University of Virginia Library

OF CHRISTMASING — LAUREL, IVY, HOLLY,
AND MISTLETOE.

In London a large trade is carried on in
"Christmasing," or in the sale of holly and mis-
tletoe, for Christmas sports and decorations.
I have appended a table of the quantity of these
"branches" sold, nearly 250,000, and of the
money expended upon them in the streets.
It must be borne in mind, to account for this
expenditure for a brief season, that almost every
housekeeper will expend something in "Christ-
masing;" from 2d. to 1s. 6d., and the poor buy a
pennyworth, or a halfpennyworth each, and they
are the coster's customers. In some houses,
which are let off in rooms, floors, or suites of
apartments, and not to the poorest class, every
room will have the cheery decoration of holly,
its bright, and as if glazed leaves and red berries,
reflecting the light from fire or candle. "Then,
look," said a gardener to me, "what's spent on
a Christmasing the churches! Why, now, pro-
perly to Christmas St. Paul's, I say properly, mind, would take 50l. worth at least; aye, more,
when I think of it, nearer 100l. I hope there 'll
be no `No Popery' nonsense against Christmas-
ing this year. I'm always sorry when anything of
that kind's afloat, because it's frequently a hind-
rance to business." This was said three weeks
before Christmas. In London there are upwards
of 300,000 inhabited houses. The whole of the
evergreen branches sold number 375,000.

Even the ordinary-sized inns, I was informed,
displayed holly decorations, costing from 2s. to 10s.; while in the larger inns, where, perhaps,
an assembly-room, a concert-room, or a club-
room, had to be adorned, along with other
apartments, 20s. worth of holly, &c., was a not
uncommon outlay. "Well, then, consider,"
said another informant, "the plum-puddings!
Why, at least there's a hundred thousand of 'em
eaten, in London, through the Christmas and
the month following. That's nearly one pud-
ding 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 ever-
greens. 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!"

Mistletoe, I am informed, is in somewhat less
demand than it was, though there might be no
very perceptible difference. In many houses holly
is now used instead of the true plant, for the
ancient ceremonies and privileges observed
"under the mistletoe bough." The holly is
not half the price of the mistletoe, which is one
reason; for, though there is not any great dis-
parity of price, wholesale, the holly, which
costs 6d. retail, is more than the quantity of
mistletoe retailed for 1s. The holly-tree may
be grown in any hedge, and ivy may be reared
against any wall; while the mistletoe is para-
sitical of the apple-tree, and, but not to half the
extent, of the oak and other trees. It does not
grow in the northern counties of England. The
purchasers of the mistletoe are, for the most
part, the wealthier classes, or, at any rate, I was
told, "those who give parties." It is bought,
too, by the male servants in large establish-
ments, and more would be so bought, "only so
few of the great people, of the most fashionable
squares and places, keep their Christmas in
town." Half-a-crown is a not uncommon
price for a handsome mistletoe bough.

The costermongers buy about a half of the
holly, &c., brought to the markets; it is also
sold either direct to those requiring evergreens,
or to green-grocers and fruiterers who have re-
ceived orders for it from their customers, or who
know it will be wanted. A shilling's worth may
be bought in the market, the bundles being di-
vided. Mistletoe, the costers — those having
regular customers in the suburbs — receive orders
for. "Last December," said a coster to me, "I
remember a servant-girl, and she weren't such a
girl either, running after me in a regular flutter,
to tell me the family had forgot to order 2s. worth
of mistletoe of me, to be brought next day. Oh,
yes, sir, if it's ordered by, or delivered to, the
servant-girls, they generally have a little giggling
about it. If I've said: `What are you laugh-
ing at?' they'll mostly say: `Me! I'm not
laughing.' "

The costermongers go into the neighbour-

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hood of London to procure the holly for street-
sale. This is chiefly done, I was told, by
those who were "cracked up," and some of
them laboured at it "days and days." It is,
however, a very uncertain trade, as they must
generally trespass, and if they are caught
trespassing, by the occupier of the land, or
any of his servants, they are seldom "given in
charge," but their stock of evergreens is not
unfrequently taken from them, "and that, sir,
that's the cuttingest of all." They do not
so freely venture upon the gathering of mistle-
toe, for to procure it they must trespass in
orchards, which is somewhat dangerous work,
and they are in constant apprehension of traps,
spring-guns, and bull-dogs. Six or seven hun-
dred men or lads, the lads being the most
numerous, are thus employed for a week or
two before Christmas, and, perhaps, half that
number, irregularly at intervals, for a week or
two after it. Some of the lads are not known
as regular coster-lads, but they are habitués of
the streets in some capacity. To procure as
much holly one day, as will sell for 2s. 6d. the
next, is accounted pretty good work, and 7s. 6d. would be thus realised in six days. But 5s. is
more frequently the return of six days' labour
and sale, though a very few have cleared 10s., and one man, "with uncommon luck," once
cleared 20s. in six days. The distance tra-
velled in a short winter's day, is sometimes
twenty miles, and, perhaps, the lad or man has
not broken his fast, on some days, until the
evening, or even the next morning, for had he
possessed a few pence he would probably have
invested it in oranges or nuts, for street-sale,
rather than "go a-gathering Christmas."

