about your own personal history of Christmas after all

These traditions we all share together we tend to make completely our Own the isor Christ ouri is Bor