'Silent' night: visualising a Victorian Christmas

It's that time of year again! In today's episode - a festive special featuring plenty of yule tide tangents - we talk to author Sarah Cook about 'silent' Christmas. Digital Content Manager Christina Webber has questions: were Christmas movies a thing in the silent era? Would we recognise some of the tropes of today's Christmas film in the movies made a century ago? And why does the iconography of a Victorian Christmas still have such a hold on our imaginations?Listen along to Episode 31 to hear about all this and more. As another tempting teaser, Sarah also shares a little bit with us on 'creepy' Christmas - see below - and we've included a plethora of additional reading and viewing links in the show notes in case your interest is suitably piqued...Additional reading/ relevant links:Read the full English transcript of this episodeRead 'The best Christmas films of the Silent Era' by Sarah Cook (courtesy of Film Stories)Watch Santa Claus (1898) on BFI PlayerWatch Harold Shaw's A Christmas Carol (1914) on BFI PlayerWatch The Night Before Christmas (1913) on YouTubeWatch HippFest at Home: 'A New Look at Our Oldest Films', an illustrated presentation on Victorian film made for HippFest 2024 by Bryony DixonRead more about the portrait commissioned by Prince Albert in 1848 (courtesy of the V&A)A great Christmas film every year from 1925 to now (courtesy of the BFI)More information on purchasing a HippFest 2026 Festival Pass