To go along with the Once Upon a Christmas Feast book of Victorian stories, menus, and recipes for creating your own Victorian Christmas feast, we’ll be adding downloadable goodies here. Menus (bigger and easier to read than inside the book, plus you can print them out). Individual recipes, and ingredient shopping lists, more song lyrics, and…well, let’s just say we have lots of surprises coming in the month of December, so check back frequently.
BONUS for 2019! I was so inspired by my research into the Victorian holiday traditions when putting this book together that I decided to do a series of FaceBook Live videos on some of the traditions in the book. AND I’m going to try out some of the recipes and other Victorian traditions for my own Christmas celebration and share them with you. You can share my holiday preparations by watching my FaceBook Live videos from now until December 23rd if you’d like to join the fun.
Victorian Holiday Entertainment
When you host a holiday, you need to feed your guests, but you also need to keep them entertained. To do otherwise is a recipe for holiday disaster, right?
The Victorians of the upper crust might hunt, hold archery competitions, or put on plays of holiday favorites. For example, at a ducal estate (like the one in “Once Upon a Fairytale Christmas,”) a large gathering of guests staying for several days would require making sure everyone was occupied enough not to cause trouble. Part of the purpose of these gatherings was also to introduce marriageable daughters to suitable gentleman (not that the Fensters in the Once Upon a Wedding series ever let suitability get in the way of true love, of course).
The Victorians loved games of all kinds, especially during holiday celebrations. Favorite games during the Christmas season included Charades, Blindman’s Buff, Analogies, Pass the Slipper, Forfeits, and Lookabout. Most of these games are played today, although we may call them something different. These are easy to play, can support a larger number of players that cards or games like chess or and don’t require game pieces or game boards. The advantage is that they can be adjusted for varying ages so that the very young can play along as well. Card games were also popular, whist, Old Maid, Beggar My Neighbor (we call it War).
Invitations, Victorian Style
During the Victorian era, invitations were issued for dinners, concert-goings, pic-nics, and for extended stays. For an afternoon tea, a card would be sent announcing the hostess would be at home. Those who attended on an at-home invitation would be expected to simply walk in the front door (as they knew the hostess was at home). The Duchess of Bedford, a friend of Queen Victoria, is credited with beginning the tradition of afternoon tea because the time for dinner had drifted to 8 or 9 in the evening and she felt she needed something light to sustain her until then.
Menus & Recipes for 12 Days of Five-Course Suppers
You can find pdf and png versions of the menus from the book here.
This database of recipes is intended to make it easier for you to combine dishes and create your very own Victorian Christmas. This is especially useful if cooking five-course meals for 12 days in a row sounds overwhelming, and you want to combine your favorite recipes into your own menus.
You can sort or filter by any of the categories. Each recipe will have a link to a version on Arianna’s website where you can add print it out or add it to your digital recipe collection.