It seems that many of our Christmas traditions are not that ancient being popularised during Victorian times to the 1930s by people as diverse as Prince Albert and Coca-Cola!! Chris Jefferies Cheltenham Glos -----Original Message----- From: bristol_and_somerset-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:bristol_and_somerset-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Joni Saunders Sent: 15 December 2010 13:54 To: bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com Subject: [B&S] Christmas tradition Every year at this time I can't help but wonder how my ancestors in England celebrated Christmas and what traditions would have been handed down to me if they had not immigrated once to Canada and again to the US. My father married my sicilian mother and we always celebrated Christmas with mother's family, Daddy's was far away and he wasn't all that religious,  so I did not learn too much about how things were done by his ancestors or if anything was passed down in his family. So most every year I try to post a thread asking about family tradidtion, I do feel it is also part of our genealogy. My father's g-grandmother family came from the Shepton Mallet and Gurney Slade areas of Somerset. What foods did they eat, what did they do in their churches, did Father Christmas come to visit, do they do the nativity scenes, do they go caroling?  Did they take care of their poor, were they poor themselves, so many questions... Since my ancestors did not pass on traditions to me, maybe I can borrow some from your ancestors... Jo SaundersJS http://joni.tribalpages.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message