In Victorian Farm, a specialist team – Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Alex Langlands – devoted a year of their lives to re-creating life in a 19th century rural environment. From the warmth of summer to the depths of winter, the clock has been turned back over a hundred years to rediscover this almost forgotten world. From planting and harvesting crops to animal husbandry; from building pigsties to bee-keeping; from tree-felling to driving steam engines and operating period machinery, this hardy group - in their search for the authentic experience - undertook it all, wearing period costumes and using only tools and materials available in 1885. In the special Victorian Farm Christmas episodes, Ruth, Peter and Alex returned to the farm to rebuild a blacksmith’s forge and undertake all the elements of a rural Victorian Christmas. There’s Christmas food and festivities to prepare from 1850s’ mincemeat to butter, bread, Christmas puddings and a multi-bird Christmas pie; gifts to be made, ribbons to be dyed, and old fashioned remedies to be prepared for what ails them.