Custom
Going a-Thomasing
On the year's darkest day, widows knocked at big houses for alms.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- The town; no single spot
- Legend from
- 1800s
- Best time
- St Thomas's Day, 21 December
- Tone
- Light-hearted
In old Harpenden, widows went 'a-Thomasing' each twenty-first of December, knocking at the big houses for St Thomas's Day alms.
On St Thomas's Day, 21 December, poor people in many Hertfordshire parishes went 'a-Thomasing', calling at the bigger houses for alms just before Christmas. The Harpenden writer Edwin Grey remembered several elderly widows who made the rounds every year in his boyhood, saying simply, 'Please we've cum a-Thomasin', remember St Thomas's Day.' It could be lucrative: one local worthy gave each caller sixpence. Thomasers sometimes brought holly, mistletoe, nuts or fruit in return, tokens thought to bring the household luck and often added to the Christmas decorations. The custom was also recorded at Braughing and Tewin.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.