Answers: A Regency Christmas

Here are the answers to my Regency Christmas Quiz at the WordWenches Blog:

1. Wassailing means:
   b) to drink to the health of a fruit tree
2. A roasted capon was a dish commonly served at Christmas. A capon is:
   c) a castrated cockerel
3. Frumenty was often served at Christmas. Frumenty is:
   a) a dish made with grains, dried fruit, nuts and sugar
4. Bullet pudding was:
   a) a game involving flour that was often played at Christmas – Google ‘bullet pudding’ for a full description of the game.
5. Which of these foods was NOT eaten at a Regency Christmas feast?
   d) chocolates – hot chocolate was served as a drink, but the process where by cocoa was made into solid chocolates had not yet been invented.
6. Which of these was thought to bring bad luck?
   c) decorating with greenery before Christmas Eve
7. The first member of the English royal family to display a Christmas tree was
   b) Queen Charlotte in 1800 – Queen Victoria popularized the Christmas Tree and made it fashionable, but she wasn’t the first royal to have one.
8. Under Oliver Cromwell’s rule (1649-53 — and yes, I know this is well before the Regency, but it’s interesting, I think)
   d) Christmas celebrations were outlawed – they were considered to be more pagan than Christian.
9. Mince pies in the Regency contained:
   b) dried fruit and meat
10. Which traditional Christmas game involved snatching raisins our bare fingers from a flaming bowl of brandy?
    a) snapdragon
11. When is Twelfth Night?
    d) 5th January
12. What was a traditional aristocratic activity for Boxing Day (26th December)
    a) fox-hunting

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