how we celebrated back in the day
Following a string of particularly gloomy Christmas leaders, the Moreton Bay Courier was pleased to report a small outbreak of charity in 1860:
CHRISTMAS DAY. – Tuesday and yesterday were generally observed as holidays, the town having quite a deserted appearance on the first mentioned day. Picnics and equestrian excursions were extensively indulged in, and business operations of all kinds were quite suspended. In the midst of the general festivity, it is gratifying to know that the inmates of the gaol were not uncared for. Bishop Tufnell kindly supplied the whole materials for making a sufficiency of plum pudding for the whole of the prisoners, and our worthy townsman, Alderman Edmondstone – although neither contractor nor sub-contractor to the establishment – presented them with a quarter of excellent beef. Such seasonable benevolence as this, coming from quarters whence it might be least expected, is especially gratifying, since its aim was to afford comfort to those who are not often thought of when festivity is making households glad with merriment.
Our Christmas Photo
Nothing says Christmas in Australia like a family gathered for a photo by the beach. This is the Perry family’s Stradbroke Island Christmas picture for 1885. The glum faces and the presence of firearms appear to bode ill, but the Perrys made it off the island alive to show everyone in town what a terrific Bush Christmas they’d had.
Perhaps they’d envisioned something like this:
Well, Pater looks a bit sweaty, but otherwise it’s a charming scene.
At least the Perry menfolk look a little more comfortable in the Gents’ Tent at Stradbroke Island – there is evidence of boating, shooting and a campfire. The Ladies, I’m sure, were at a rather more comfortable and secluded camp some distance away.
Have yourselves an orderly little Christmas
In 1865, the Toowoomba Chronicle had a reason to give thanks:
It will be seen from our Police report that the people of Toowoomba have kept their Christmas in a most orderly manner.
Come and see our festive display!
The proprietors of the Waverley Hotel obligingly arranged a bit of festive decoration in the way of small pine trees for their establishment and posed for a photograph taken from a great distance (to show off the whole building).
As far as I can tell, they don’t look actively unhappy….
Were Ipswich folk too refined and clever?
In Ipswich, the Queensland Times was worried that Ipswich folk were becoming too dourly materialistic.
We have the Christmas pudding yet,
Where is the Christmas carol gone?
And the quaint Christmas greetings with which people in old times used to distinguish this joyous season? Is it that we are becoming too refined and clever for such simple habits, or is it that we are too grovelling and hard-hearted, and don’t believe in our religion except at church? A little of both perhaps, however, that any homily of ours will avail to put an end to what we cannot help regarding as a most reprehensible indifference, and therefore change the subject.
Now, this is a postcard you’d send to your rellies..
Nothing says Merry Christmas quite like a distant photograph of tents, wagons and horses, with a whacking great rope in the foreground.
The Courier continues its campaign to spread good cheer
In 1865:
The dawn of another Christmas Day has illumined the world, and those who have been permitted to see another anniversary of this joyous day should look back upon and review the past, and meditate upon the question whether they have done all in their power to improve the opportunities they may have possessed of effecting good.
In 1870:
Never in our time have we approached the happy festival of Christmas with greater misgiving than we do today.
Things weren’t pretty in Gayndah either:
Our Christmas races and sports lack the spirit of days gone by. Everything and everybody are very dull. Gayndah, December 20, 1868.
But nothing compared to the unbridled joy of a Rockhampton Christmas:
CHRISTMAS. – What a dull Christmas! Never saw the town so slow! Nobody from the Country! Everybody and everything as plodding and as unlike holiday making as possible!
A Bush Christmas – sort of
The Sydney Bulletin chose to illustrate the 1882 festive season with this evocative moment – a chap in agony from a spear wound, and his mate looking for someone to shoot.
Oh, I give up! Have a good holiday season. Try not to party like it’s 1865. That would be too depressing.
- Northern Argus (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1865 – 1874), Saturday 24 December 1870 – Page 2
- The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld.: 1858 – 1880), Saturday 24 December 1870 – Page 3
- Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld.: 1860 – 1947), Thursday 24 December 1868 – Page 2
- The Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), Monday 25 December 1865 – Page 2
- Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld.: 1861 – 1908), Tuesday 26 December 1865 – Page 3
- The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld.: 1858 – 1880), Thursday 28 December 1865.
- The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld.: 1858 – 1880), Thursday 28 December 1865. The Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld.: 1846 – 1861), Thursday 27 December 1860 – Page 2
Photographs and illustrations from the collections of the Queensland State Library and the National Library of Australia.
Moreton Bay and More 