From Henry Mayhew to Engels. Christmas, Plum Pudding & seasonal labour
The Plum Pudding was a staple of the Victorian Christmas, even for the poor. Henry Mayhew described how much seasonal employment the pudding and decorating them with holly provided. Engels was also clearly a big enough fan, of the pudding and the holly, to send on to Germany as a Christmas present.
It’s a reminder how much the seasonal trade in December was relied on by those who knew that the months of January and February would be tough.
Victorian capitalism and capitalism in 2024 both rely on a casualised labour market. We still eat lots of plum pudding too- it’s another name for the Christmas pudding, and signified simply that dried fruit was involved. On the market for holly I’m less sure
“Well, then, consider,” said another informant, “the plum-puddings! Why, at least there’s a hundred thousand of ’em eaten, in London, through Christmas and the month following. That’s nearly one pudding to every twenty of the population, is it, sir? Well, perhaps, that’s too much. But, then, there’s the great numbers eaten at public dinners and suppers; and there’s more plum-pudding clubs at the small grocers and public-houses than there used to be, so, say full a hundred thousand, flinging in any mince-pies that may be decorated with evergreens. Well, sir, every plum-pudding will have a sprig of holly in him. If it’s bought just for the occasion, it may cost 1d., to be really prime and nicely berried. If it’s part of a lot, why it won’t cost a halfpenny, so reckon it all at a halfpenny. What does that come to? Above 200l. Think of that, then, just for sprigging puddings!”
Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor
Engels to Philipp Pauli 16th Dec 1876
Yesterday I sent you, carriage paid, per CONTINENTAL PARCELS EXPRESS and thereon per German Imperial parcel post, a crate addressed to: Dr Pauli, Mannheim (Chemical Works, Rheinau),
Germany, containing a PLUM PUDDING for your wife, a currant cake baked for you by my wife, a book, a small box of handkerchiefs and a small ink-pot for Pumps….
…..The small crate also contains some Christmas evergreen, holly with its ritual red berries, for sticking into the pudding when it’s dished up. The holly’s right on top, so that the customs men get their fingers pricked.
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