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How Christmas was celebrated in the 1910s by a Stirlingshire...

Date 23 February 1982
Track ID 56671
Part 1
Part 2

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1982.45.B7&SA1982.46.A1

Original Tape ID

SA1982.045

Summary

How Christmas was celebrated in the 1910s by a Stirlingshire family of English origin.

Christmas Day was not a holiday in Scotland until quite recently. The traditional holiday was at New Year. When Mrs Hailstones was young the house was decorated with holly and home-made paper streamers. Mistletoe was hung up, especially in the hall for Christmas parties. Mrs Hailstones did not have a Christmas party when she was a child, but she had Christmas parties for her children when they were young.

Mrs Hailstones' mother always made a special Christmas meal of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with sprouts and cabbage and all the trimmings, a Christmas pudding made in a cloth, and mince pies. Mrs Hailstones hung her stocking at the mantelpiece, and sometimes left out something for Santa Claus, such as a drink of milk. The stocking would be filled with a penny, an apple, an orange, some sweets, and a small toy. They always had a Christmas tree, which was a small tree taken out of the ground every year. Christmas trees were not common in Scotland at that time, but Mrs Hailstones' parents were English. There were no carol singers, but there used to be a nativity play in Fintry church. They went to church on Christmas Day and also used to go when there was a Christmas Eve service.

Recording Location

County - Stirlingshire

Parish - Fintry

Village/Place - Fintry

Item Location

County - Stirlingshire

Parish - Fintry

Village/Place - Fintry

Language

English

Genre

Information

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good