Christmas at Downton: Holiday Foods and Traditions From The Unofficial Guide to Downton Abbey: Downton Abbey Books

By Elizabeth Fellow

It’s a cold December afternoon on the Yorkshire Moors, and you’ve been invited to celebrate Christmas at Downton Abbey!

The snow crunches under your feet as you approach the great entry way, and before you can knock Mr. Carson has swung the door open and is welcoming you in from the cold.

You step inside and are immediately greeted by warmth, the sounds of laughter, and the heart-warming scent of pine mixed with cinnamon, orange, and nutmeg.

Carson takes your coat then leads you to the main hall where the Crawley family has assembled to welcome you beneath the beautifully adorned Christmas tree.

After a moment of exchanging pleasantries, you all make your way to the dining room.

Mrs. Patmore is sure to have outdone herself for such an occasion, and your mouth is already watering in anticipation of the incredible day-long feast ahead of you…

You can almost taste the Roast Turkey with Apple Stuffing and fresh Cranberry Sauce… The Sausage Forcemeat, Creamed Potatoes, Redcurrant Jelly, Baked Parsnips…

Heaven!

In her new book, “Christmas at Downtown: Holiday Foods and Traditions from the Unofficial Guide to Downtown Abbey” Elizabeth Fellow, #1 bestselling author of “Tea at Downtown,” pulls back the curtain and shows you how to give your family a taste of Downton life!

In this concise book you will learn:

• How to decorate your home and lay the table with Downton Splendour

• What it was like to live in Yorkshire and celebrate Christmas at the turn of the last century

• Holiday recipes for the beloved foods that made Christmas in England so glorious starting with Christmas breakfast, going through luncheon and tea-time, right up the the most extravagant feast of the year in Christmas dinner.  There are also  special drinks, and traditional desserts

• You’ll be able to bring the grandeur of a Downton Christmas to your own home affordably without compromising one drop of elegance

By the time you’ve finished this book you’ll be ready to turn Christmas Day into a dazzling celebration for the whole family, even if you don’t have a Mrs. Patmore or Carson of your own!

Get your copy of “Christmas at Downtown: Holiday Foods and Traditions from the Unofficial Guide to Downtown Abbey” and prepare to celebrate like the Crawleys today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Healthy Wealthy nWise Press
• Release date: Aug 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781513085920

Book preview

Welcome to Christmas at Downton Abbey

Look across the Yorkshire Moors to the Abbey on Christmas day. Surrounded by trees, the branches glisten in the crisp, freezing frost. From the windows, the golden glow of warmth dances across the snow. Inside, the Crawleys and their household prepare to unveil their most spectacular Christmas yet.

For the first time this year, you are invited to join the feast. Enjoy a privileged insight into the Downton Abbey Christmas and the preparations that made it so fine.

Experiment with some of their glorious food of the period, from the glamorous Charlotte Russe and Consommé with quails eggs to the ancient traditional mince pie containing real chunks of beef.

Hold the perfect Christmas party, with instructions from how the table should be laid right through to which drinks should be served.

So without further ado, don your most beautiful frock and pearls, style your hair, and put on your gloves. Because, we ladies....

We’re off to Downton Abbey to enjoy Christmas in quite the most elegant style.

Elizabeth Fellow

What Yorkshire was REALLY like in 1920s

The Downton Abbey Christmas Special always marks the pinnacle of the festive season’s TV. Larger than life, the Specials always sparkle with brilliant story lines and elegant visual delights. The 2012 episode was reputed to have cost a mouth-watering £12 million to create. While that seems to be an inordinate production bill, it is in line with the mountainous cost of a Christmas celebration in English stately home in the 1920s.

The Christmas meal was the very largest of all statements of wealth. It was an opportunity for the Lord and Lady to showcase their achievements not only in financial terms of the harvest of their lands, but in their personal success as a marriage and family unit too.

As the 2014 season opens, we see the attitudes of the British towards their beloved aristocracy beginning to falter. The clever introduction of Tom Branson, the emergent ambassador for the proletariat just as a labour government comes into power, means we shall likely see changes in the dynamic of the household over the coming seasons. Already we can feel Carson’s discomfort of the class divide starting to dissolve.

Downton is set in the breath-taking scenery of Yorkshire, one of the most northerly counties of England. Summers are clement, bright, and airy. Winters are bitterly cold and extremely harsh. Christmas days glisten with biting frosts.

A hundred years prior, Emily Bronte had described Yorkshire’s stark landscape far better than I ever could in her immortal book Wuthering Heights. Having witnessed Yorkshire’s changing seasons every day of her life, she is magically able to transport us there with her words.  

She vividly paints pictures of the golden rocks of Penistone Crags, black hollows, bleak hilltops, bilberry bushes, moonlit scenery, miles of heath, and winding roads. The Yorkshire moors are a stark and frankly, unnerving place. It is cold, blustery, and wet. In the dark days of winter, it is easy to get lost, especially when the snow does come down.

On this dark landscape stood the strong fortress of Downton Abbey. Inside, fires crackled, candles burned, chandeliers glinted. The soft devoré fabrics of Lady Grantham’s dresses shimmered in the softened light. Her sequinned evening wear, beaded to within an inch of its life, sparkled and glistened in its warmth.  Beds were warmed with copper bedpans fuelled by burning embers. As dusk stole the last moments of light, a golden glow of wealth radiates into the gloom, extinguished only by heavy curtains drawn to keep out the cold.

These great draughty houses were massive sources of employment. Of course, like any business, as the house flourished, it grew, and so (very slightly) did the fortunes of those living on the estates. When we look at records contemporaneous to the period, we can see just how much commerce passed through their doors.

At Welbeck Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, the Duke of Portland employed more than 60 staff inside of his house. A further 200 were employed