Sydnie Christmas rose to fame after winning the seventeenth series of Britain’s Got Talent in 2024, captivating audiences with her powerhouse vocals and heartfelt performances.
Born in Gravesend, Kent, Sydnie trained at the D&B Academy of Performing Arts before working in musical theatre and performing on cruise ships in productions like Grease and Starlight Express. Her breakthrough came when she auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent, delivering a spine-tingling rendition of Tomorrow that earned Amanda Holden’s Golden Buzzer and propelled her to victory. Since then, she has released her debut album My Way, headlined sold-out tours, and made international appearances, proving she is far more than a reality show winner. Her journey from cruise ship stages and gym shifts to national stardom embodies resilience, authenticity, and the power of seizing a second chance.
But what was her Family’s background, where did they start and having a name like “Christmas” is there a story in there? The Time Detective investigated, and this is what I found.
Origins of the Surname “Christmas”
Christmas is a rather uncommon English Surname, mainly from the South and South East of England, and the counties around London. It is likely a name from the Middle Ages applied to someone who was born in the Christmas season, perhaps a foundling discovered on Christmas Day, or a nickname for someone who played the part of the King of Christmas in Yuletide games which were quite common at the time.
The Christmases in Hampshire
Sydnie’s Christmas Ancestors first turn up as Farmers in the village of East Worldham near Alton Hampshire in the late 1600s/early 1700s, but had probably been in the area for some time before that, but by the later 1700s Sydnie’s family had branched out into the Butcher’s trade in Alton itself.
Christmas in Alton was fully celebrated, both in the Churches and in the Streets and Markets. The Christmas family had “Subscribed” to a specific set of pews in the Church, meaning that they paid “Pew rent” to have prime seats in Church to make the most of the sermons being preached and it also made the family more socially visible to the local Gentry, although what the opinions of the gentry were to these burly Farmers and Butchers belting out hymns isn’t recorded!
At Christmas the better off of Alton funded charitable donations to the local poor via subscriptions, either in money from the Gentry, or in the form of meat and other goods by the local Butchers and Grocers etc. As shown in the clipping below from 1881 from The Hampshire Advertiser County Newspaper, the workhouses weren’t all the grim prison like institutions depicted at the time, especially those that were well run, and in more affluent country areas outside of the cities:
Christmas Fairs were held, raising money for good causes, with a set of stalls selling goods and clothes donated by the local Gentry for The Church Missionary Society raising over £42 in 1872, which is the equivalent of £5,000 in today’s money, or nearer to £30,000 when compared to an average labourer’s wages at the time.
Alton had its own Christmas Cattle Show in December, sometimes called “The Fat Stock” Show, leading up to the prize winning livestock of “fat” Cows and Sheep being sold to the local Butchers who then sold them on to the public suitably labeled with the winners’ rosettes and accolades, and of course, with prices to match!
Butchers at Christmas
As this is an story about a family called Christmas, being put out for Christmas, we shall tie their story into what their lives would have been like during Christmas time.
Christmas in Alton for the Christmas Family was a busy time; they were Butchers in the Market Town for nearly 100 years, from at least 1790 to 1879. Their shop was situated in the High Street, and they would have been known to everyone in the Town and local area.
We are lucky to have contemporary writers ranging from James Boswell through to Charles Dickens who have given us contemporary accounts of Butchers’ displays and antics to draw in customers at Christmas, and indeed the Hampshire Newspapers heavily featured descriptions of specific Butchers, including the Christmases (and their rivals the Acklands) in Alton, during this time.
What we find out is that Butchers were never backwards in coming forwards when the Christmas season was upon them, they were loud and their displays were flamboyant, competition was strong and the good cheer was flowing in the town.
“The butchers bawled their wares with uncommon spirit, as if Christmas itself were in their throats.” (Christmas 1762)
“The butchers were never so busy, nor the shambles so crowded, as on this Christmas Eve, when beef and goose were the choicest tokens of festivity.” (Christmas 1767)
“The Christmas fair at Alton was held with uncommon spirit; the butchers and poulterers cried their wares till the very air seemed fat with beef and turkey.” (Christmas 1818)
“The butchers, with their stalls dressed in holly, cried ‘Prime beef for Christmas!’ till the very echoes seemed to grow fat!” (Christmas 1821).
“Christmas in Alton was kept with due festivity. The market was crowded, and the butchers’ bills, though heavy, were borne with good humour, for roast beef and plum pudding were the tokens of plenty.” (Christmas 1832).
