Ye olde Christmas party

13/11/2008

Northumberland schoolchildren are to receive lessons in Christmas parties of old.

A special festive programme of events will see the children greeted at Belsay Hall by English Heritage's resident Regency butler and Victorian Father Christmas.

The programme, which runs throughout November and December is called The History of Christmas. Children are invited to post their favourite Christmas party memories on a tree - some of these will be selected for publication on the Belsay Hall website.

Christine Corbett, headteacher of Belsay First School, told local paper Journal Live: "Being the village school in Belsay, the children are delighted they will be visiting Belsay Hall for a very different type of history lesson. They are also looking forward to the prospect of being part of the Christmas launch and to meeting the Regency Butler, and particularly the Victorian Father Christmas.

"It will be a wonderful experience for them, as they see the festive season through the eyes of their ancestors."

Lynn Rylance, visitor operations manager at Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, spoke of the Christmas parties that would once have taken place in Belsay Hall: "Christmas is a very special time at Belsay as it was on December 25, 1817, that Belsay's ancestral family - the Middleton family - moved into the home that had taken them over a decade to build.

"Descendants from the Middleton family lived in the Hall from 1817 until the end of World War II, no doubt celebrating many happy decades of Christmas cheer."