Christmas at Lanyon Homestead. Photo: James Coleman.
Chances are, you’re unboxing the Christmas tree right about now (unless you’re a fancy pants with a real tree) and then spending hours making sure one corner isn’t overloaded with baubles.
But for settlers in the ACT region in the 1860s, the Christmas tree was a brand-new trend.
“The Christmas tree would have been a very new thing in the Victorian period,” ACT Historic Places director Dr Anna Wong says.
“Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was from Germany, where the Christmas tree tradition originated. That was probably around the time this tradition started to filter through to the colonies as well.”
The Christmas tree was a new trend when the Cunninghams lived at Lanyon Homestead in the 1860s. Photo: James Coleman.
Dr Wong isn’t sure whether the Cunningham family – the builders of Lanyon Homestead – erected a tree in the late 19th century, but it’s a fair guess.
“We do have depictions of how Victorian-era Australians celebrated Christmas, and Christmas trees did start to feature, alongside homemade decorations made of dried fruit and nuts,” she says.
Lanyon Homestead is one of three of the ACT’s heritage-listed homes getting into the festive spirit this year.
Alongside Calthorpes House in Red Hill and Mugga-Mugga Cottage in Symonston, each has been styled with original decorations, recipes, table settings and family memorabilia, giving visitors a rare glimpse into how Canberrans marked the season across Victorian, interwar, and rural working-class life.
“It’s a project we look forward to every year, but this time we wanted to make a real special occasion of it,” Dr Wong says.
“We’re inviting visitors to enjoy themed Christmas tours for free as our Christmas present to Canberra. It’s also a great opportunity to research how families in the past celebrated the season.”
At Lanyon, visitors step into an 1800s Australian Victorian Christmas.
“Lanyon is set up to reflect what a country Victorian family Christmas would have been like, and it was quite a formal affair,” Dr Wong explains.
The dining room is staged for a warm Christmas lunch: roast meats, jelly and fruit, plum pudding, and rich Christmas cakes drawn from early Australian cookbooks. Handmade bonbons and pinecones from the garden complete the table.
“Handmade was very popular because Queanbeyan was the nearest store,” Dr Wong says.
“Other things were imported from Sydney. A big link was Duntroon, owned by the Campbell family, because Robert Campbell ran the Campbell Wharf in Sydney. Goods like furniture, dried fruits, jams, sugar and spices came through that trade, a lot from Southeast Asia and India.”
A 1910 family photograph shows what happened after lunch: relatives and domestic servants, dressed in their best, enjoying tea and cake on the verandah – “looking a little bit bloated, a little bit sleepy,” Dr Wong laughs.
It’s hard to smile when a photo took as long as it did to take back then. Photo: James Coleman.
But Christmas Day also had its more relaxed moments.
“There are photographs of children splashing around in the river. And one of the Cunninghams was an excellent pianist – they had great parties, opening the French doors and having dances on the veranda in the evenings.”
A few decades later, Christmas at Calthorpes House in Red Hill didn’t look that different.
A highlight is the original tree, once decorated by Dawn Calthorpe – now Dawn Waterhouse – whose birthday falls on 15 December.
“She’s turning 102 this year, and as a birthday present, she set up the Christmas tree and decorated it with her old handmade decorations,” Dr Wong says.
Velvet figurines, glass baubles, candles, and tiny bonbons still kept by the family decorate the tree. The dining table is set for roast goose and Christmas pudding, with “seasonal music” completing the scene.
Mugga-Mugga Cottage offers a glimpse into how a less wealthy family marked the season.
“The Curley family lived off the land – starting as domestic servants for the Campbells – and then moved into the cottage after Federation,” Dr Wong explains.
Yet it seems they still splurged on ingredients for Christmas cake, with an old receipt from the Hayes and Russell general store in Queanbeyan listing more than 3 lbs worth of sultanas, currants, almonds, raisins and figs.
“At Mugga-Mugga, we’re lucky to have some of the original recipes the family used,” Dr Wong says.
The recipe Mugga-Mugga Cottage’s Curley family would have used for their Christmas cake. Photo: James Coleman.
For Dr Wong and her fellow curators, this is one of the best times of the year.
“We love making the Christmas cakes from our historical recipe collection … And looking at the decorations, there’s a lot of creativity we can follow from the past.”
Visit ACT Historic Places for more information on the Christmas Tours. Entry is free, but bookings are essential.
