Tales of Christmases past in Southampton will be recounted on 90 minute guided tours around the city's historic sights on each weekend in the run up to the festivities. 

Guides will reference celebrations of the past at various city churches and landmarks, as well as famous songs, wine, ice skating, trams and Jane Austen.

SEE Southampton tour guides will bring the past to life on the walks, which set off from The Bargate at 10.30am each Saturday and Sunday until Christmas. 

(Image: GO! Southampton) READ MORE: Play about Spitfire pilot pioneers to premiere in Southampton

Residents and visitors will learn all about past festive celebrations at the Churches of St. Michael’s, Holyrood, All Saints’, St. John’s, St. Lawrence and Southampton’s mother church, St. Mary’s. 'The Bells of St Mary's' sung by Bobb B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans features on the classic Christmas record A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector.

It was just over 300 years ago that Isaac Watts published one of today’s best-loved Christmas hymns – Joy to the World. And it was exactly 50 years ago that local comedian Benny Hill reached the top of the Christmas charts with his novelty record ‘Ernie’, while Southampton’s Jona Lewie had a Christmas hit single with ‘Stop the Cavalry’ in 1980.

The Christmas walk will recall the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1154, following which Southampton became a mainstay of the wine trade, with convoys of ships bringing back wine from France to Southampton, particularly at Christmas, to the vaults of Southampton Castle. The Castle would witness a joyous scene in 1194, where Henry II’s son King Richard I (The Lion Heart) spent his only Christmas in England, following payment of a ransom for his imprisonment during the Crusades. 

(Image: SEE Southampton) Back in the early 19th century and during author Jane Austen’s residency, a favourite Christmas pastime was ice skating at what is now Queen’s Park. In Jane’s letters, she recalls her brother Frank skating and her dancing at the Winter Ball she attended at The Dolphin Hotel in December 1808.

The last Southampton tram passed via the Bargate on December 31, 1949. A survivor of the Blitz in 1940, the Bargate too has witnessed centuries of Christmas celebrations. 

To hear more tales, book at seesouthampton.co.uk