Another Christmas Tradition is kisisng under the Mistletoe. So have fun this Christmas and find someone to kiss. The problem in hotter climates is to find the Mistletoe, of course. Darn!
Mistletoe was used by Druid priests 200 years before the birth of Christ in their winter celebrations. They revered the plant since it had no roots yet remained green during the cold months of winter. The ancient Celtics believed mistletoe to have magical healing powers and used it as an antidote for poison, infertility, and to ward of evil spirits. The plant was also seen as a symbol of peace, and it is said that among Romans, enemies who met under mistletoe would lay down their weapons and embrace.
Scandanavians associated the plant with Frigga, their goddess of love, and it may be from this that we derive the custom of kissing under the mistletoe. Those who kissed under the mistletoe had the promise of happiness and good luck in the following year. Mistletoe was associated with Christmas as both a decoration under which lovers kiss, as well as a protection from witches and demons. Sounds romantic, although mistletoe is actually a parasitic plant that grows on other trees or plants and comes in many varieties.
In Britain, mistletoe was mainly found in the western and southwestern parts, so the custom wasn’t even followed in all parts of England. But where the mistletoe custom was followed, it was hung in doorways and the greenery was watched by young gentlemen in hopes of catching a pretty girl to kiss, usually on the cheek.
Traditionally, a man was allowed to kiss a woman who was standing underneath mistletoe and bad luck would befall any woman who refused. In some places, it was the custom to pick a berry for each kiss and when all the berries were gone, no more kisses could be taken.
The Viscount’s Pleasure House. Irresistible Aristocrats Book 1 By Suzi Love. Three naive country ladies coerce their way into London’s most infamous brothel and the last Sultan’s gala. Disenchanted Viscount tutoring three Regency Ladies. What could go wrong?
The Viscount’s Pleasure House allows Justin, the most notorious Viscount in London, to fund his search for his missing mother and sisters. But after three years catering to the sordid whims of the perpetually bored Upper Ten Thousand in early Victorian times, the Virile Viscount announces his retirement.
Justin plans to sell his exotically themed brothel and cease all Arabian Nights held on his estate, a desperate attempt to cleanse his blackened soul and perhaps revive his deadened sexual interest. So when Lady Chrissie Wellsby begs Justin to tutor her two friends in the amorous arts in exchange for information about his family, Justin is torn. For though he’ll do anything to discover the whereabouts of his family, including teaching three naive ladies how to act like well-schooled courtesans, he loathes being forced into this last performance as a sex God served by his harem.
Having Chrissie willingly act as his sex slave stirs the world-weary viscount into the wildest performance ever given at the Sultan’s tent, but does little to convince Chrissie that he has fallen head over heels in love with her and put his rakish ways behind him. Justin enjoys a wonderful reunion with his family but feels cheated of his chance at love until Chrissie’s friends encourage her to trust the newly reformed viscount.
Chrissie organizes one final gala at the Pleasure House, an erotic night of lovemaking for two to prove her love for Justin and show him she longs to be his wife. https://books2read.com/suziloveTVPH The Viscount’s Pleasure House. Irresistible Aristocrats Book 1 By Suzi Love.
Want a HOT historical romance for the holidays? Disenchanted Viscount tutoring three naive ladies in seduction. What could go wrong? #christmas #holidays #RegencyRomance #EroticRomance #HistoricalMystery https://books2read.com/suziloveTVPH
Want a HOT Regency Romance for the holidays? “You want me to be your mistress?” The Countess of Dorchester’s sculpted brow rose in an exaggerated show of disbelief. #christmas #holidays #RegencyRomance #HistoricalMystery #EroticHistoricalRomance books2read.com/suziloveFTAV
Drama and romance at the Duke Of Sherwyn’s snowbound country estate in the English countryside in December. Michael Brandon travels to introduce the woman he loves to family but is shocked when his missing brother, presumed dead for years, arrives at the country estate of the Duke Of Sherwyn where several people are stranded due to a severe snow storm. https://books2read.com/suziloveDS December Scandal, Book 3, Scandalous Siblings Series.
“Bells are musics laughter.” By Thomas Hood (1799-1845), British poet and humorist.
