Christmas Traditions: The History Of Mince Pies

Traditional Mince Pies, are small, normally round pies. They’re very popular in the UK and some other countries like Australia and New Zealand.

Like Christmas Puddings, were originally filled with ground up or ‘minced’ meat, such as lamb, as well as dried fruit and spices, which where they got their name from.

Over the years the meet went out of them, as sugar and dried fruit became more affordable.

So, although they’re still called Mince Pies, and their filling is still called ‘mincemeat’, there’s no longer meat in them!

During the Stuart and Georgian times, in the UK, mince pies were a status symbol at Christmas.

Very rich people liked to show off at their Christmas parties by having pies made is different shapes (like stars, crescents, hearts, tears, & flowers); the fancy shaped pies could often fit together a bit like a jigsaw!

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They also had pies which looked like the ‘knot gardens’ that were popular during those periods.

Having pies like this meant you were rich and could afford to employ the best, and most expensive, pastry cooks.

During the Victorian period, less and less meat was in ‘mincemeat’ and the pies became small and round pies as we still have them today.

Some Victorian ‘historians’ also said that the first mince pies were made in an oval shape to represent the manger that Jesus slept in as a baby, with the top representing his swaddling clothes; and that sometimes they even had a ‘pastry baby Jesus’ on the top!

However, that’s not how the earliest pies were described in historical sources.

It might have been that some Victorians wanted mince pies to have a ‘religious’ history to fit in with Christmas.

Now mince pies are eaten hot or cold.

On Christmas Eve, children in the UK often leave out mince pies with brandy or some similar drink for Father Christmas, and a carrot for the reindeer.