This December we have been gearing ourselves up for a Victorian-themed Christmas to go along with our reading of A Christmas Carol. Since the Victorians are part of the UK National Curriculum, there is an abundance of related activities and events to attend all year round, so we went to one at Audley End House that is conveniently themed Victorian Christmas. We attended one at the same venue last year too, so it probably is an annual event that is held there at this time of the year.
You know you're off to a good start when you see Father Christmas around and you hear joyful carols being sung. Not only did we hear the popular Victorian carols, we also learned about the wassailing practice that used to take place. As a bonus, we got to hear one of the popular wassailing songs:
In the main kitchen, we saw how busy the servants were at preparing food for Christmas dinner:
We even saw pheasants being grilled in the very authentic Victorian kitchen:
Outside the house, we learned about the history of falconry, a popular sport of the upper-class in Victorian times.
There were live demonstrations by the hawks and the falcons of their superb hunting skills:
Dotted around the place were the old-fashioned carousel:
and a few Victorian games where people can have a go at.
The Victorian games look deceptively easy, what with the entire game consisting of a few balls, poles, buckets and rings. Tiger soon found out for himself that these games are not as easily played well as he had initially thought them to be.
No Victorian event would be complete without Punch and Judy!
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