IN 2024, the Christmas period is marked by eating and drinking for those who can afford it and a lot of hard work by those who need to earn money for even the most modest celebration.

Looking back 175 years to 1849, when market capitalism was still a relatively new system, we find much the same pattern.

Until the 1871 Bank Holidays Act, there was no official time off at Christmas, hence Scrooge reluctantly allowing his clerk the day off on December 25 in Dickens’s Christmas Carol.

Dickens’ book, published in 1843, successfully invented the modern Christmas, the tree and cards following on.

Marx and Engels certainly marked the occasion from the 1850s on. There is an 1867 recipe for Jenny Marx’s Christmas pudding — then known as a plum pudding — and Engels, as a Manchester businessman, celebrated with dinners and drinking as well as a Boxing Day hunt. He also made sure, however, that the Marx family did not go without, despatching them seasonal gifts of wine and champagne.

London, in particular, saw an influx of people looking for work around Christmas. As the socialist historian Raphael Samuel noted in his essay on seasonal labour, Comers and Goers, there was plenty available. Work was to be had delivering mail, coping with demand for flowers and fruit at Covent Garden, at railway stations and docks.

The Christmas panto shows had a requirement for a large number of extras, and then there was work in advertising all the Christmas attractions and goods, distributing leaflets or placarding.

The end of the year also saw radical political meetings and celebrations, and some of these were covered in the weekly Chartist paper, the Northern Star.

One report was of a Chartist Democratic Festival held at the Royal Oak Inn, Carlisle, on Christmas Day 1849. The walls of the room were adorned with evergreens, flags and portraits of Chartist leaders Feargus O’Connor and Ernest Jones and “noble patriots” Robert Emmett and Lajos Kossuth.

Dinner was served at 4pm, and the report notes that once this was finished, tables were removed, and more space allowed female Chartists to join in. The distinction by gender was perhaps unusual.

The proceedings got underway with the chairman proposing the first toast to “the people — the legitimate source of all wealth.” The next toast was to “success to the institutions for the diffusion of knowledge among the working classes.”

On its front page, the Northern Star reported a Fraternal Festival organised by the Fraternal Democrats on December 31 1849, at the John St Literary Institute, which was situated off Tottenham Court Road in Central London. The Fraternal Democrats were a left Chartist group with links to Marx and Engels and associated with the Chartist leader George Julian Harney.

The report notes that “upwards of 300 people sat down to tea” and here, the gathering was both men and women. Entertainment was provided by a 60-strong Apollonian Choir.

Harney was called to the chair and made a speech denouncing autocratic rulers, whether the British monarchy or Bonaparte in France. He went on call for social democratic politics focused on the colour red. In 1850, Harney started to publish the Red Republican, which printed the first English translation of the Communist Manifesto.

The Northern Star reported that once speeches had been completed, the hall was cleared, and dancing continued until after midnight, while upstairs, people were entertained by vocal and instrumental music.

Of course, other things were available. The Northern Star also reported that over Christmas 1849, the water in St James and Regents Park had been frozen and “hundreds of men and lads” had been on it despite it being extremely dangerous.

Keith Flett is a socialist historian. Follow him on X @kmflett.