End of ‘Stir-up Sunday’ as Christmas pudding no longer important

Survey finds majority of adults who celebrate Christmas believe the dessert is not an essential part of festivities

For generations it has been seen as a national symbol of festive cheer and plenty.
But the traditional Christmas pudding appears to have fallen out of favour.
Nearly 60 per cent of adults who celebrate Christmas believe it is not an essential feature for festivities, a YouGov poll has found.
More than three-quarters (77 per cent) of the 2,140 people surveyed had not heard of Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent when people get together to prepare their pudding.
Only 4 per cent said the tradition of Stir-up Sunday was one they followed, while around three times as many (13 per cent) placed importance on the very recent tradition of placing “an elf on the shelf”.
The poll was commissioned by the Royal Mint to coincide with their move to manufacture a more environmentally friendly sixpence, which is traditionally added to the mix and cooked with the pudding.
The sixpence went out of circulation over 50 years ago, however the Royal Mint has released a limited run of 100 pieces, made from recycled silver, all of which have sold out.
The decline in support for the Christmas pudding comes despite its popularity in the kitchens of celebrities and royalty.
On Christmas Eve in 2019, the Royal family released footage of Queen Elizabeth II making the pudding with the help of her son, King Charles, grandson, Prince William and great-grandson, Prince George at Buckingham Palace.
Last week Richard E Grant said he was a devotee and claimed to eat one every month.
“I’ve got 27 in my pantry,” he said in a podcast interview with the chef Angela Hartnett and the broadcaster Nick Grimshaw.
The pudding is also a firm favourite of Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef, whose grandmother’s recipe uses Vin Santo in place of brandy and includes nuts and golden syrup.
Annie Gray, a food historian and author, explained that Stir-up Sunday began in the Victorian era as a “tongue-in-cheek play” on an Anglican Church prayer, which begins “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord…”.
She said: “The words were used as a reminder to start stirring up the plum pudding – the original Christmas dish – so it had time to mature before Christmas Day.”
“The sixpence came from another old tradition, that of hiding tokens in the 12th cake, the precursor to our modern Christmas cake, eaten on Twelfth Night.
“Although this was eventually replaced with the Christmas cake eaten today, families kept to the tradition of taking it in turns to stir the mix and make a wish. The finder of the sixpence was promised wealth, health and happiness for the coming year.”
The pudding gained popularity with the Victorians, having originated in the 14th century as medieval “figgy pudding”.
In 1850, one London newspaper declared: “There is not a man, woman or child raised above what the French would call proletaires that does not expect a taste of plum pudding of some sort or another on Christmas Day.
In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens describes the scene of Mrs Cratchit bringing the pudding onto the kitchen table with an almost religious reverence.
“Like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.”
Rebecca Morgan, the director of commemorative coin at the Royal Mint, said: “The Royal Mint is famous for its rich heritage, and we believe that tradition should never be lost – it can be reinvented.
“Our recovered silver sixpence is not only a symbol of good fortune, but also a symbol of a more modern and sustainable festive season.”
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