Imagine you are a child living in the late 1800s. It is Christmas time and you and your family have just finished Christmas dinner. Everybody is stuffed, but there is still room for pudding! Everybody hopes to find something in their slice. Imagine the excitement as you each start to eat. Your Uncle finds the ring and the sixpence goes to Mum. This year, you are lucky too - you found the frozen charlotte. She is so tiny and sweet, and now, you will have good luck all year!
When I took this tiny frozen charlotte pudding doll to show the children I was the one who was surprised! Very few of them really knew what a plum pudding actually was, let alone about the old tradition of cooking little trinkets into the pudding for luck. Living in Australia, the children explained to me, they have ice cream cakes or pavlovas for dessert. Christmas Pudding is something they just aren't familiar with. They were really taken with the frozen charlotte though. Being so small, they were impressed that she could even be made 'so long ago', and they thought she was very sweet. They also loved the idea of finding gifts in dessert, seeing it as two favourite Christmas activities rolled into one - getting presents and eating sweets!
Christmas Pudding, also known as Plum Pudding is something of a ritual desset, originating in England. It is known as Plum Pudding because traditionally it has huge amounts of prunes in it and as Christmas Pudding because that is when it is traditionally eaten - Christmas. It isn't made at Christmas though. Christmas Pudding is traditionally made 5 weeks before Christmas, either on or just after the Sunday before the start of Advent (to learn about the Christian Season of Advent click here). This day was often known as stir-up day, when each member of the household would stir the pudding mix once and make a wish. The ritual and tradition didn't stop here though!
Before the pudding is steamed, various trinkets would be added to the mix. Each of these symbolised something different and the person who was given the trinket in their slice would have a specific type of luck for the coming year. The person who found the trinket was also allowed to keep it. The trinkets which would be mixed in included:
- silver coins which symbolised wealth
- tiny wishbones which gave the finder good luck
- silver thimbles which symbolised thrift
- a ring which meant the person would marry
- an anchor which symbolised safe harbor
- a doll, like the one I showed the children, which symbolised that the person would have a baby.
Today, you don't find too many people putting things in their puddings. Some view it as a health risk (what if you swallowed the doll - is this how my doll lost her arm?) and others just don't see the necessity. The tradition actually stopped though when silver coins started to become harder to get. People were concerned that putting an alloy coin in their pudding might make people sick. You can still buy silver coins specifically for puddings though, if you would like to have a go! If you would like to learn more about Christmas Pudding and its rituals and icons, click here.
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