Xmas Scenes: Choosing Christmas cards

Every December, Clothes in Books likes to feature Christmas in Books – seasonal scenes from random books, for no better reason than I like looking for the pictures, and I and some readers find them cheery and Xmas-y (particularly, of course, those featuring murders and other miseries)

Many of the entries  - this year and in the past – were suggested by clever readers: so if you have a favourite please do let me know and I will try to use it


Mapp and Lucia by EF Benson

published 1931

 

 


[excerpt] The pleasant custom of sending Christmas cards prevailed in Tilling, and most of the world met in the stationer's shop on Christmas Eve, selecting suitable salutations from the threepenny, the sixpenny and the shilling trays. Elizabeth came in rather early and had almost completed her purchases when some of her friends arrived, and she hung about looking at the backs of volumes in the lending-library, but keeping an eye on what they purchased. Diva, she observed, selected nothing from the shilling tray any more than she had herself; in fact, she thought that Diva's purchases this year were made entirely from the threepenny tray. Susan, on the other hand, ignored the threepenny tray and hovered between the sixpennies and the shillings and expressed an odiously opulent regret that there were not some 'choicer' cards to be obtained. The Padre and Mrs Bartlett were certainly exclusively threepenny, but that was always the case. However they, like everybody else, studied the other trays, so that when, next morning, they all received seasonable coloured greetings from their friends, a person must have a shocking memory if he did not know what had been the precise cost of all that were sent him. But Georgie and Lucia as was universally noticed, though without comment, had not been in at all, in spite of the fact that they had been seen about in the High Street together and going into other shops. Elizabeth therefore decided that they did not intend to send any Christmas cards and before paying for what she had chosen, she replaced in the threepenny tray a pretty picture of a robin sitting on a sprig of mistletoe which she had meant to send Georgie. There was no need to put back what she had chosen for Lucia, since the case did not arise.


Christmas Day dawned, a stormy morning with a strong gale from the south-west, and on Elizabeth's breakfast-table was a pile of letters, which she tore open. Most of them were threepenny Christmas cards, a sixpenny from Susan, smelling of musk, and none from Lucia or Georgie. She had anticipated that, and it was pleasant to think that she had put back into the threepenny tray the one she had selected for him, before purchasing it.

 

comments: Oh this joyous book, always a pleasure to read.

It featured earlier this year in a context you might not have been expecting: mourning. Mapp and Lucia shows Lucia moving on from the death of her husband and goes into some detail of her clothes, so ideal for that (extensive) set of posts on the blog.

Christmas here is at the end of the book. Lucia and Miss Mapp have been feuding (of course) but a post-Christmas visit by Mapp to Lucia’s house, in pursuit of lobster a la Riseholme, is going to end very unexpectedly.

The main thing to say about the books is that for entertainment and detail they cannot be faulted.

Collection of Christmas cards from first half of 20th century, Library of Congress.

Santa and the birds from the NYPL.

Comments

  1. Thanks so much for reminding me of these wicked delicious stories. Some years ago, in a horrible fit of decluttering I chucked all mine away, and have since been slowly reacquiring them again.
    In other news, Nemo's Almanac is going out with the Christmas cards this year. I am so grateful to you for introducing me to this gem.

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    1. I got rid of a ton of books when we moved, and am surprised at how few I have had to replace - but it is infuriating to have regrets. Mapp and Lucia such a comfort in life.
      And so glad you have taken to Nemo!

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  2. Wonderful! I've swithered for years about diving into Mapp and Lucia, and after this, it'll go among my TBRs for 2025!

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    1. Oh good! the books are very much of their time, but also timeless and always amusing. Hope you enjoy.

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  3. Ooh, I've got one that has a bit of danger attached to it: playing Snapdragon and snatching raisins from a bowl of flaming brandy.

    You quoted from Secrets of Wishtide a while back, but that's the only mention I've found in the blog.

    Perhaps this might be an enjoyable topic?

    Very best,
    A devoted reader across the pond

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    1. Yes a great topic! And there will be one coming soon - it's mentioned in a Trollope book. But we need to find more books where it features... I will work on it.
      Thanks!

