Ideas for an old-fashioned Irish Christmas

[AVeryIrishChristmas]

We are hosting MIL for Christmas this year.
She has dementia and is very confused/forgetful, but she loves talking about and remembering her childhood.

Unfortunately she can’t remember enough to tell me herself, but I’d love to include some little touches at Christmas that might remind her of her childhood celebrations.

She grew up in rural north-west Ireland in the 1940s.

Does anyone have any ideas of things like food, drink, music, decorations, games etc that might spark a recollection?

So interesting. Love the old traditions...I've only seen it once but the wren on the 26th is another one, when musicians call and play for you.

It's peat when it's in the ground ... it's turf once it's dug and dried.

I did think it wouldn't be authentic without a solid wall of smoke and a massive china ashtray but these days it would horrify everyone!

Btw, antimacassars on all the good chairs please.

The candle in the window on Christmas eve was to light the way for Joseph and Mary on a donkey . Also a sign to any poor soul as a place of sanctuary.

I think I want to come to your house this Christmas.

You stand the candle in a turnip with the base cut flat, hollow out a hole for the candle to stand in, and then cover the turnip with ivy leaves each pinned with a berry on the pin.

Absolutely the Ireland's Own Christmas edition and the Cork Hollybough for the Munster people!! Cribs and a big red candle in the window for Christmas Eve.. Holly with red berries. Christmas carols and Midnight Mass. Goose and potato stuffing.: Chrustmas pudding and Christmas cake..Mince pies.. This would be my mums childhood Christmas in rural Ireland as a child ❤️

Aw it's a lovely thing you are doing for her,

I agree with your food plan. If you can find a turf candle - the smell of turf would fill the air even in up to my own 1980's childhood.

The red lemonade is a classic suggestion. Always reminds me of my granny.

No turf. Peat is for plants turf is what you burn.

Lots of lovely memories here might give you things to reminisce about.

Don't forget the picture frame with the pope and JF Kennedy hanging in every house in the '60s 😀

If you want a turf scented candle, the Bearded Candlemakers do one

What kind of turf?

Thank you again for all the suggestions and personal stories. I’ve really enjoyed just reading them all.
I wish I had asked MIL more about it when she was still able to remember things accurately (and I wish DH and BIL had paid a bit more attention growing up, they don’t seem to remember hardly anything).

I wish I knew more about Irish history, I’ve only just realised now how utterly clueless I am, but it does seem 1940s and 50s Christmases were quite different. I hadn’t even thought that Ireland wasn’t at war as a country.
I guess everyone was poorer in the 40s, but I get the impression MILs family were relatively better off, I could be wrong tho. I know she was very much the baby of the family, all her siblings were much older and I think some had already moved to the USA before she was born. So perhaps they were all sending money back?And her parents would have been middle aged when she was born, I think her father was pushing 60, so perhaps more established, and more money available.
MIL herself had moved to England by the 1960s, to join her sister.

Anyway, teen Dd is bubbling over with enthusiasm for decorating with holly and paper decs and scented candles, so she is going to take charge of that. She is adamant that the posh garden centre near us had peat scented candles in a tin last time we were there, so we will give that a try. I’m really intrigued what it smells like. Also intrigued with red lemonade. Is it like Tizer?
DS has taken it on himself to provide the music.

My mother, who grew up in a farm in rural Ireland SW in the 40s, always loved having Christmas cake at Christmas.
I’m not completely sure she’d have had it in her very early years though? No electricity in rural Ireland then. They cooked in a bastible over an open fire (I remember the huge fireplace and chimney).

Holly was always used to decorate at Christmas. The hunt for one with red berries! The crib was important to her (though again, I’m not certain when exactly they started being used in homes in Ireland) and the Christmas candle.
She had a tradition about lighting the candle early on Christmas Eve. It was lit by the youngest person in the household who was safely able to do it. Lit and blown out twice and then left lighting the 3rd time. Followed by a decade of the rosary.

The candle or candles were also left lighting on the window on Christmas Eve with curtains open. A welcome for the Holy Family.
(We now use an led candles for fire safety reasons, though not exactly traditional. But I want to leave the candle burning overnight on that night. I think my mother prudently blew hers out before going to bed.)

Mass and hymns like Silent Night - in English and Irish - were a huge part of Christmas too. And plum pudding. Santa brought each child a present like a rag doll or a train in the 40s.

Have a lovely Christmas!

Red lemonade is just Red in colour. I swear it tasted different when I was a child, but they all taste the same to me now. An alternative would be Cidona, an apple fizzy drink. My mother is a bit younger than your MiL, and from the same part of Ireland and associated Cidona very strongly with Christmas. It was the only time of the year they would have a fizzy drink.
Asda's "ethnic aisle" sometimes has it. And I'd buy her some Barrys or Lyon tea bags.

This is so nice of you!

To add to the Turkey debate. My grandmother raised turkeys for Christmas for my mothers whole childhood. So late 1940s onwards. A box of chicks would arrive on the bus and be fattened up for sale.

Also intrigued with red lemonade. Is it like Tizer?

I’ve never had Tizer (or heard of it until now 😅). Red lemonade wouldn’t be a million miles away from white lemonade but does have a slightly different taste.

I was just coming to share this book too! I love getting it out each Christmas and everyone comments on it. 😍

Joseph Locke although I think he was 1950’s but she might remember the songs.

The Morrisons in the next town has an Irish section in their ‘ethnic foods’ aisle, but not my local branch. It sells red lemonade, Cidona, and Club Orange; Barry’s tea, Mikado and Kimberley biscuits, Tiffin and mint crisp chocolate and Club Milk bars, porter cake and brown sauce.
YouTube has a series of short b/w films of rural Ireland in the 1940-60’s.

As with @turkeyboots my granny used to grow on turkey chicks.

Maura Laverty’s Full and Plenty is a wonderful Irish cookbook.

Spotify has an Irish Christmas playlist.

Joseph Locke https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Joseph+locke&i=popular&crid=DBC1OULVUSDN&sprefix=joseph+locke%2Cpopular%2C441&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 has a wonderful tenor voice.

Adrian Dunbar starred in Hear My Song, a story about Joseph Locke.

I agree that turkey became common, people still chose chicken out of preference. My DH/family (county clare) had Turkey from the 50's, while their relatives (emigrated) in England couldn't afford it.
https://www.youririshshop.com/p/tk-red-lemonade-2-litre

I was going to say, a few decades of the rosary on her knees will bring her right back but she's a lapsed Catholic for a reason :)

Ocado have an international foods section which has an Irish bit. If she's here since the 60's though, and a lapsed Catholic then I'm not sure I'd completely change Christmas to start boiling cabbage out of nostalgia. It smells terrible !

Some tastes /brands of home if she used to regularly go home to visit when your husband was growing up. Soda bread and good marmalade. Kerrygold, Tayto crisps, Barry's or Lyons tea. Ham [hot] with the turkey on Christmas Day boiled or roasted as you wish. It works well to simmer for a bit and then finish off in the oven with a glaze on the fat.

I'd try for mass from Ireland either midnight or on the day if she is interested. Even as a lapsed Catholic many people make it along for Christmas Day and the music is usually very traditional carols the type that are known and sung by everyone down to small children. If you think Top 10 rather than some of the more obscure. So O Come all Ye Faithful, Adeste Fidelis, Away in a Manger etc.

I'm currently burning a Peat Smoke candle from Avoca... no idea how traditional the scent it, but it's really lovely.