Bells hold a long time association with Christmas. In Victorian times, carol singers used small handbells to play the tune of the carol. Sometimes there were bells without singing – Church bells are rung after sunset to signal the start of the Christmas Eve service, the first of Christmas. In England, the bellman goes round at midnight ringing his bell, and rattling off a stanza or two, for the gratuity which he confidently anticipates; while watchmen, firemen, rate-collectors, postmen, chimney-sweeps, street scavengers, the errand-boys of your baker, butcher, poultry merchant, and green-grocer, even to the hired singers in the churches all expect their Christmas-box. In Victorian times, carol singers used small hand bells to play the tune of the carol and sometimes there were bells without singing. Church bells are rung after sunset to signal the start of the Christmas Eve service, the first of Christmas.
The Bellman
The Bellman stands full face, shouting with wide-open mouth and ringing his hand-bell.
In his left hand he holds out his verses headed by a little figure of Napoleon wearing a huge tricorne and holding a gigantic sword:
‘This little Boney-says he’ll come At merry Christmas time,
But that I say is all a hum Or I no more will rhyme
Some say in Wooden house he’ll glide, Some say in air Balloon,
E’en those who airy schemes deride. Agree his coming soon.
Now honest people list to me, Though Income is but small, I’ll bet my Wig, to one Penney, He does not come at all.’ Hand-colored etching and aquatint.
Legend has it that during the 17th century, craftsmen created straight white sticks of candy in the shape of shepherds’ crooks at the suggestion of the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. The treats were given to children to keep them quiet during ceremonies at the living creche, or Nativity scene, and the custom of passing out the crooks at such ceremonies soon spread throughout Europe.
‘The legends of the candy cane are many, including that the cane was shaped like a “J” for Jesus, the three red stripes symbolized the Holy Trinity, the hardness of the candy represented the Church’s foundation on solid rock and the peppermint flavor reflects the use of hyssop, an herb referred to in the Old Testament.’ via Encyclopedia Britannica
In celebrations of Saint Nicholas Day, candy canes are given to children as they are also said to represent the crosier of the Christian bishop, Saint Nicholas; crosiers themselves allude to the Good Shepherd, a title associated with Jesus. Some people explain the symbolism of a striped cane as white representing Christ’s purity, red the blood he shed, and the three red stripes the Holy Trinity.
In the mid 1600s, sugar roses were added but weren’t popular so plain white canes remained until red stripes were added around 1890. In 1847, a German immigrant living in Wooster, Ohio, U.S.A. looped candy canes that he brought with him from Europe over the boughs of his Christmas tree.
In 1919, Bob McCormack of Albany, Georgia, made candy canes for family, friends and local shopkeepers. The canes were bent by hand as they came off the assembly line into the ‘J’ shape of a shepherd’s crook, so breakage was often over 20 percent. In the 1920s, a cherubic child in a red-and-white hat sold peppermint candy cane to Albany natives in an advertisement for Bob’s candy company. McCormack was the first manufacturer to wrap his candy in cellophane. Bobs moved to a larger facility in the 1930s so that it could expand its product lines and was one of the few candy companies to remain solvent during the Great Depression.
As the economy improved, people bought more sweet treats, but Bobs Candy was then leveled by a tornado and, as the company had no tornado insurance, they had to rebuild on their own. By August 1940 the company was back in business and employed McCormack’s three children.
During World War II (1941-45), when sugar was rationed, coconuts were in short supply, and pecans were expensive, Bobs took advantage of a plentiful local product—the peanut—and sold peanut-butter crackers and vacuum-packed peanuts. During the 1950s, Bobs began making money with such innovations as break-proof packaging, moisture-proof candy wrappers.
In 1952, Bob McCormack’s brother-in-law, Catholic priest Gregory Keller, invented the Keller Machine which automated the process of twisting soft candy into spiral striping and then cutting them into precise lengths as candy canes.
Harding Keller invented the Keller Machine around 1950 for his brother-in-law Bob McCormack. The machine twisted and cut stick candy, allowing for the mass production of the company’s signature candy canes and other items. – Courtesy of Farley’s and Sathers Candy Company, Inc.
First, candy sticks cut to the desired length enter the machine. Each stick is bent individually, but the machine has a system of multiple grippers and rollers to continually bend the sticks, one after the other. As each stick enters the machine, it is positioned in a gripper which holds the straight portion of the cane with the part to be bent protruding out. Each gripper has on one side a curved die which the protruding end will be bent over. The candy stick is first bent to a right angle as it is moved past and put into contact with an inclined face. The patent application describes two potential versions of the mechanism which complete the bending process.