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    2. There's Tenniel's drawing of the snapdragon-fly in Through the Looking-Glass.
      - Roger Allen

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    3. Snapdragon- The Whiteoak Brothers Mazo de la Roche

      The raisins were placed on the table in the midst of the company.
      Tortured blue flames leaped above them, quivering, writhing, and at last dying into quick-running ripples. Hands, burnished like brass, stretched out to snatch the raisins. Wake's, with its round child's wrist;
      Finch's, bony and predatory; Piers's, thick, muscular; Grandmother's, dark, its hook-like fingers glittering with jewels-all the grasping, eager hands and the watchful faces behind them illuminated by the flare, Gran's eyes like coals beneath her beetling red.
      Pheasant's hands fluttered like little brown birds. She was afraid of getting burned. Again and again the blue flames licked them and they darted back.
      "You are a little silly," said Renny. "Make a dash for them, or they'll be gone."
      She set her teeth and plunged her hand into the flames. "Oh-oh, I'm going to be burned!"
      "You've only captured two," laughed Eden, on her other side, and laid a glossy cluster on her plate.
      Renny saw Eden's hand slide under the table and cover hers in her lap. His eyes sought Eden's and held them a moment. They gazed with narrowed lids, each seeing something in the other that startled him.
      Scarcely was this unrecognized something seen when it was gone, as a film of vapor that changes for a moment the clarity of the well known landscape and shows a scene obscure, even sinister- The shadow passed, and they smiled, and Eden withdrew his hand.

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    4. Oh my goodness - next year's snapdragon post shaping up nicely! thanks so much Roger and Hilary....

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  4. People really don't do printed Christmas cards the way they did, do they, Moira? So many use ecards and other digital greetings. But I remember the long lines at the post office to send out cards when I was younger. It's one of those customs that's fast disappearing...

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    1. I remember the postal deliveries at odd times of day, several in a day, around this time of year. When did that stop happening, I wonder?

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    2. Not to mention being able to choose and post your cards on Christmas Eve, confident that the GPO would deliver them on Christmas Day!

      Sovay

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    3. I used to get so excited as a child by the extra deliveries and the piles of cards, which of course were for my parents, not me. And there would be a Sunday delivery at least once before Christmas - the only time that happened.
      I'm sorry all that has gone, and no longer send cards myself - it was also a huge amount of work!

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    4. We received a flood of free cards every year from charities in hoping for some largesse in response, to the point where we haven't had to buy cards in several years. My personal act of malice each year is to select the gaudiest, most over the top, oozingly sentimental one to send to a family member who is militantly anti-religion.

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    5. Our most striking and largest and noticeable one (a lot of red and gold) used to come from our local Indian restaurant and we were very proud, though possibly suggesting that we ate there too often.

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  5. I've read two Demarkian books so far. The Christmas mystery wasn't the one I'd read before, and there's another Christmas mystery that's also not that one. I think I must have mixed Gregor up with a different character. But I'm glad to be reading Haddam!

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    1. That's very complicated! Please report back when sorted, and tell me if there are further Xmas scenes - I'm sure there must be, but I get mixed up among all the books...

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    2. The other Haddam Christmas book is A Stillness in Bethlehem, and it apparently has a little state-vs-church conflict in it. (Something similar happened in the town where I used to live.). There's also a Christmas play or pageant. I may never find out what other Christmas mystery I was remembering....

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    3. I have read that one, and my notes say 'Some nasty elements, and not enough tying up loose ends, but good. Small town, Vt, Nativity celebration'. Would it make a Xmas blog entry? I don't remember much about it...

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  6. Oh yes, and then a Christmas hamper is delivered. Lucia has sent everyone hampers instead of cards.
    Clare

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  7. Wilmet Forsyth in Barbara Pym's "A Glass of Blessings" mentions the excitement of two or three posts a day, delivering "... arty agnostic angels and cherubs, stylised cats, dogs and birds in brilliant colours, old prints and home-made lino cuts, and the personal snapshot cards - husband and wife on the beach at St Tropez, or the children and the dog in the garden at home."

