Jane Austen's Christmas

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.