When did Turkey become the most popular Christmas dinner?

[ODFOgrinch]

it used to be goose in England at least. When did Turkey become the 'Christmas bird of choice'?
Was it just that fashions changed over time or did the Royal family receive one as a gift or something?
Thanks

www.english-heritage.org.uk/christmas/christmas-dinners-through-history/ This is a fun read :)

To cut to the chase though! :
"Tudor Christmas meant serious feasting for the royal household – and that meant lots of meat. The traditional choices were beef, venison and wild boar, but the Tudors also ate a range of wild animals and birds that we wouldn’t eat today, including badger, blackbird and woodcock. Turkeys first came to England in 1523 and during the Tudor period were seen as an exotic delicacy. They were walked from Norfolk and Suffolk all the way to market in London"

I would guess it became cheaper to farm them. Maybe the advent of factory farming changed it?

I believe it was because that was the bird Scrooge bought the Cratchitts at the end of A Christmas Carol. The reason he bought it was because it was the biggest bird in the window (rather than it being traditional). But the Victorians loved Dickens so it became the tradition over time.

Pretty sure it has something to do with the amount of meat on a Turkey compared to a Goose. We have Goose and there is very little meat left between four adults and a child, definitely no Goose Curry on NYE

Hetyanni
I came on to suggest that it was possibly because of Scrooge too

Like a lot of things it sounds like it was originally a royal flex due to the exotic-ness of Turkeys. Then over time wealthier families would emulate and as this caused an increase in popularity it gradually changed. It's funny because the history article says Goose was the more commo folk's choice presumably due to affordability and I personally at least now consider Turkey to be the standard option and Goose to be the fancy option.

When I was a young child in the 50s we had chicken at Christmas; it was expensive then so didn't feature in our usual Sunday roast rota. I guess my DPs started buying turkey when we had a bit more money.

@Bloodybridget my mum says the same. It was a chicken at Christmas as they couldn’t afford it through the year. She was born in the early 1950’s.

We ate very little poultry when I was a child, it was too expensive. Beef and occasionally lamb were on the menu including offal, which I don’t like.

Christmas and Easter mum bought a capon ( a castrated cock) for a large family get together and loads of leftovers.

My dad got a significant promotion mid 70s and his Christmas bonus was a turkey and a hamper. He was in charge of handing them out so we got lumbered with the biggest turkey.

The victorians popularised it but they came over for the first time in Tudor times.

Beef and goose were always the common staples though for the middle and working classes until Dickens and A Christmas Carol. The breeding of large white turkeys made them cheaper in the 20th century.

Just coming back to this to say a special thanks to @TheFairPrincess for the link and to everyone for their thoughts.

I know we are concerned about the price of food at the moment but the idea that in the 1930s a Christmas Turkey cost a whole week's wages certainly puts what we consider to be luxury nowadays into perspective for me!

@ODFOgrinch

it used to be goose in England at least. When did Turkey become the 'Christmas bird of choice'? Was it just that fashions changed over time or did the Royal family receive one as a gift or something? Thanks

Well, we didn't have Turkey until the discovery of the Americas so after the 16th centuary.

Not so much Turkey but Chicken wasn't actually used much historically in england but gained its popularity for family meals during WW2 due to rationing.

Beef and Pork are bigger and require more time and resources to rear whereas Chickens could be factory-farmed in small blacked-out barns very quickly to provide a plentiful meat source.

I imagine the increase in eating Chicken daily may somehow link to the popularity of Turkey becoming a more 'special' meat given their similarities to chicken but less ready availability.