Any people will eat, drink and try to be merry this Christmas - while still paying for all the fun they had on December 25 last year. But, according to Government figures, many of those who are overspending won't really worry too much. Bankruptcy has been made easier, deals with creditors can be struck, and many young people don't seem to care about piling ever more debts onto their credit cards.
But it was a very different story back in Victorian times. Owing cash then was an imprisonable offence, with agencies set up to make debtors' lives as miserable as possible. Bristol, like many rural areas, had the dreaded workhouse - a living hell for the poorest members of society.
A group of well-fed and well-heeled gentlemen - the Poor Law Commissioners - were instructed by the Government of the day to ensure that at Christmastide 'no pauper shall be allowed to have or use any wine, beer, or spirituous or fermented liquors, unless by the direction in writing of the medical officer'.
Nor was there any break in the monotonous food offered in return for very hard work. The main constituent of the workhouse diet was bread. At breakfast, it was supplemented by gruel or porridge - both made from water and oatmeal (or occasionally a mixture of flour and oatmeal).
Workhouse broth was usually the water used for boiling the dinner meat, with perhaps a few onions or turnips added. Tea - often without milk - was provided for the aged and infirm at breakfast, together with a small amount of butter. They didn't get too excited about supper - it was similar to breakfast. All these meals had to be eaten in complete silence.
By contrast, the parish beadle and his wife would enjoy their own dinner - usually choice cuts of beef or mutton, followed by puddings and pies and then washed down with large quantities of ale - on a separate table in full view of their hungry charges. Parish records show that the workhouses were run with military-style precision. Men, women and children were allocated basic, often unlit and unheated rooms, and were forced to undertake menial, often unnecessary, tasks.
Punishment, even for trivial offences, was harsh and meted out regularly. One young woman, records reveal, was locked up in a cellar for 24 hours on bread and water for being noisy and swearing. A lad called George Mintern was deprived of cheese for a week for fighting in school, while Mary Bartlett was sent to prison for two months for breaking a window.
The plight of the workhouse poor inspired a very well-off gentleman, Charles Dickens, to write Oliver Twist, Hard Times and A Christmas Carol. The workhouse was like a small, self- contained village. Apart from the basic rooms such as a dining hall for eating and dormitories for sleeping, they often had their own bakery, laundry, tailor's and shoemaker's, vegetable gardens, orchards and even a piggery. There were also schoolrooms, nurseries, fever-wards for the sick, a chapel and a mortuary.
Upon entering, paupers were stripped, bathed (under supervision), and issued with a workhouse uniform. Their own clothes would be washed and disinfected and then put into storage along with any other possessions. They were only returned when they left - if they ever did. The uniform for able-bodied women was generally a shapeless, waistless, blue-and- white-striped frock reaching to the ankles, with a smock over. Old women wore a bonnet or mop-cap, shawl and apron over. Men had rough cloth trousers and jacket, with collarless shirt.
Once inside, an inmate's only possessions were their uniform and their bed in the large dormitory. These were simply constructed with a wooden or iron frame, and could be as little as 2ft across. Bedding, in the 1830s and 1840s, was generally a mattress and cover filled with straw, although blankets and sheets were introduced later. Bed sharing, particularly among children, was common, although it was prohibited for adults.
After 1834, inmates were strictly segregated into seven classes: aged or infirm men; able- bodied men and youths above 13; youths and boys above seven years old and under 13; aged or infirm women; able-bodied women and girls above 16; girls above seven years old and under 16, and children under seven.
Each class had its own area of the workhouse. Husbands, wives and children were separated as soon as they entered, and could be punished if they even tried to speak to one another. From 1847, married couples over the age of 60 could request to share a bedroom. Children under seven could be placed (if the guardians thought fit) in the female wards, and, from 1842, their mothers could have access to them 'at all reasonable times'. Parents could also have an 'interview' with their children 'at some time in each day'.
It was after Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert in 1841 that things started to change for the better. The Victorians started celebrating the festive season in a big way and some of that charity and goodwill spread to the workhouses.
The Bristol workhouse, by all accounts, was not as bad as some in other big cities. Local businessmen, who felt sorry for the inmates, would provide some extra cheer for them, visiting on Boxing Day to hand out items left over from their own feasts. Records show that, on occasion during the festive season, baked veal and plum pudding were served.
The workhouse dining hall would be decorated and entertainments organised. In fact, so much strong ale and spirits were available to the inmates over Christmas that the temperance movement campaigned for a ban - something that, in 1884, actually came about.
In another workhouse, the Christmas Day dinner included a double issue of meat, large amounts of plum pudding and strong beer. 'The inmates,' reported a newspaper in 1887, 'thanks to the liberality of the guardians and the kindness of Mr and Mrs Pallin, spent a very enjoyable time on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
The pretty chapel was nicely decorated with holly and over the communion table was a cross of Christmas berries. On the walls were the words 'Emmanuel, God with us'. The inmates afterwards had cake and tea, which was much enjoyed. On Monday, the usual festivities took place. The dining hall was elaborately decorated with evergreens, mottoes, gilded stars and Prince of Wales' plumes.
'Dinner was served at 2pm and consisted of prime roast beef, potatoes, baked and boiled, and each adult had a pint of beer. One ounce of tobacco was given to each man, snuff to the old ladies, and oranges and sweets to the children. After tea, which comprised cake and bread and butter, a capital magic lantern display was given and was thoroughly enjoyed by young and old.'
