This film was made by local Bridlington teacher and filmmaker Bill Freeman.  Bill made very many films from the 1940s through to the 1980s, which have been donated to the YFA.  Many of these feature the Bridlington area, and the local neighbourhood of Savage Road and Westridge Road in Bridlington. Robert was a member of the local Cine Club – similar clubs mushroomed throughout Yorkshire in the post-war period. His films show the enthusiasm and expertise of a typical cine club member. As well...

This film was made by local Bridlington teacher and filmmaker Bill Freeman.  Bill made very many films from the 1940s through to the 1980s, which have been donated to the YFA.  Many of these feature the Bridlington area, and the local neighbourhood of Savage Road and Westridge Road in Bridlington. Robert was a member of the local Cine Club – similar clubs mushroomed throughout Yorkshire in the post-war period. His films show the enthusiasm and expertise of a typical cine club member. As well as filming his family, especially his two children, Susan and Robert, Bill filmed numerous school trips of Kurkburton School and Hilderthorpe School, and made an excellent film of fishing at Bridlington, Pot Luck (1962). But the films of the family are particularly noteworthy for providing a vivid picture of life in the 1940s and ‘50s.

 

The YFA has many films of families celebrating Christmas from this period: two of these, reflecting different backgrounds, which make an interesting comparison to this film are Christmas Compilation (1947) and Chapters in our Lives - Horton Family (1938-1950). The Context for Christmas Compilation has more on Christmas traditions, and especially on toys of the time – also good on Christmas customs is the excellent website of Woodland Junior School (References).

 

This film was probably made at Christmas 1951, when Susan was about three years old, and Robert hadn’t yet been born. This was before rationing ended in 1954, although you wouldn’t guess it with the lovely cakes and jelly the family enjoys at teatime. The weekly food ration for one person was: 1oz cheese; 2oz tea (about 20 teabags); 2oz jam spread; 4oz bacon or ham; 8oz sugar; 1 shilling's worth of meat; and

8oz fats of which only 2oz could be butter. The Freemans must have saved their rations for a considerable time to provide the fare on display in the film – although in the autumn of 1950 controls were lifted on flour, eggs and soap. It was also a time when an identity card, introduced in 1939 for the war, still had to be carried by everyone (they were scrapped in 1952).

 

Notice too that there is no sign of a TV, which had arrived in the north in 1951. At this time it was only BBC (ITV came in 1955), and they only broadcast a few hours a day for fear of distracting children from more important matters. In 1951 less than 1 million homes owned a TV set – some put TV antennae on their roofs to impress the neighbours.

 

The idea of feasting at festivals of celebration is one that Christianity took from non-Christian practises and has a long history. The forms it takes in the modern era though are relatively new: like most current Christmas traditions, dating from the Victorian age. Thus we have Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol , published in 1843, to thank for introducing the eating of turkey at Christmas – as well as many other customs (he went on to write a Christmas story for every year up until his death). 

 

It was in the mid-Victorian period that Christmas became focused on the family, and children in particular, with Dickens doing much to encourage the ethos of forgetting the self and giving to others less fortunate. With the post-war rise in living standards Christmas became ever more family centred, and charity has taken a back seat. Yet in 1951 living conditions for many were still very poor. Children having to get dressed for bed in front of the fire, as Susan does in the film, or even bathed, was still common.

 

The connection of mince pies with Christmas goes back to the 13th century when crusaders brought back the Middle Eastern recipe for the pie containing meats, fruits and spices. This become known as the “Christmas pie”.  During the English Civil War they were banned, along other customs associated with Catholicism. Apparently the meat content stopped being added in the early twentieth century, and without 13 ingredients (the magic number), it ceased to have any religious significance (Baker, References). Every country has its own variations of traditional Christmas foods, and these migrate and mutate between them. But according to Countess Maria Hubert von Staufer the Christmas cake has its origins in England, when dried fruit, spices and honey were added to the porridge mixture eaten on Christmas Eve, becoming Christmas pudding.   Later more spices and marzipan was added to make the Christmas cake.

 

It was in this same year as A Christmas Carol  that the first Christmas cards were produced, depicting a family seated at a table, and people helping the poor. Before the coming of cards, it was custom to send letters at Christmas time; the cards might be considered a poor substitute for this. Like so much else, the practice was boosted by the increasing commercialisation of Christmas during the 19th century. This was especially so in the US, which was very influential in making the Christmas we know today. But with concern for the environment, the rise of e-cards and the innovation of giving Christmas card money to charity, this custom may well be on its way out. 

 

As well as hanging cards on a string, many of an older generation will remember making the paper chain decorations shown in the film. They are a left over from the home made decorations of the Victorian period. Although these are still available, albeit a bit more fancy, decorations tend to be more ready made today. It has become a trend to use more in the way of electric illuminations, with some decorating the outside of their homes with spectacular, not to say over-the-top, coloured lighting.

