Norfolk & Good
Norfolk & Good
Norfolk & Good Christmas Countdown 2025: Victorian Christmas Boxes
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Welcome back Norfolk-Enjoyers! Today Andrew has a Victorian Christmas Tale, related to thank you gifts for 'letter carriers'.
Do you provide your 'Postie' with a gift at Christmas? Perhaps you are a 'Postie' at Christmas! Please drop us an email with any comment: start@enjoyingnorfolk.co.uk
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A: Hi, I’m Andrew
S: and I’m Steph.
Welcome back and today Andrew has a Victorian Christmas Tale.
A: Yes I do. During the Victorian era, it was traditional to give letter carriers (known as postmen from 1883) a token of appreciation at Christmas. These tokens were known as Christmas boxes, gifts or gratuities. Although the form that these tokens of appreciation took is not described in official papers (probably because everyone knew what they were) they almost certainly took the form of money or alcohol. There are a number of pleas from the Postmaster General in his annual reports asking members of the public not to get letter carriers drunk! This custom was of immense importance to letter carriers.
In July 1852, Lord Hardwicke, who was Postmaster General (head of the Post Office), issued an instruction to ‘all Postmasters, Sub-Postmasters, Clerks, Letter Receivers, Letter Carriers, Post Messengers, and others, employed in the Service of the Post Office’ banning ‘any officer’ from soliciting for Christmas gifts from the public.
Do you think Norwich Post Office had to say something? Of course…
Letter carriers from Norwich said, amongst other things, that ‘their several duties have latterly increased through the extension of buildings in all directions, the growth of population and the avowed increase of Letters, whilst for many years there has been no increase of hands to distribute them, ‘til at length their physical energies are daily exhausted, and their duties rendered painfully onerous.’
They went onto say that ‘in casual sickness our pay cease, that a holiday is never granted us, & on becoming superannuated by age or infirmity, as there is no provision for us, as is known to be the case in other branches of the Government service, the poor house is our only refuge; for the weekly wages we receive & for which we work seven days, afford no surplus to fly to in our need’.
The memorial was signed by John Coan and 7 others.
The Ban was lifted in 1853.
S: Do you provide your postie with a gift at Christmas? Please drop us an email
start@enjoyingnorfolk.co.uk