One strong-looking lad, of 16 or 17, gave me
the following account: —

"It's hard work, is Christmasing; but, when
you have neither money nor work, you must do
something, and so the holly may come in
handy. I live with a elder brother; he helps
the masons, and as we had neither of us either
work or money, he cut off Tottenham and Ed-
monton way, and me the t'other side of the
water, Mortlake way, as well as I know. We'd
both been used to costering, off and on. I was
out, I think, ten days altogether, and didn't
make 6s. in it. I'd been out two Christmases
before. O, yes, I'd forgot. I made 6d. over
the 6s., for I had half a pork-pie and a pint of
beer, and the landlord took it out in holly. I
meant to have made a quarter of pork do, but
I was so hungry — and so would you, sir, if you'd
been out a-Christmasing — that I had the t'other
quarter. It's 2d. a quarter. I did better when
I was out afore, but I forget what I made.
It's often slow work, for you must wait some-
times 'till no one's looking, and then you must
work away like anything. I'd nothing but a
sharp knife, I borrowed, and some bits of cord
to tie the holly up. You must look out sharp,
because, you see, sir, a man very likely won't
like his holly-tree to be stripped. Wherever
there is a berry, we goes for the berries.
They're poison berries, I've heard. Moon-
light nights is the thing, sir, when you knows
where you are. I never goes for mizzletoe.
I hardly knows it when I sees it. The first
time I was out, a man got me to go for some in
a orchard, and told me how to manage; but I
cut my lucky in a minute. Something came
over me like. I felt sickish. But what can a
poor fellow do? I never lost my Christmas,
but a little bit of it once. Two men took it
from me, and said I ought to thank them
for letting me off without a jolly good jacket-
ing, as they was gardeners. I believes they was
men out a-Christmasing, as I were. It was a
dreadful cold time that; and I was wet, and
hungry, — and thirsty, too, for all I was so wet, —
and I'd to wait a-watching in the wet. I've
got something better to do now, and I'll never
go a-Christmasing again, if I can help it."

This lad contrived to get back to his lodging,
in town, every night, but some of those out
Christmasing, stay two or three days and nights
in the country, sleeping in barns, out-houses,
carts, or under hay-stacks, inclement as the
weather may be, when their funds are insuffi-
cient to defray the charge of a bed, or a part of
one, at a country "dossing-crib" (low lodging-
house). They resorted, in considerable num-
bers, to the casual wards of the workhouses, in
Croydon, Greenwich, Reigate, Dartford, &c.,
when that accommodation was afforded them,
concealing their holly for the night.

As in other matters, it may be a surprise to
some of my readers to learn in what way the
evergreens, used on festive occasions in their
homes, may have been procured.

The costermongers who procure their own
Christmasing, generally hawk it. A few sell it
by the lot to their more prosperous brethren.
What the costers purchase in the market, they
aim to sell at cent. per cent.

Supposing that 700 men and lads gathered
their own holly, &c., and each worked for three
weeks (not regarding interruptions), and calcu-
lating that, in the time they cleared even 15s. each, it amounts to 575l.

Some of the costermongers deck their carts
and barrows, in the general line, with holly at
Christmas. Some go out with their carts full
of holly, for sale, and may be accompanied by
a fiddler, or by a person beating a drum. The
cry is, "Holly! Green Holly!"

One of my informants alluded incidentally to
the decoration of the churches, and I may ob-
serve that they used to be far more profusely
decked with Christmas evergreens than at pre-
sent; so much so, that a lady correspondent in
January, 1712, complained to "Mr. Spectator"
that her church-going was bootless. She was
constant at church, to hear divine service and
make conquests; but the clerk had so overdone
the greens in the church that, for three weeks,
Miss Jenny Simper had not even seen the young
baronet, whom she dressed at for divine wor-
ship, although he pursued his devotions only
three pews from hers. The aisle was a pretty

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shady walk, and each pew was an arbour. The
pulpit was so clustered with holly and ivy that
the congregation, like Moses, heard the word out
of a bush. "Sir Anthony Love's pew in particu-
lar," concludes the indignant Miss Simper, "is
so well hedged, that all my batteries have no
effect. I am obliged to shoot at random among
the boughs without taking any manner of aim.
Mr. Spectator, unless you'll give orders for re-
moving these greens, I shall grow a very awk-
ward creature at church, and soon have little
else to do there but to say my prayers." In a
subsequent number, the clerk glorifies himself
that he had checked the ogling of Miss Simper.
He had heard how the Kentish men evaded
the Conqueror by displaying green boughs be-
fore them, and so he bethought him of a like
device against the love-warfare of this coquettish
lady.

Of all the "branches" in the markets. the
costers buy one-half. This season, holly has
been cheaper than was ever known previously.
In some years, its price was double that cited, in
some treble, when the December was very frosty.