We close the year with a final flourish from the Twigs, with this delightful illustration by Robert Dudley of their New Year’s Eve dance at Ruddock Hall. Ruddock Manor is fuller than ever, I think,...

Now wake little people dressed in white,Old Father Christmas came last night;He crammed your stocking – and, children, look!He brought you a coloured picture book

Learning about this produced a lightbulb moment - I understood why this charming, whimsical book about a family of robins is called The Twigs, or, Christmas at Ruddock Hall. The robin’s earliest...

We are so used to associating robins with Christmas that I doubt we ever give much thought as to why this is. As with all such questions there are many answers. However, one thing we do know is that...

I know we've posted a couple of snow scenes from this book by the pseudonymous Jack Frost, depicting children making huge snowballs, but I love this one and can't bear to leave it out. Why do I love...

Engaging servants – This important business is usually thought a pleasing excitement by one class of mistresses, who are constantly changing, and who do not know how to appreciate a good servant; or...

Such a wonderful battle you never did see,As the battle between little Willie and me.It was perfectly harmless, I wish you to know,The balls were all made of the softest of snow

I'm afraid I have no information about the author/illustrator (are they one and the same?). As my daughter-in-law remarked, you couldn't possibly have a more Christmassy author than the Countess...

Let bright holly shine and glowIn winter-time of frost and snow;Let the smooth green leaves entwineAround our house at Christmas time

In Canada, North America, and some parts of Russia where the winters are longer and much more severe than in this country, the children amuse themselves by sledging.

snow babies, as solid figurines that wouldn’t melt, evolved out of early 19th century German cake decorations made from flour, sugar and gum, called tannenbaumkanfekt, used to decorate cakes and...

Here is a classic Victorian portrayal of an idealised, angelic little girl, with her rosy cheeks, blonde hair and blue eyes, clutching a bunch of white flowers. Such a sentimental image may not be to...

way they went, helter-skelter! Tom and Joe, Bob and Dick, and Harry Price from Blackberry Farm, and Bessie, the lodge-keeper’s little daughter, shouting and laughing, past the mill and over the...

With cold and with hunger half-famish’d and weakThen tap at my window again with your beak,Nor shall your petition be vain;You shall fly to my bosom and perch on my thumbs,Or hop round the table and...

There is a long cultural history of connecting indigestion with nightmares, and there are so many references to this in nineteenth century literature that we can only surmise that the Victorian diet...

Peace on earth, good-will towards men,Peaceful messengers are they,Snowflakes, falling from the sky,Sent to earth on Christmas Day.”From ‘The Christmas Carol’, drawings by Ida Waugh

Keep on rolling as fast as you can go !The further you push it,the more you’ll have to show.See! it’s getting larger !Push with all your might !Wait a little longer, –Won’t it be a sight !From ‘Oh...

At last the day of the grand dinner-party arrived, and the guests all assembled, in good spirits, with keen appetites for the feast. Never had so many sleek, well-dressed dogs met together before,...

From "Father Christmas' ABC" published by F. Warne & Co., 1894, illustrated by Alfred J. Johnson.

The earth, in colours brown and gray,Seems to forget to lure the sunbeam’s ray,And bathed in shadow, loves the shrouding mist,That cometh silently, and having kissedThe hill-crest, and the valley,...