Taking the ordinary out of Tradition

This year, Miller Harris include a paper hat designed by Julie Verhoeven in  each of their Christmas boxes, taking the ordinary out of tradition with a twist of the unexpected. Every Miller Harris Christmas product comes with two Christmas hats for yourself and your best friend.

A traditional Christmas in Britain would not be the same without certain things; turkey, a Christmas pudding set alight in the shadows of evening and multi-coloured paper crowns, tightly  folded and hidden inside the pop and wreckage of crackers.

Have you ever wondered why we wear paper crowns with our Christmas dinner? We may owe this  typically British tradition to the Roman feast of Saturnalia, an annual period of revelry honouring Saturn the God of Wealth, Agriculture and Liberty. This Festival of Light lead into the Winter Solstice.

Saturnalia was marked by public banquets, private gifting, parties and the relaxation of rules on  gambling. Masters served servants; streets and feasts saw nights and days of masked role-playing. Over all this spirited upheaval and carnival Kings of Saturnalia were appointed by lot or the  throw of dice. Masters of ceremony to oversee and reign over the debauched twists and turns of  the Saturnalia days and nights. The bright paper crowns we wear each year may well be an echo  of the Kings’ crowns and on Christmas day, we are all Kings and Queens for the day, whoever we  are.