    Sovay

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    1. That's a gret description! It's not only a great book, but also endless blog opportunities...

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    2. Then there's Leonora in The sweet Dove Died receiving cards from Humphrey and James...and preferring the one from James (of course). Leonora has lots of great frocks!
      Sovay, those cards are still the same today, aren't they?

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    3. So many of the same cards, though Wilmet doesn't mention receiving any of the showing-off round-robin letters that often accompany the personal snapshot cards these days - a later development? She's had the added excitement of the arrival of an anonymous but distinctly romantic present - surely from the young man she's half in love with ...

      Sovay

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    4. I am slowly working my way through posts on Pym books as I re-read them, so will have to look at The Sweet Dove Died soon! I haven't thought about Leonora in a while - definitely blog candidate.

      I can remember in the late 60s some friends of my parents sent what we would now call a round robin, and this was seen as very exotic and interesting: and was certainly not a common practice in our circles. My mother was not impressed and said it was because the wife wanted to boast about how wonderful her children were. None of that has changed...
      Barbara Pym on round robin letters would be a delight to read...

      I had just decided I couldn't squeeze in a post on Wilmet's romantic present, but perhaps I should try harder now you've raised the matter ... we'll see!

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    5. I don't think you've posted about "Some Tame Gazelle" either - full of fascinating clothes and clothes-related topics (such as clerical evening dress and the status of the visiting dressmaker).

      Sovay

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    6. Yes, I can work my way through all the books with great enjoyment! STG - someone takes over items from a dead woman's wardrobe, handed out by the grieving widower? Yes I need to read that with an eye to the blog.

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    7. The dead woman's wardrobe is "Jane and Prudence" - the grieving widower takes no part in sorting out his wife's possessions, on the grounds that it would be too distressing, though in fact he paid so little attention to his wife that Miss Morrow (who unknown to him is about to embark on a campaign to marry him) can put aside a few dresses for herself, confident that he won't recognise them on her.

      Sovay

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    8. Yes, isnt there a moment when some item looks vaguely familiar to him?
      Oh Pym was so good! Those situations and thoughts that no-one else describes.

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    9. There is! Miss Morrow passes it off successfully but realises she might have been too complacent.

      Some Tame Gazelle is BP's first novel - written in the 1930s but published around 1950 - BP imagining herself and her sister as middle-aged spinsters in a country village, sister doting on a succession of curates whilst she herself has been yearning after the (married) vicar for twenty years.

      Sovay

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    10. I am so going to have to do some more Pym re-reading!

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    11. In Jane and Prudence there is an entire riff on how you can tell which denomination of church you are in by the style and colour of the seating. Blond wood and rush seating? A friend once did the same for church noticeboards and how "high" the church is.

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    12. Oh you're all tempting me, it's just a question of which one to read first.
      I love the idea of the seating giving the church away.

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  8. And then there's the hilarious conversation that took place at the next day's subdued dinner, minus Mapp and Lucia, never mind why they're missing (I won't spoil):

    "[Mr. Wyse] pointed to the two threepenny Christmas cards on the mantelpiece.

    'Our friend Elizabeth Mapp sent those to my wife and me yesterday,' he said. 'We shall keep them always among our most cherished possessions in case--I mean in any case. Pretty designs. Roofs covered with snow. Holly. Robins. She had a very fine artistic taste. Her pictures had always something striking and original about them.'

    Everybody cudgelled their brains for something appropriate to say about Elizabeth's connection with Art. The effort was quite hopeless..."

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    1. An unexpectedly dramatic plot turn there, beautifully done. And such wonderful funny writing

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    2. Additionally enjoyable because any mention of Elizabeth in connection with Art brings up memories of a particularly underhand manoeuvre of hers in her battle for dominance in Tilling - and of course all the characters are remembering it too but no-one can refer to it in the circumstances ...

      Sovay

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    3. The plots seem to flow in a very natural way, but they are very well worked out!

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