The first version of the mechanism has a chain around two sprockets on which are mounted bending rollers. Each bending roller is attached to a cam which rides along another inclined face to move the roller along the protruding surface of the cane to complete bending it around the die. In the second version, the chain and sprockets are replaced by a wheel on which the bending rollers are mounted. In modern candy cane production, the sticks are wrapped in cellophane before they are bent.
By the middle of the century, Bob’s company – originally the Famous Candy Company, then the Mills-McCormack Candy Company, and later Bobs Candies, had become one of the world’s leading candy cane producers.Bobs Candies was sold to Farley’s and Sathers in Spring 2005. Farley’s and Sathers merged with the Ferrara Candy Company which continues to make candy canes under the Bobs name.
By the middle of the century, Bob’s company – originally the Famous Candy Company, then the Mills-McCormack Candy Company, and later Bobs Candies, had become one of the world’s leading candy cane producers.
How did they celebrate Christmas in Bridgerton and Jane Austen times? Historical information about the traditions of Christmas through the centuries, including the religious aspects, decorations, games, food and plays. History Of Christmases Past has lots of information and images about Christmas through the centuries, including religious aspects, decorations, games, food and plays. Historic images show how some traditions have changed while many have remained the same through the centuries. books2read.com/suziloveHOCP
Christmas: Typical Christmas Food Eaten By the Bridgerton and Jane Austen Families. #Christmas #Food #JaneAusten #Bridgerton
On the Christmas menu was generally mince pies and perhaps a goose or a piece of beef, depending on the family’s wealth and status. Mince pies were not made of fruit mince as we do now, but of offal or meat such as bullock’s tongue cooked with spices, orange peel, and wine and then used to fill pastry cases.
Another Christmas specialty was a Yorkshire Christmas pie which would be filled with turkey, goose, a hen, or perhaps woodcocks, partridge, or pigeons. And after the main courses, came the Plum Pudding, mixed on Stir-Up Sunday according to each family’s recipe and then boiled in a cloth.
‘The following is a valued receipt that has been handed down in a Cornish family for many generations, and the hand-writing of the receipt book will vouch for its antiquity. ‘A pound of beef-suet chopped fine; a pound of raisins do. stoned. A pound of currants cleaned dry. A pound of apples chopped fine. Two or three eggs. Allspice beat very fine, and sugar to your taste. A little salt, and as much brandy and wine as you like. An ancient Cornish custom at Christmas.” A small piece of citron in each pie is an improvement.’ From: 1833 Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern by William Sandys.
Mince meat pies, or Christmas or Twelfth Night pies, were always part of Christmas feasts. Originally the mince pies were oblong or oval but in the 1600’s, the pies became circular, although were quite large and could weigh up to 20 lbs. In London, they could be brought out on Lord Mayor’s Day which was the 9th of November.
Timeline of Mince Pies via Minced Pie Club.
In the 13th century, crusaders returned from the Middle Eastern with recipes containing meat, fruit and spices mixed together, which helped preserve meat without having to smoke, dry or salt.
1413 King Henry served a mincemeat pie at his coronation.
1588 Good Hous-Wiues Treasurie by Edward Allde: meats were still cut up to be eaten with a spoon and combined with fruits and heavy spices. His recipe for Minst Pye had practically the same ingredients as modern mince pies.
1657 Mince Pies were banned during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, along with other Christian traditions that were classed as gluttony.
1659 Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan influence spread to the American British Colonies and many towns banned mincemeat pies at Christmas time.
When pies were reintroduced in Britain, they were a lot smaller and could be served individually to guests and were named Wayfarer pies.
1832 Bill of Fare: no less than one hundred and eleven dishes of mince pies included.
More Minced Pie Trivia
When the monarchy was restored in 1660, the law regarding Minced Pies was disregarded but apparently never repealed so Mince pies are still, supposedly, illegal.
Pastry crusts sink in the middle and are thought to resemble Jesus’ manger so sometimes a small pastry doll was put in the middle and these were called crib pies.
Pies could last up to two months in cold weather.
Recipes varied by region, but usually included beef, poultry and other meats, suet, sugar, raisins or currants, spices, orange and lemon peel, eggs, apples and brandy.
Minced-meat was only supposed to be stirred clockwise, otherwise the stirrer would have bad luck in the coming year. bring bad luck for the coming year.
Filling included cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to represent the gifts of the Magi to the infant Jesus and the star shaped pastry on top represents the star of Bethlehem.
If you ate minced pie every day of the twelve days of Christmas you were supposed to have twelve months of happiness, especially if the pies were baked by the dozen and offered by friends.
