A very warm welcome was extended to Dr Todd Gray  who was welcomed by members of Exmouth District u3a for the u3a’s monthly meeting.

The monthly meeting took place at Exmouth Pavilion on December 8. In his presentation ‘Christmas in Devon’ Todd’s passion and enthusiasm for researching Devon’s history shone through.

By the end of Todd’s 'eloquent, fascinating and very well researched presentation' the group were all better informed and entertained by the changing Christmas traditions in Devon.

Todd is always conscientious in his approach when researching topics and this was clearly shown as he shared with us the original documents he had uncovered.

Todd showed us photographic evidence for ‘Stir up Sunday’ in the 1940s when the ingredients for a Christmas pudding were well and truly stirred. Todd then took us back to the 1600s to Devonian accounts of Christmas food when it was evident that some of the wealthy families were gathering food together for what might have been a seventeenth century ‘Stir up Sunday’ with lists of prunes, dates, figs and a variety of spices all six weeks before Christmas Day.

During the Cromwellian period a visitor to Devon noted that the only part of England celebrating a traditional Christmas was on Devon farms. An enormous amount of food was recorded in West Devon for a Christmas feast, with whole cows, whole sides of venison, mutton, lamb, partridges, numerous chickens, 800 oysters, claret, wine and much more. All quite staggering at a time when celebrating Christmas was frowned upon and indeed all festival days, including Christmas, were not to be celebrated but spent in respectful contemplation.

Bringing us right up to date Todd wondered whether we were seeing the beginning of the end of sending Christmas cards, especially with a second class stamp costing 68p and a first class stamp 95p. Having been told about many different Christmas traditions celebrated across Devon we were all sure that Todd would continue to note changes in traditions. Definetely ‘living’ history.

For more information about these events and other u3a activities please contact Christine Chittock, chairperson@emouthu3a.org.uk