Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day! Your local archive may not be the first place to come to mind when thinking of Christmas. But here to reveal otherwise and tell us about some of their festive material is Dunkfeld Community Archive. This article explores the meaning of Christmas for the Dunkfeld and Birnam communities and takes a look at how it has been celebrated historically and in the present.

Santa Day

Dunkeld and Birnam have a rich history for a small area. There is a wealth of information across a variety of subjects.  The focus for now is seasonal in nature: Christmas.  We asked our volunteer Kate to have a look through our collection and see what festive highlights she could find!

Many places have their own traditions when it comes to Christmas: Dunkeld and Birnam have Santa Day! Starting in 1989 the local residents organised an annual event in which Santa Claus comes to visit the area. There are many stalls and lots of activities.  Dunkeld Community Archive holds an excellent photograph from the first Santa Day showing Santa in Dunkeld’s cross complete with reindeer and sleigh.  An article from the Perthshire Advertiser at the time included information about the event held on the 12^th of December 1989.  

Two specially imported reindeer will pull Santa Claus complete with a wheeled sleigh through Dunkeld and Birnam on Saturday guaranteed to create a fine festive feeling. The animals, from a reindeer farm in Aviemore, will be under the control of experienced handlers. …The idea has sprung from the Dunkeld and Birnam Tourist Association… to attract winter shoppers to help give the local business community a boost.

                                                                      Perthshire Advertiser 12/12/1989

Festive cards

Following on with some more widespread traditions our Archive has a large selection of Christmas cards from a variety of eras. The popularity of Christmas cards came about in the Victorian era (as did many other now iconic Christmas traditions).  This card was sold by the Society of Friends of Dunkeld Cathedral and features an image created by one of the pupils of the Royal School of Dunkeld using a pinhole camera made from a biscuit tin! The image shows Dunkeld Cathedral and its grounds.

An older example of a local festive card comes from 1879, it features an image of a painting of the Bridge at the Hermitage near Dunkeld. It was produced by Ormiston and Glass of Edinburgh.  This however is not actually a Christmas card but is instead a card for the New Year! The reverse has a poem and has been dated by either the recipient or sender of the card. In this pre-telephone era, postal services were the leading way of communicating long distances. Cards and letters were a major part of socialising at the time, now-a-days we only send Christmas cards, not a separate New Years card!  This poem is credited as “old song” but it is in fact the middle verse of Scotland Yet by Henry Scott Riddell (1798-1870).

Christmas carols

Some local businesses have created Christmas related items over the years, Sim’s Garage in Birnam were founded in 1899 and played an important role in the local area for many years. One unusual item we own that relates to this garage is a book of Christmas carols with Esso branding promoting Sim’s garage in Birnam. These booklets were created by Esso and were personalised for individual garages. This was a great piece of festive advertising as it both promoted the garage and gave the locals a handy little book of carols and sheet music, what a lovely idea! This item is undated but these booklets were popular from the 1950s to around 1960.

Regimental related artefacts

Outside of the very local festive items, we have some regimental related artefacts. One for a local man George Robertson, who served in the military, kept a hold of his 1914 Princess Mary Christmas tin. This year marks 110 years since the outbreak of the first world war. The tin contained a pipe, a tinder lighter, one ounce (28g) of tobacco, and 20 cigarettes in a distinctive yellow monogrammed wrapper, while non-smokers were given a bullet pencil, paper, a khaki writing case, and a packet of acid drops (sour lemon sweets).

Another branch of our collection focuses on the Scottish Horse regiment. We have a Christmas card from the World War Two era sent by one of the troops. The card has been mass produced and includes images of the regiment in various activities.

There are even more gems within our collection across a variety of subjects. We hope that you enjoyed learning about a small selection of our objects and items and that you have a lovely festive season!

Article by Kate, volunteer at Dunkfeld Community Archive.

Edited by Jake Doyle, Blog Coordinator.

Further information

For further information, please visit Dunkfeld Community Archive and Chapter House Museum’s website: https://www.historicdunkeld.org.uk/

Also see their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Chapter-House-Museum-Dunkeld-Community-Archive-100063574872444/

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