The Ghosts of Christmas Past

In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” we are introduced to the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future and while we may entertain the ghost of Christmas future, we dwell primarily on the present. Here are a few tidbits, however, from the ghosts of past Christmases in the lives of luminaries who have gone before or may still be with us:

Russia, 1866
Christmas day at the country estate of Count Leo Tolstoy deep in the fir forests at Yasnaya Polyana was cold, crisp, and blanketed in snow. In the country mansion, a huge floor-to-ceiling Christmas tree, brightly decorated, provoked ooh’s and ah’s from the children of the estate workers who were always invited to Christmas dinner. They were each given a wooden toy and a piece of pudding gaily wrapped, and Count Tolstoy’s own small children joined the din. On this particular Christmas, Tolstoy’s young son, Ivan, was given a china mug, which he just loved. He spent all evening showing it to whomever would listen to him as he ran through the vast house. Alas, he tripped and fell and broke his precious gift. He went to bed that night having had an early education in life’s disappointments!

Austria, 1888
This Christmas morning dawned bright and cold in the City of Vienna, Austria, where the Empress Elizabeth woke to one of the last happy Christmases she would experience. Known in her girlhood as the tomboy Princess Sisi, Elizabeth was bright, eccentric, and the leading beauty of her day. A family get-together for gift exchanging was the highlight of her day where, surrounded by the Emperor Franz Joseph, the Crown prince Rudolph and her six-year-old granddaughter, also named Elizabeth, the Empress revelled in a rare opportunity at family life, delighting her granddaughter with an exquisite miniature set of white wicker furniture for her dollhouse. A happy Christmas moved into a New Year filled with heartache and tragedy with the death of Crown Prince Rudolph in January, and portents of evil to come with the birth of Adolph Hitler in April of 1889.

Canada, 1919
Canada’s own darling author, Lucy Maude Montgomery, awoke to a sad and dreary day, nostalgic for days gone by and still raw from the recent death of her dear cousin and “kindred spirit,” Frede. She proceeded to make breakfast while her young sons exulted in their gifts under the tree. She was to spend the day harnessed to the kitchen with a smoking stove and an oven that would not get hot. It was 2 pm before Christmas dinner was served and 4 pm before she got all the dishes done. By day’s end, she had a wracking headache, took two aspirin, and went off to bed!

France, 1922
European socialite, Princess Liane de Pougy, author of “The Blue Diaries,” recorded in her diary her utter triumph of a Christmas meal, which she cooked herself, as her maid was given the day off. She prepared French truffles in a casserole dish with slices of ham, fillet of beef, and rashers of bacon, which simmered slowly on the stove all day in vegetable stock and white wine. The smell was heady, exotic, and warm, and her dish a “triumph of gluttony” as she called it. Rich and inviting, the exquisite taste produced profuse “thank you’s” from her guests about which she remarked to her diary, “There’s nothing more sincere than the gratitude of a satisfied palate.”

England, 1995
Christmas morning of this year found Brian Eno, rocker of Roxy Music, opening presents with his wife and two daughters. He spent two hours putting together a Barbie horse and carriage toy only to discover that batteries weren’t included. Annoyed, and no doubt tired, he would write in his diary later that day, “I imagine all over the Western Hemisphere, disgruntled, unshaven fathers are doing the same thing...,” which is putting toys together for over-excited children.

– And how will your Christmas day be?