Christmas Pudding History

The Lord of Misrule's Christmas Guide
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Christmas Pudding History

No Christmas dinner in the UK is complete without a flaming Christmas Pudding – regarded as one of the highlights not only of the main celebratory meal, but also of the entire Christmas festivities.

Originally a meat based dish dating from the Middle Ages, Christmas Pudding evolved over the years as various ingredients were added and dropped until we have the non-meat, dried-fruit based pudding that we all gobble furiously today. Though eaten in some shape or form for hundreds of years, it was only established as a Christmas ‘must’ in the 1800s when Queen Victoria’s husband, with his insatiable appetite for ‘plum duff’, made it fashionable throughout the country. Prince Albert’s stomach clearly has a lot of cases of indigestion to answer for!

A Christmas Pudding takes about 8 hours to cook initially and is usually prepared at least a full month before Christmas - the intervening time being needed for the pudding and its flavours (especially the alcohol) to roundly mature. On Christmas Day, the pudding is re-steamed for about 2 to 4 hours so that it is served piping hot at the table.

It is traditional for Christmas Puddings to be covered with brandy just before serving and for the brandy to be set alight and carried into the dining-room as a flaming pud.

There are many and varied traditions associated with the pudding and its making:

- it should be made with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and His Disciples
- every member of the family should take a turn to stir the pudding with a wooden spoon from east to west, in honour of the three kings
- setting the brandy alight is said to represent Christ’s passion
- a sprig of holly is often used to top the pudding as a reminder of the crown of thorns worn by Christ on the cross
- holly is supposed to bring good luck and have special healing powers; and it is often planted near houses in the belief that it protects the inhabitants
- some families add coins to the pudding for luck - everyone then stirs the pudding and makes a wish
- whoever gets a coin in their serving on Christmas Day will get wealth, health, happiness and all their wishes will come true
- some people even add gold rings to the mixture in the belief that the finder of the ring on Christmas Day will get married in the coming year
- in some families, the father or grandfather (honours to the eldest) of the family carries the Christmas Pudding to the dining-room where he has to knock on the closed door. The rest of the family have to shout ‘Hurrah for the Christmas Pudding’ as loudly as they can, at which point the bearer of the pudding teases that he cannot hear anyone calling for the pud and he is therefore going to take it away as clearly no-one wants any. He knocks again three or four times, each time saying that he cannot hear one or other member of the family, before he eventually agrees to enter the room and dish out the once-a-year treat

For Delia Smith's Christmas cook book, click here.