The various gatherings of friends and relatives that are custom at holiday time often lead to a significant question, “What do we do with these people?” Food and drink, of course, has its place, and gifts can take a moment or two, but unless the group never gets tired of watching the marathon of “A Christmas Story,” there needs to be some other sort of pastime to fill the hours.
In my family, it usually was games. after the dishes were done, the table was cleared and everyone gathered. Sometimes if there was a new game, we gave that a try, but usually game time could mean one thing only… cards. I have commented before about how much cards were the social glue that tied our gatherings, holiday and otherwise, together. It was a way of being together without the pressure to make conversation, and at Christmas a cup of coffee or a cookie or mince pie could be quaffed while the game commenced.
Victorians must have felt similarly, but some of their games were more ornate and participatory. I was reading today about a game called Snapdragon. Like our card games, this was played later in the evening after dark. Raisins or other sweet fruits were laid out on a dish and soaked with brandy. Then the lights would be extinguished and the brandy would be lit aflame. Each person would take turns grabbing a sweet from the dish and popping it into her or his mouth. The winner would be the final person who was able to retrieve a morsel.
The game functioned on two levels, of course there was the competition between players, but the participants also enjoyed the macabre scene of fire reflected in the faces and throughout the room. Tracing many Victorian Christmas traditions points to a holiday as much tied to t(e scary and unsettling as it was to the quaint and picturesque.
As I think of this game, I can only imagine the number of times that fingers hands, children, and houses were burned by these alcohol-fed flames. From our perspective, such risks would be unthinkable, but from a generation that played lawn darts, click-clacks, and football, who am I to judge?
You can find further information and a demonstration of Snapdragon in this video