When celebrating Christmas in Glasgow was a dangerous affair

In 1583, the kirk at the Cathedral ordered the execution of anyone daring to enjoy Yule festivities, and elsewhere in Scotland, even singing a carol was considered a serious crime.

Christmas was celebrated each year across Catholic Europe as a religious feast day, but in 1560, the Scottish Reformation - when Scotland split from the Catholic Church and became Presbyterian – led to changes including many religious practices.  Any activity which was seen as extravagant, or celebrating superstitious ideas, was heavily discouraged - including the celebration of Christmas.

Punishments for celebrating Yule were harsh, and Christmas was not recognised as a public holiday in Scotland until 1958.

Until then, Christmas was just another working day for many Scots – the traditional Scottish public holiday was New Year’s Day. (My own father always refused to work on Christmas Day.) Only a few adults exchanged presents, but traditionally, children would receive small treats or gifts.

The wonderful diaries of Thomas Cairns Livingstone, dating from 1913 to 1933, are well-known in Glasgow.

The shipping clerk, who lived in Govanhill, published annotated extracts as the well-loved books Tommy’s War and Tommy’s Peace.  The diary extract for Christmas Day in 1914 talks about the cards he and his wife Agnes had received, the small  teddy his son Tommy had been gifted by his uncle John, and the “wee card like a horse”  he had been sent from Jenny Horsburgh.

Although observance of Christmas was less widespread in Scotland than in England, there was clearly a market for Christmas presents.

Copeland & Lye opened its first store in Argyle Street in 1873, and it moved to Caledonian House, a large Italianate building on Sauchiehall Street in 1878.

Copland & Lye (Image: Picture courtesy of Glasgow City Archives)

Its highly decorated Christmas catalogues were sought-after – in 1904, Santa Claus is pictured flying over Glasgow on the front cover and inside, it notes a special exhibition at Caledonian House, with “gifts for young and old.” The catalogue listed presents which could be supplied by mail order, for those unable to visit the shop in person.

The store’s Christmas catalogue of 1905 claimed the exhibition contained "toys from all quarters of the globe.” This was no idle boast. For almost a century Copland & Lye had a reputation for personal service, founded on a willingness to obtain articles in demand from wherever they could be sourced.

The front cover of the 1909 catalogue suggests an era of Edwardian elegance for those who shared in Glasgow's prosperity as the "Second City of the Empire."

"Furs as gifts are acceptable to ladies" was the message on one page, with fox, sable, beaver and squirrel among the species used for stoles and coats "for evening and street wear" and "for driving and motoring."

Also in Glasgow City Archives, the personal papers of the Anderson and Watkins family include designs for Christmas cards. 

The designer is unknown but one of the family was Margaret Watkins, a highly distinguished Canadian artist and photographer. 

In the 1920s she was at the height of her career, living in New York and winning prizes at international exhibitions. In 1928 she left for Glasgow to visit her mother’s four elderly sisters, and there she stayed for the rest of her life. She also travelled to Russia.

There were sadder times for Glasgow’s citizens at Christmas too. A poor relief application includes a poster of a small child, found abandoned in Govan on Christmas Day.

The poster was attached to an application in the name of the same child who sadly died in an accident in Fairfield shipyard at the young age of 21.

And on Boxing Day in 1900, Thomas Monaghan, a pauper, appeared at St Rollox Police Station, charged with causing a fracas during Christmas day dinner. 

The scene was likened to Oliver Twist asking for more in a newspaper cutting pasted into his poor law application.

In this case, there are two pages which give great family history information, detailing the circumstances of this and applications for relief.  Fairly typically the Poor Law Inspector writes critically of applicants, and in his case, Thomas is described as a ‘drunken fellow’.