Celebrations for Christmas in the past are recorded in archives of the Spencers Wood Local History Group.\u00a0 In the nineteenth century there was a workhouse in Grazeley, where destitute men, women and children were housed in return for hard work with sparse food.\u00a0 Before 1834, Christmas Day brought a treat when everyone was given a day off work and a special meal.\u00a0 Each adult had roast beef, plum pudding, ‘best’ cheese and a pint of porter (dark beer).\u00a0 In 1834, however, the Poor Law Union ruled that the inmates were not to have any ‘spiritous or fermented liquors’, unless for special health reasons.\u00a0 Some workhouses disregarded this, especially after Queen Victoria married Prince Albert and new Christmas festivities were introduced into Britain.\u00a0 Christmas trees and holly became traditional decorations, even in the workhouse.\u00a0 It is not known how much conditions at Grazeley matched the sentiments of the Victorian poem: ‘It is Christmas Day in the workhouse and the cold, bare walls are bright, with garlands of green and holly and the place is a pleasant sight’.<\/p>\n
Local schools seem to have always celebrated Christmas before breaking up for a few days’ holiday.\u00a0 At the Sir Charles Russell School in Swallowfield, the Headmaster, his wife and some of their friends put on an ‘admirable’ concert in December 1896.\u00a0 The Spencers Wood School (in the present Library building) generally arranged a treat for each child.\u00a0 In 1891 they were given picture books, prayer books, or a picture card.\u00a0 The next year, the children were sent out to run around the playground and when they came back indoors they were presented with bread and butter and cake to eat immediately.\u00a0 Then they had to seek out some sweets, and were given a Christmas card, a pair of warm knitted cuffs and an orange to take home after they all sang a hymn.<\/p>\n
The gifts would have been appreciated in the poor village homes that many of the children came from.\u00a0 The Christmas gifts of clothing, some food, and toys for the ‘babies’ (5-year-olds) continued and by 1898 the celebrations also involved a Christmas party with singing, a flag drill and games\u00a0before the Christmas tea.\u00a0 The first Christmas tree was set up in the hall in 1903 and decorated with gifts.<\/p>\n
The Sunday Schools at the churches and chapels always arranged Christmas gatherings as well as carol concerts.\u00a0 In the 1930s it was usual for St Michael’s Sunday School to host parties for one hundred children in the Village Hall.<\/p>\n
During World War Two (1939-45), special efforts were made to devise activities and entertainments for all the children including the evacuees who were away from their homes in London.\u00a0 Staff of the village schools helped local residents to rehearse and present concerts, plays and special meetings to occupy the children.\u00a0 It was noted that friendships developed and flourished because of these efforts.<\/p>\n
After the war, the traditions continued.\u00a0 Lambs Lane School performed a nativity play each year and a concert to which all parents were invited.\u00a0 These were so popular that the audience was too large for the school hall, and in 1965 the concert was held in the Village Hall.<\/p>\n
It was not only school children and their families who celebrated Christmas together.\u00a0 In the 1970s and 80s, postmen who had worked long hours to deliver the mail from the Spencers Wood sorting office would have sherry and mince pies before going home on Christmas Eve.\u00a0 Also, it was traditional for groups of carol singers to walk around the village visiting other families to greet them with ‘here we come a-wassailing…’, spreading goodwill at Christmas.<\/p>\n
Margaret Bampton and Patricia Green<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Celebrations for Christmas in the past are recorded in archives of the Spencers Wood Local History Group.\u00a0 In the nineteenth century there was a workhouse in Grazeley, where destitute men, women and children were housed in return for hard work … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-loddon-reach-article","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}