Kmflett's Blog

Plum Pudding & Holly. Seasonal labour in the Victorian festive season

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.

It’s a reminder of 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 2025 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