A Forest Christmas compiled by Humphrey Phelps
Alan Sutton Publishing has a series of these "Christmas anthologies," the first which I bought at a book sale several years ago, and I try to pick up inexpensive copies when I can find them. Most of them concentrate on a certain shire or area in England (there are a handful, like
A Dickens Christmas,
A Wartime Christmas, and
A Bronte Christmas that are set around a historic era instead).
This is one of my favorites, with many reminisces from adults who grew up in the Forest of Dean, and the simple gifts children received back then (at least a dozen stories talk about kids getting "an apple, an orange [very rare back then], a penny, some type of simple candy [not chocolate], and
maybe a small toy"). One girl even remembered receiving a doll cradle although she had no doll. Also talk about special years when there was snow, or the family received a special meat to have with dinner. of course stirring the Christmas pudding! There are two excellent verses as well, and some sobering posts about the workhouse.
All illustrated with vintage drawings, maps, placards, photographs, and more.
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