“Here We Come A-Wassailing”: A Look at Some Lesser-Known Victorian Christmas Traditions The Victorian Variety Show

The Victorians are credited with giving us many of the Christmas traditions we know and love today, but in this episode, I look at some with which the majority of us may be less familiar, including the Christmas Pickle, “festive science,” dangerous parlour games, and the infamous wassail bowl.

*****

BBC. “History of Christmas.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/victorianchristmas/history.shtml

Bradley, Elizabeth L. “Dickens and Irving: A Tale of Two Christmas Tales.” https://hudsonvalley.org/article/dickens-and-irving-a-tale-of-two-christmas-tales/

Cole, Rupert. “Science and Christmas: a forgotten Victorian romance.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/dec/14/science-christmas-victorian-romance

Ellis, Danielle. “A Victorian Christmas: Furmenty and Snapdragon.” https://www.severnbites.com/2016/12/21/a-victorian-christmas-furmenty-and-snapdragon/

Irving, Washington. “The Christmas Dinner.” The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon. Public Domain eBook.

Johnston, Keith. “11 Odd Victorian Christmas Traditions.” https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/652043/victorian-christmas-traditions

Martisiute, Laura. “10 Strange Christmas Traditions From The Victorian Era.” https://listverse.com/2016/12/23/10-strange-christmas-traditions-from-the-victorian-era/

Pendle, George. “Victorians’ Christmas Parlor Games Will Leave You Burned, Bruised, And Puking.” https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/victorians-christmas-parlor-games-will-leave-you-burned-bruised-and-puking

Vincent, Sarah. “What Is the Christmas Pickle? The History Behind This Unique Tradition.” https://www.rd.com/article/christmas-pickle/

*****

Email: thevictorianvarietyshow@gmail.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/victorianvarie1

Mastodon: https://is.nota.live/@marisad

Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/marisadf13

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thevictorianvarietyshow

I’d greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate & review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Goodpods, Spotify, Podchaser, Audible, or wherever you listen, as that will help this podcast reach more listeners!

Also, if you missed my look at Victorian-Era holiday cards last year, you can find it here: https://anchor.fm/marisa-d96/episodes/Seasons-Creepings--A-Brief-Discussion-of-Victorian-Era-Holiday-Cards-e1c4ol9


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marisa-d96/message