This blog post was written by Sasha Pond and Sarah Snelling, the 2025-2026 Graduate Trainee Library Assistants at the IHR Wohl Library.
This Christmas at the IHR Wohl Library we are highlighting four seasonal works from our collection. This includes an Edwardian work on a Kent Christmas tradition, a book on the Christmas Truce and Historical Memory, and meticulous transcription of Elizabethan Gift Exchanges. We are also featuring an article that can be discovered through one of the E-Resources available on-site through the IHR Library Catalogue. Whilst we have limited works at the IHR specifically on the festive season, these are long-held traditions and festivals that will be featured in many works in our collection even if not the explicit focus of the text.
The Hooden Horse : an East Kent Christmas custom
Percy Maylam’s 1909 book on this peculiar local Christmas Eve tradition is seen as the authoritative work the subject. Maylam was a solicitor and local Kent historian who gave enormous insight into this tradition. The Hooden Horse is a tradition that has undergone decline and revival many times throughout its life, both pre and post the initial publication of this book. This work would be of interest to historians who are keen to understand English folk traditions. The Hooden Horse, whilst a tradition specific to Kent, has similar equivalents found all over rural England. However, it also provides insight into the lives and priorities of the rural Kent residents who feature so prominently in this book. Many of those keeping the tradition of the Hooden Horse alive in the nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century were working class and rural, and this book highlights their connection to place and their own traditions. A charming feature is the numerous pictures of Hooden Horses from across the county.
BC.6715/May – IHR Floor 1 Wohl
The Christmas truce : myth, memory, and the First World War
In this book, Terri Blom Crocker takes a critical look at the so-called ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914, revealing that the truth may be less festive than popular memory suggests. Rather than retelling a sentimental tale, she traces how the truce unfolded unevenly along the Western Front and examines why it became such a powerful symbol. Yet her research does unveil multiple instances where fighting was halted and festivities prevailed, as recorded in letters, diaries, and military reports. In some places, carols were sung and trenches were lit, with men from both sides “enjoying the Christmas lights and the quiet countryside”. In other places, football matches were played between the two sides (although not nearly as many as is commonly believed). Crocker unpacks how the truce has been remembered and how the romanticisation of the Christmas truce has shaped public understanding and memory of the First World War.
The Elizabethan new year’s gift exchanges, 1559-1603
The exchange of gifts around the New Year was a long-held tradition even before the Elizabethan period. They were part of a complex social structure and were to signal loyalty and fealty between those in the court. Jane Lawson’s transcription (and one reconstruction) of 25 New Year’s Gift Exchanges in the Elizabethan Court provides an illuminating insight into material culture in late Tudor England by documenting what was gifted to and by the Queen. The transcription is done in such a meticulous way with an ordering system that allows for use of the appendices and glossary at the back of the book. Some choice highlights of exchanged gifts include “By Mr Ewarde Heingwaye Appotticary One pott of Peaches preserved and a Box of Lozenges and manus Christe” and “By the Lady Cheeke a hawthorne flower of golde garnished with two smale Rubyes oone smale Emeraude/six smale Diamondes and five smale pearles”.
The Modern Child’s Christmas, Western Gazette (Yeovil, England)
For most members of the IHR access to e-resources is available on-site only, but there is still a wealth of insight and information to be accessed online. One of the most popular resources available through the IHR is the British Library Newspapers database. The article The Modern Child’s Christmas from the Western Gazette in Yeovil is available through this resource. Written by an author only identified as “an aunt” it laments the ungrateful and “LESS EASILY SATISFIED” nature of the modern (1927) child who needs wind-up toys and for whom a penny does not get many sweets – although it ends by professing the longevity of children’s taste for festive food. A fascinating insight into the constant but also changing nature of childhood, and adults’ attitudes towards it, it also makes for an amusing read and is just one example of the many stories from the past waiting to be discovered online.
Online Resource – British Library Newspapers (onsite access only)
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