 

Something must have been in the air in 1843, as this was also the first year in which Christmas trees are mentioned in New York ads.  Like the mistletoe and holly used for decoration at Christmas, this was taken, at least in part, from pagan customs.   Forbes provide an account of several different origins to the Christmas tree, mostly stemming from Germany (References). It was from Germany that the Christmas tree found its way into the homes of most homes during the 19th century. Indeed, Germany is the source of many Christmas customs, many introduced into Britain by Prince Albert, the German husband of Queen Victoria. The trees have symbolised many things, and it was only later on that they become associated with the giving of gifts. Artificial trees, as seen in the film, go as far back as the turn of the century, and have now overtaken real trees for most people as more cost effective and easier to maintain.

 

The connection between Christmas and gift giving goes back to the origins of Christmas observance in the mid-winter celebrations of ancient Rome – becoming Christian after the conversion of Emperor Constantine, who needed to replace the pagan customs with something equally appealing. But it was the customs of St Nicholas Day, on the 5th or 6th of December, combining with the custom of giving gifts on New Year’s Day, that really introduced the idea of general present giving at Christmas. In the early 19th century Saint Nicholas,  the 3rd century Bishop of Myra (now part of modern Turkey), was gradually transmogrified into Santa Claus – helped on no end by the poem The Night before Christmas, written by Clement Moore in 1822 (though some claim it for Henry Livingston). This single poem probably did more than anything else to popularise the modern day Santa Claus – the jolly gift giver with a sledge pulled by reindeer arriving on Christmas Eve. This figure was later elaborated upon by the German emigrant to the US, illustrator Thomas Nast; for example introducing the idea of children sending Santa a letter and leaving snacks for him.

Mention has been made of the association between Christmas trees and gift giving, placing them under the tree. But what we see in this film is another custom, of leaving out pillow cases to be filled with presents: one that continues to this day. The pillow case is a more convenient substitute to filling stockings with presents, which some trace back to a legend of Saint Nicholas in AD 270. Putting presents in stockings added to the excitement and surprise, though the introduction of wrapping paper serves this function, allowing them to be placed under the Christmas tree. Forbes argues that with the changeover from hand-made to commercial gifts, wrapping paper helped to make presents more personal and so helping customers to feel more positive about their purchases. He quotes one company, American Greetings, as selling enough wrapping paper for one year to go around the globe twelve times.

 

The second half of the film, with the sledging and building a snowman, suggests that Bridlington might have had a white Christmas. Short of consulting the local papers of the time, finding out which area had snow over Christmas in any one year is difficult, although the previous December, 1950, Scarborough had 14 inches of snowfall. The association of Christmas and snow was strongly reinforced by the best-selling single of all time, White Christmas, released by Bing Crosby in 1942 (and made into a film in 1954), and the 1946 film with James Stewart, It’s a Wonderful Life. The making of snowmen has long been a favourite thing to do with snow: Bob Eckstein, author of The History of the Snowman, has traced the first evidence of a snowman to the Book of Hours, dated 1380.

 

Little Susan was one of the ‘baby boomers’, when there was a significant increase in births after the end of the Second World War, peaking in 1947. In his 2010 book The Pinch, the Conservative MP David Willetts has made the case that, inadvertently through the sheer numbers, the baby boom generation: “has ended up creating an economy and social system that works for them but is very tough on their kids”. This position has come under fire for ignoring the huge class differences between those who have benefited.  But even so the future, at present, perhaps looks bleaker than it was in 1951, the year of the optimistic Festival of Britain.  Whatever the merits of Willetts’ argument, he is surely right in saying, “we have an obligation to pass on a world that is better for our children”. (Willetts and Field, References)

 

References

 

Margaret Baker, Discovering Christmas customs and folklore: a guide to seasonal rites, 3rd edition, Shire publications, 1992.

Bruce David Forbes, Christmas: A Candid History, University of California Press, 2007.

A H Halsey and Josephine Webb editors, Twentieth-century British social trends, Macmillan, 2000.

David Kynaston, Family Britain 1951-57, Bloomsbury, 2010.

David Kynaston, Austerity Britain : 1945-51, Bloomsbury, 2007.

Arthur Marwick, British society since 1945, 4th edition, Penguin, London, 2003.

David Willetts, The pinch : how the baby boomers stole their children's future - and how they can give,  Atlantic Books, 2010.

Woodland Junior School

Countess Maria Hubert von Staufer,  The Christmas Archives

Victorian Christmas,  Brighton Toy Museum.

David Willetts and Frank Field in dialogue, ‘Should Baby Boomers Feel the Pinch?’