“The poulterers’ shops were still half open, and the fruiterers were radiant in their glory. There were great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen … and turkeys, which were gobbling round, ready dressed, in their shops.” (Christmas 1843)
“The town of Alton was alive with Christmas cheer; the butchers, poulterers, and bakers made a brave show in the market, and the poor were not forgotten, for many joints of beef were distributed by subscription.” (Christmas 1847)
The Butcher’s Bill
The reckoning for customers with accounts was also a common theme at the time, so the reaction to bills and over indulgence hasn’t changed much in the last 200 years!
“The butcher’s bill at Christmas is the true reckoner of English hospitality, and many a poor clerk trembles at its arrival.” (Christmas 1815)
“The butcher’s bill, like a spectre, comes stalking in January, to remind us of the roast beef and turkey that seemed so innocent at the time.” (Christmas 1853)
The Christmas Family Butchers in Alton at Christmas
In the 1870s the local Hampshire newspapers remarked on the butchers of Alton at Christmas, and made a point of remarking on the difference between William Christmas’ offerings and some of the other butchers who were displaying “Prize Winning” animals, but with an interesting twist:
“Mr W. Christmas had also a very good show, which although not being prize meat is preferred by many as not having that superabundance of fat often seen in show meat.” (Christmas 1872)
The implication being that canny households realised that having a “Prize” sticker on a joint of beef guaranteed a much higher prize for more fat and less meat. The Christmases obviously knew their customers well and catered for them cannily, leaving the dearer fattier cuts of meat to the gentry who were more concerned with display and show than taste! This probably tells us quite a bit about who the Christmases customers actually were.
“Mr W. Christmas showed a prime shorthorn steer and two heifers, fatted by Mr. E. Knight, a fine Scotch ox, purchased of Mr. D. McIntyre, a choice Devon heifer, and a lamb, purchased of Captain Chawner. Mr. Christmas had also a fine show of turkeys, geese, ducks, and chickens.” (Christmas 1876).
“Christmas Cheer! Mr W. Christmas, High Street, exhibits an admirable show of prime well fed oxen fatted by J. Messenger, Esq., of Bonhams; also the most choice Down mutton and veal. We also notice that Mr. Christmas, as usual, has a choice selection of turkeys, geese, and poultry.” (Christmas 1879) (Interestingly the Messenger family Christmas family were related by marriage).
To have served the Town for nearly 100 years as Butchers must have made the Christmas Family an institution in Alton, familiar to all walking the high street from their farms on Christmas Eve, the well fed beefy Butchers in the Family bawling out their wares to rally the housewives, maid servants, and tradesmen into their shop rather than their rivals like the Acklands (below an artistic rendering of Ackland’s Butchers at the top of Alton High Street in the 1860s).
The whole family were involved in the business one way or another, with the Christmas Family Butcher Boys, faces ruddy from dashing off with deliveries of paper wrapped string tied parcels of meat, their hair slicked back and shiny from the suet their hands were often coated in, with a Turkey for one customer, a leg of beef for the more traditionally inclined, and joints and birds given over by subscription from the gentry to help feed the poor of the Borough during the Christmas period.
At the time beefy Butcher Boys, usually accompanied on their rounds by an equally beefy bull terrier, had a reputation for getting into trouble of one sort or another, but at Christmas they were uncommonly civil, with one eye on the proximity of Boxing Day when they could expect a silver coin for their trouble if they went out of their way to keep their customers happy.
The Christmases would have been part of the backbone of the community for centuries in Hampshire and formed part of the general atmosphere and good cheer at Christmas in the Hampshire Market Town of Alton!
Jane Austen and the Christmas Family?
Intriguingly Jane Austen was recorded to have had close ties to Alton whilst she was living up the road in Chawton between 1809 and 1817. She was known to have gone shopping in Alton, and her family would have needed to buy their meat in Alton as there was no Butcher in Chawton. She also boarded the stage coach for London at The Swan Inn in Alton which was along the high Street from the Christmases Butcher’s shop. She also visited acquaintances there as well as Church related events. It therefore seems likely that Jane would have, at the very least, have been acquainted with the Christmases either through shopping there, or by seeing them at Church functions. And it is not beyond the realms of possibility that she may have been encouraged into their Butcher’s shop one Christmas as they bawled out their wares in the High Street!
Travelling Through Time to Trace Your Ancestors 