There must have been Caerhun and Llanbedr Christmases for a good many hundred years, and I can't pretend to know how people celebrated back through the centuries or to have a great historical knowledge about the more recent history. We all know, though, that the Victorian era was really the birth of Christmas as we know it, with our decorated trees sparkling with lights, a goose or a turkey on the dinner table, and Father Christmas coming down chimneys to leave gifts for all the good children.
I've gleaned a few newspaper snippets telling something of these Christmases, mostly from the Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/National Library of Wales.
It's a shame that we can't see a picture of this Caerhun celebration in 1894, with the 'young heir' dressed up as a fairy king. The heir was Wilfred Hugh Julian Gough, born in York in 1888, so he would have been only about six during this celebration. How was Father Christmas dressed? We all imagine the red-suited, American Santa Claus figure popularised by Coca Cola, but this Father Christmas might have looked quite different. An Illustrated London News image from 1848 (below) shows a rather crafty looking long haired and bearded man with a holly crown and a yule log on his back, although his robes do bear a resemblance to our modern Father Christmas. The illustration was accompanied by a rhyme reading 'WHAT? Father Christmas! here again? / With Yule Log on your back, / And mighty store of racy things / Well stuffed within your pack.' It's impossible to know what colour the artist envisioned for this Father Christmas, but he was likely wearing green. Perhaps the Caerhun Father Christmas was too.
The newspaper account above is rather wonderful for the level of detail it goes into, telling us about the feast for 100, plus their children in the 'quaint outbuildings', and the holly, berry, and 'Eastern curiosities' used for decorations. It's a shame that the food isn't described, but we are told that the children were each sent home with a bag of sweet, a bun, and an orange. The orange must have felt quite exotic for the working class children. Gifts are spoken of - 'wearing apparel' for the adults, a very practical gift, but toys were given to the children.
This snippet from the Welsh Coast Pioneer and Review for North Cambria, 2nd January, 1908. is interesting in that it tells us that church services were conducted in both English and Welsh, although separately, at this time. The Church in Wales wouldn't be formed until 1920, so ostensibly St Mary's in Caerhun was still part of the Church of England, and the parish records are consistently filled out in English at this time. It would make little sense, though, for services for a largely Welsh speaking congregation to be carried out in English. Maybe it's more interesting that any of the services were in English at all. The censuses from around this time, especially from 1911 onwards, show an explosion in the amount of English speakers immigrating to the area, brought in for projects such as the Aluminium factory in Dolgarrog, and associated waterworks at the lakes above. Perhaps this immigration is what the English services are accommodating.
The account is interesting as well because it shows the involvement of Caerhun Hall in the decorating of the church, and the fact that this decorating is carried out by three women. Records generally only show the involvement of men with the church, in the form of clergy and church wardens, and church history is usually framed in terms of the men involved in it, but this is another side to the church's life.
The Weekly News for 28th December, 1906 shows a familiar story to the previous one of 1894; that of the gentry at the local manor house distributing largesse to their working class tenants and employees. It's hard to know exactly how this was received, as generosity or patronisation. Perhaps it would depend on how well the inhabitants of the Hall behaved to their tenants the rest of the year. The church-distributed charity of 2 to 3 shillings for ninety families would be worth between about £8-£12 today - not much different to the £10 government Christmas 'bonus' for those receiving certain benefits today. It's hard to know how far this would have stretched.
Perhaps the 'excellent tea' at Caerhun Hall on Christmas day would have been a great treat, as well as the presence of Father Christmas for the children. Gifts of 'clothing, &c' suggests that the gifts were practical rather than frivolous. It might be that this was along the same line as the 1894 celebration - clothing for the adults, and toys for the children. One needs to ask, though, about the inequality of wealth that resulted in tenants needing gifts of parish charity and clothing at Christmas.
What's missing from these stories is an idea of how people celebrated Christmas in their houses on the hills.
Below are a couple of rather more serious Christmas news stories from Llanbedr, involving theft and vandalism. The first is regarding a quite distressing incident reported in the North Wales Weekly News on 4th January, 1907, when a number of people, possibly drunk, broke windows and decapitated fowl at and around the Bull Inn on New Year's Day.
Both of these reports help to remind us that crime is definitely not a new phenomenon, and the 'good old days' weren't necessarily always that good. Still, life goes on, and we've continued to enjoy plenty more merry Christmases in the area, even if we're no longer treated to the munificence of the lord of the manor on Christmas day.
My own personal memory of Father Christmas in Caerhun parish is a warm one. During my time at Ysgol Rowen Father Christmas often, perhaps always, visited at Christmas. In a school of only a couple of dozen pupils - 16 when I began at the school, and around 30 when I left - perhaps it's easier to make celebrations special. One year we were all called out into the yard to watch for Father Christmas, and he didn't arrive in a car. Like the woody old man of old, he appeared first as a glimpse of red among the trees on the hill above the school, and gradually wove his way closer, carrying his sack of presents over his shoulder. When he reached the school he took each one of us on his knee in turn, and gave out presents - in my case, a Garfield ruler and a book of 1001 jokes. A magical time.
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