Jane Austen's Christmas: The Festive Season in Georgian England

by Maria Hubert

In this text, readers can experience Christmas in the later Georgian period, as described by many of Austen's contemporaries, including Robert Southey, John Clare and Sir Walter Scott; and play the very games and charades that the Austens themselves enjoyed and wrote. Or try some of the authentic recipes from her own kitchen - perhaps the festive rice pudding, a gloriously rich dessert. And read poems and songs of the festive season, and learn of parlour theatricals in the Christmas holidays. The observations of an Englishman's Christmas as seen through the eyes of a contemporary American writer, Washington Irving, provide an eye-witness account of how an outsider viewed a Georgian Christmas. Contemporary engravings and sketches illustrate the customs and traditions of the day, alongside portraits of the Austen family.

Genres: Christmas, Nonfiction, History, British Literature, Holiday

Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Melanie THEE Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and entertaining 🎄

Hubert uses family letters, recipes and scenes from Austen’s novels to paint a vivid picture of how people in Georgian England celebrated the festive season. Highly recommend if you love history and Jane Austen. It’s the perfect book to get into the holiday spirit.

[Rachel Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

How festive! This puts me in the spirit to write a play to perform with my siblings this Christmas!

[Meredith (Austenesque Reviews) · Rating 2 out of 5]

In between reading Austenesque Christmas novels and purchasing Austen-Inspired gifts for their loved ones, the only thing needed to complete your Janeite Christmas (besides Mr. Darcy under the tree) is discovering how our beloved authoress celebrated the Christmas season. Did she deck the halls? Exchange gifts? Sing carols? We know that over the years customs have changed and new traditions have developed, but are there any similarities between Jane Austen's festive season and ours?

Included in this compilation are the excerpts from Jane Austen's novels, letters, and Juvenilia in which Christmas is mentioned. Most of these are obscure references where Christmas is casually mentioned, often not providing much enlightenment of Georgian Christmas traditions. This dearth of material unfortunately makes Maria Hubert's compilation about Jane Austen's Christmas a brief and uninformative one. To supplement the lack of material from the Austen family, Ms. Hubert includes excerpts of poems, letters, and diary entries from poet Robert Southey and clergyman William Holland amongst others. While I did enjoy Southey's poems, I felt Reverend Holland's diary entries a little bit ill-fitting and uninteresting. Poor Reverend Holland seems a glum person and his diary entries reflect little joy or excitement for the holiday season.

To continue reading, go to: http://janeaustenreviews.blogspot.com...

[Jane Austen]

Prettily bound and illustrated, this short work makes a cozy read for a winter night, especially if done so by light of the Christmas tree or crackling fire.
A full review can be found at: https://www.janeausten.co.uk/jane-aus...

[Robin Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book as a gift to myself (https://thehistorypress.co.uk/publica...)
and it is lovely. It's entertaining and pretty, nice to hold, but best of all, fun to read. I love my collection of vintage and new Christmas books and this is a perfect addition.

[Joanne Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book about Christmas during the period of Jane Austen’s life. Great snapshot of the time period. I learned about negus, mirror letters and Christmas traditions through letters, plays, poetry, and games. I will revisit this next holiday season

[Kedavra Mandylion · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.
It's a useless summary of all the Christmas scenes in Jane Austen's books.

[Jaime]

DNFing this one without a rating. I was bored

[Mo]

Received as a Christmas gift Dec 27, 2025 from Jen and Jeff

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of recipes, story excerpts, diary entries from Austen's time. While I did enjoy the content, this book is for a very specific audience. Great for a reader who enjoys history or wanting to learn more about Austen's time.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun smorgasbord but there were fewer Austen excerpts than I expected there to be.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This beautiful book came from my November @theliterarybookclubbox with adorable holiday gifts to match! My review is based on the book itself, not the box. The box always gets 5 stars from me! Use my code JENNAACCIOSBOOKS to subscribe for the January box! I think there MIGHT be a few left!

Take note that this is not a novel, but more of a compilation of Christmas related excepts either written by Jane Austen or in Jane Austens time. Any mention of the holiday season within her novels are included. There were also letters written to or from Jane and her other family members about the goings on around the holiday season. There are holiday poems and even recipes written the way they were made then, as well as modernized recipes. It was fun to read about the Christmas balls, festivities, gifts and foods they would have taken part in Jane’s time. There were a few poems or letters from people I didn’t know that I could have done without but overall it was a cute little book and a fun step back in time to the Georgian Era.

#janeaustenschristmas #christmasbooks #holidaybooks #christmashistory #bookreview

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating compilation of contemporary accounts of Christmas in Jane Austen’s day, with many extracts from letters, diaries etc of the period. Of particular interest to Austen fans are the extracts from letters from her niece Fanny Knight, describing the celebrations her family enjoyed. Georgian Christmases seem to have been great fun,with lots of dancing, games, Carol singing, dressing up etc. and festivities lasting until Twelfth Day (January 6th). Modern Christmases are very tame by comparison.

[Bianca White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of original sources from Austen and her contemporaries. This provides lots of details about a Georgian Christmas and will prove very useful for my writing.