Jennie Reekie: ‘The Ritz London Book Of Christmas’

Christmas at the Ritz might not be the way most families spend their winter holidays, but with lush descriptions of decorated trees placed in each hotel room, Ritz stockings, three full Christmas meals, crackers, and a Boxing Day at Kempton Park Races, this small gift book makes it sound just as luxurious as one would expect.

The book nostalgically traces the history of traditions such as gift giving and wassailing, which was originally an excuse to knock on the doors of the rich and demand food or alcohol until the wassailers could no longer stand upright, often accompanied by increasingly intoxicated singing. Boxed texts of Christmas poems and novel excerpts, such as Dickens and Hardy, and 43 recipes, such as mulled wine and glazed ham, also grace its pages.

Each recipe is accompanied by a short history of where it has come from and when it became popular. Plum pudding, for example, was once porridge served before the meal, and the Twelfth-Night Cake used to resemble a modern wedding cake. These stories are illustrated with old-style line drawings of Christmases past.

As a short book, running less than 70 pages, it does what is says on the tin and will please those who enjoy reading about historical traditions while salivating over favorite foods. It’s a bit early to be thinking about Christmas, but never too early to get that perfect nostalgic-historic-holiday gift shopping out of the way.



Published in 2007 by Ebury Press.

Written by W. L. Clark.