Two Forgotten Traditions of Christmas Day in Leicester

[kushiro]

Football and food - an unbeatable combination at any time of year. And they are the themes of this look back at two forgotten traditions of Christmas Day in Leicester.

 

Let's start with the nosh.

 

@Union FS are doing sterling work with their campaign for the homeless, and that's part of a long history of thinking of those less fortunate than ourselves at Christmas. Between 1885 and 1914, a 'Robin Breakfast' was held every Christmas morning, organized by the Ragged School Mission. Around 400 of the poorest children in the borough were given an early morning feast at the school's HQ in Bedford Street. They could eat as much as they liked, and 'were enabled to experience for once the pleasant sensation of satiety'. 

 

When the Great War broke out, it signaled the end of the tradition. And you'll notice that those years  - 1885 to 1914 - correspond almost exactly with the lifespan of Leicester Fosse FC.

 

I like to imagine that, when the feast was over, some of those children took themselves across town to enjoy the other great Christmas Day tradition of the era. 

 

If you ask most people to name the great sporting tradition of a Leicester Christmas, they'll point to the Tigers v Barbarians match at Welford Road. But that only started in 1909. There was already a well-established Christmas routine for sports fans - involving the round ball game. 

 

Leicester Fosse entered the Football League in 1894, and a year later, Loughborough joined them.  When the League drew up the annual fixture list, clubs were allowed to make special requests, and we asked for the home game against The Luffs to be staged on December 25th.

 

So it was that on Christmas Day 1896,  we staged a yuletide League fixture for the first time. We beat our local rivals 4--2 in front of a big holiday crowd, and the club decided that Festive Football at Filbert Street was not just a wonderful piece of alliteration, but an altogether splendid idea that should be repeated the following season. And so we made the same request to the Football League in 1897. 

 

The Luffs had no more luck on their second Christmas visit - we scored four again, this time without reply.

 

The following year, Christmas Day fell on a Sunday, and so the next occasion was 1899, when the score was even more emphatic - Leicester Fosse 5 Loughborough 0.

 

Sadly, that was the last ever  'Leicestershire derby' in the Football League. The Luffs dropped out at the end of the season, never to return. But those Christmas Day fixtures had been such a success that the club put in a new request. It doesn't matter who our opponents are, we said, just give us a home game on Christmas Day.

 

And so it was that throughout the Edwardian era, the tradition was established. In Leicester, Christmas Day was Football Day. Loughborough weren't there to be bossed around anymore, but it didn't matter who we played, we usually put in a sparkling performance.

 

Look at this amazing run of results. These are all the Christmas Day games played by the club in that era:

 

 

 All those games were Division Two fixtures, apart from the Arsenal game, which came in Fosse's only top flight campaign.

 

Surely there would have been a few among the 400 or so children at the Robin Breakfast who got in to see some of those games, even if they had to squeeze under the fence or be carried over a turnstile.

 

It was in the same year as the last game on that list - 1909 - that the Tigers v Barbarians fixture began. It was almost as if the rugby club could see the success of the traditional Filbert Street game, and wanted a piece of the action for themselves (though typically, the Barbarians fixture was staged a day or two after Christmas). 

 

In the run up to the Great War, we actually lost a couple of those Christmas Day fixtures, and when we resumed after the war as 'Leicester City', we no longer put in the traditional request.

 

After that we played many more games on Christmas Day, but if they were at Filbert Street it was simply by chance. One of those, a game that took place exactly 100 years ago today, was the most extraordinary Christmas Day fixture we were ever involved in. You can read all about that over on the 'Second Greatest Season Ever ' thread.

 

Robin Breakfasts and Festive Filbert Street fixtures have long since disappeared. And it would be good to see another 'tradition' consigned to history tomorrow. I'm all for winding up the opposition - but there are much better ways to do it than that bleeding 'feed the scousers' chant.

 

Merry Christmas all. 

Edited 25 December 2024 by kushiro

[kushiro]

You may be wondering why those Christmas feasts for poor children were called 'Robin breakfasts'.

 

It's not easy to find a definitive answer, but it seems that the 'robins' were the poor children themselves. At the time, it was apparently quite common to find a poor starving robin lying in the winter snow, and from that came the name of this movement, which seems to have been started by Rev Charles Bullock in London around 1877 (first as 'Robin dinners') and then spread to many other areas. 

[davieG]

31 minutes ago, kushiro said:

You may be wondering why those Christmas feasts for poor children were called 'Robin breakfasts'.

 

It's not easy to find a definitive answer, but it seems that the 'robins' were the poor children themselves. At the time, it was apparently quite common to find a poor starving robin lying in the winter snow, and from that came the name of this movement, which seems to have been started by Rev Charles Bullock in London around 1877 (first as 'Robin dinners') and then spread to many other areas. 

I thought it was going to be robbing the rich to feed the poor.

[kushiro]

7 minutes ago, davieG said:

I thought it was going to be robbing the rich to feed the poor.

I did wonder if there was a Robin Hood connection.

[kushiro]

The last Christmas Day game at Filbert Street was a 4-1 win v Rotherham in 1953. Jon Holmes mentioned it on his podcast this week as one of his very earliest memories.

 

Football Ruined My Life - Jon Holmes, Patrick Barclay, Colin Shindler, Paul Kobrak | ポッドキャストランキング

[Trav Le Bleu]

The sporting occasion I miss at this time of year is the Tigers v Barbarians.

 

Every year the .world's best players turning up to play in an invitation match and there was always some great rugby played.

 

You wouldn't get anything like that in any sport nowadays and I think it's a crying shame.

[kushiro]

On 26/12/2024 at 09:26, Trav Le Bleu said:

The sporting occasion I miss at this time of year is the Tigers v Barbarians.

 

Every year the .world's best players turning up to play in an invitation match and there was always some great rugby played.

 

You wouldn't get anything like that in any sport nowadays and I think it's a crying shame.

 

Yeah - I kind of wish I'd gone along to one of those games when I had the chance (but I've only ever been to about two Tigers games in my whole life).

 

By the way, I should correct something. I said that when the Tigers v Barbarians game was first played in 1909 it was 'almost as if they saw the success of Leicester Fosse's traditional Christmas Day fixture and wanted a piece of the action'. But that's misleading. It seems the Barbarians were first invited because Tigers' previous regular festive visitors, Fettes Lorettanias, could no longer send a team.  

 

Who on earth are they, I wondered. Well, Fettes and Loretto were (and still are) private schools in and around Edingburgh, and this was a combined team of their old boys. Apparently in the late 19th century they were a very popular touring side, thanks to the effors of one Andew Ramsey Don Wauchope. 

 

And here's a nice piece written around that time (from the Mercury in 1906):

 

 

 

[los dedos]

On 26/12/2024 at 00:26, Trav Le Bleu said:

The sporting occasion I miss at this time of year is the Tigers v Barbarians.

 

Every year the .world's best players turning up to play in an invitation match and there was always some great rugby played.

 

You wouldn't get anything like that in any sport nowadays and I think it's a crying shame.

When my Grandad passed away in 89 me and my friend had his tickets  to the Tigers v Barbarians game . 

The thing that sticks in my mind the most was the drunken chap staggering on the pitch at half time clutching a bottle of Whisky. 

He then stumbled to the Rugby Posts and managed to climb up half  way. The crowd cheered while stewards waited patiently for him to get down

When he finally did they escorted him back to the stands and let me carry on watching. 

Imagine trying that down Filbert Street 🤣