EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON TEXT BY CINDA CHAVICH
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OOD AND FEASTING LOOM large in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The moment Ebenezer Scrooge catches the Christmas spirit, it’s food that fuels his fancy. Who can forget a giggling Alistair Sim flinging open his casement window, nightshirt flapping, as he hails a boy to buy the biggest prize turkey for the Cratchit’s table? Or the larger-than-life Ghost of Christmas present, a “ jolly giant” with his feet planted firmly on a pile of fruitcake? The classic story is peppered with gastronomic vignettes from Victorian London — dinner invitations like the one Scrooge’s nephew Fred offers at the beginning of the tale, festive gatherings like Old Fezziwig’s Ball, complete with lots of beer, mince pies and cold roast, and scenes of the impoverished yet loving Cratchit family, doting over their meagre plum pudding. It’s all very Victorian — from the fruitcake and holiday bird, to images of carollers in bonnets and mufflers — and recreated here in Victoria throughout the holiday season, whether you take in an historic Christmas walking tour downtown, or visit a traditional pub for a hot mulled wine and a steak pie. We can thank Dickens for reviving many of the food traditions we associate with Christmas today. When he published A Christmas Carol in 1843, the “Twelve Days of Christmas”— a season of parties and celebrations — had all but disappeared, shortened to a single day to suit the demands of new industrial factories and their upper class owners. It is that reality which Dickens denounces in his story
— and why scholars today credit him for “reinventing” the holiday season, along with all of the rich, sumptuous holiday foods we still enjoy. Nostalgic scenes centred amid food, drink and merrymaking crop up throughout his allegory. Plentiful food represents happiness and generosity, while Scrooge’s miserly dinner emphasizes his meanness and greed. Scrooge eschews food and the fun that goes with it, while everyone else celebrates Christmas by heartily indulging. Dickens’ cautionary tale was a commentary on the wrongs of society, and a reminder of the generosity and warmth that the Christmas season should inspire. It’s no wonder his prose, brimming with the resplendent images of holiday food and drink, has survived as the definitive snapshot of the season. “The raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint. The French plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes … everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress.” His words still inspire cravings for seasonal treats, sending us scurrying to the kitchen to prepare holiday feasts with all of the sweet and decadent trimmings.
PHOTO BY DON DENTON
The moment Scrooge’s hand was on the lock, a strange voice called him by his name, and bade him enter … It was his own room. There was no doubt about that. But it had undergone a surprising transformation … Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth- cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam… — Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843)
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