The following are excerpts from the December portion of an article entitled, “Annas Mirabilis, Or, a Parthian Glance at 1822.” These observations, often amusing, sometimes cynical, are snapshots of a Regency-era Christmas:

Sad sameness of Christmas dinners.

Every tablespoon in the house flaming with burnt brandy.

Growing civility of sweeps, dustmen and patrols: plainly denoting that the era of Christmas-boxes is at hand.

Grave papas, usually seen about without an accompaniment, were met dragging along children in couples, and occasionally stopping to peep into toy-shop windows.

Premature twelfth-cakes stealing behind confectioners’ counters.

Grimaldi and the new pantomime: front rows filled by urchins, who, at every knock-down-blow, fling back their flaxen polls, in delight, into the laps of their chuckling parents on the seat behind.

— The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, Vol. VII, 1823

A glance at Christmas Past, albeit Parthian, as we speed on to the Christmases of tomorrow.

Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year!

This mulberry-coloured promenade dress is decidedly festive with epaulettes and sleeves fashioned to look like leaves. The skirt is edged in chinchilla, matching the large muff. From Ackerman’s Repository of Arts, Vol. 14, 1822