Deck the halls with holly
This annual exhibition at the Geffrye Museum is an elegant though salutary reminder of how commercialised modern Yuletide has become.
The museum's period room sets are dressed for Christmas according to middle-class customs from the early 17th century to the present day but things were pretty modest in olden times. In 1662, Samuel Pepys sat down in his Stuart period wood-panelled dining room to 'a mess of brave plum porridge and a roasted pullet', here rather unappetisingly rendered in rubber, and sent out for a mince pie as his wife was too ill to bake them.
Until two years before, Christmas was banned by Oliver Cromwell and it wasn't until late Victorian times that there was a flourishing of excess. A few bay leaves and rosemary or a twist of ivy was all that was needed to mark out the day through the 18th century. Yet, these tiny touches in the historic almshouse section of the museum are somehow quietly affecting.
Cross to the new wing and we're very much in the modern era. Christmas trees made an appearance in ordinary homes around the end of the 19th century and from then on it's all baubles and crackers - visually noisy and chaotic. Whatever your Christmas preferences, it's a great place to reflect before you hit Woolworths to replenish your stockpile of tinsel.
Elaine Paterson
Until Jan 2 (closed Dec 24, 25, 26 and Jan 1), Geffrye Museum, 136 Kingsland Road E2, Tue to Sat 10am to 5pm, Sun and Bank Holidays midday to 5pm, free. Tel: 020 7739 9893. www.geffrye-museum.org.uk Tube: Old Street then 243 bus/Liverpool Street then 149 or 242 bus
