PUDDING CHARM - DOLL

Pudding charms were used primarily in Christmas puddings as a replacement for the traditional silver coin in the mid 1800s to early 1900s. This collection of charms was collected by Dr Anthony Smart. Some were possibly recovered from rubbish pits in the City of Armadale region.
There are many legends and theories about the origins of the Christmas pudding. Similar steamed spiced fruit pudding desserts were popular for a long time in Britain, Europe and America but not always associated with Christmas. The Christmas pudding that we recognise today became popular in the early 1830s. The boiled cake of flour, fruits, suet, sugar and spices is first mentioned as a Christmas Pudding in Eliza Actons 1845 cookbook Modern Cookery for Private Families. The popularity of this Christmas dessert quickly spread across the British Empire and became a common feature at Australian Christmas dinners.
With the popularity of the Christmas pudding came a number traditions including every family member stirring the pudding mixture as its being made, dousing the pudding in brandy and setting it alight as described in Charles Dickens 1843 A Christmas Carolto placing a silver coin in the pudding for one lucky person to find, and hopefully not choke or crack a tooth on.
In the late 1800s pure silver coins became less common, and more expensive, and were replaced with ceramic pudding favours, small tokens that were meant to indicate good fortune or a child was on the way to the person who found it. The ceramic dolls were also known as Pudding Dolls or Frozen Charlottes. The use of favours in puddings and celebratory cakes became very popular in the early 1900s, with many of them having an attached fortune-telling tale.