Charles Dickens

I only have to see the words “Food Glorious Food” and I almost immediately start humming the tune from the musical “Oliver Twist”. The song is part of my childhood and of course the film and its songs were based on the novel by Charles  Dickens. This particular song is sung from the point of view of the children in a workhouse for orphans where they are forced to work whilst being deprived of proper nutrition or even basic care whilst the orphanage administrators feast abundantly. 
Dickens campaigned for social justice on behalf of the poor using his writing to expose Victorian poverty, child labour, the wretched housing and lack of education. His own childhood was impoverished and often miserable. His father was imprisoned for debt meaning his family kept having to move house and he was forced to leave school early and to work in a factory to earn money. 

In many ways Charles Dickens was and is the man most responsible for the modern traditions with which we celebrate  Christmas. Published in December 1843, the novel  “A Christmas Carol” was an overnight success, and it re-shaped the idea of Christmas into the family-centric celebration that emphasises charity, generosity to those less fortunate and goodwill that we recognise today. Thanks to him, the phrase “Merry Christmas” has become enshrined in the modern lexicon whilst his detailed descriptions of a Christmas feast made goose, plum pudding and mince pies made them the Christmas staples they are today 

His sympathy for the victims in society and life was inherent both in his cast of characters and the sweep of his stories. It is often forgotten that the 1840s was an era of economic depression where the spectre of famine lurked over England lending the era the name “the Hungry Forties”. In Ireland, a million people starved to death during the potato famine and there was widespread hunger and unrest all over Europe. 

In “A Christmas Carol”, Ebenezer Scrooge faces the poverty of his employee Bob Cratchit’s family. When he is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, two children named Ignorance and Want are concealed beneath the spirit’s robes and for much of the book the most important currency is food. 

At Highclere, Charles Dickens’s great grandson Gerald Dickens concluded our Christmas events with a one-man performance of “A Christmas Carol” - a magical evening not just because of the candlelit play, the food and champagne but because it defines Christmas and, in a way, rounds off the year. It is a truly magnificent evening and one I look forward to each year. 

What is less well remembered though is that Christmas for Charles Dickens was a twelve-day celebration ending on Twelfth Night (Epiphany) January 6th, which coincidentally was also his son Charley’s birthday. Thus, he and his wife Catherine would hold elaborate Twelfth Night parties with huge cakes and numerous entertainments ranging from amateur dramatics, magic lantern shows Dickens himself would perform feats of conjuring, a skill at which he was fairly adept. 

These revelries were clearly dear to Dickens' heart, and represented for him the best of Christmas, as described by Scrooge's irrepressibly cheerful nephew: "a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time”. He was an exceptional host who found the entire festive season an excuse to celebrate with friends, family, artists, and social reformers and his guest lists were diverse, including actors, artists like Clarkson Frederick Stanfield and Daniel Maclise, writers such as Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Gaskell and radical politicians. The parties were known for their abundant food, drink, games and dancing and Dickens lived as he wrote, regarding such merriment as essential times for generosity, family and friendship. 

Today in the UK, Epiphany has almost been forgotten as a celebration and New Year’s Eve as taken over as the signal for the end of the Christmas holiday period. By January 6th most people are back at work, and it is remembered largely as being the date by which Christmas decorations must be taken down and stored away for another year. 

However, for all the gifts and frivolities at Christmas, there is nothing that matters so much as sitting down together and enjoying a proper  feast and time out with friends, who may be on their own and, remembering to share.