Two centuries ago, if you were lucky enough to afford Christmas, festive preparations would involve gathering evergreens to hang around the house, plucking a goose for dinner and writing handmade greetings cards.

You might rustle up some medlar jelly, cut into slices for your house guests, or huge puff-pastry mince pies with meat fillings. Or you may find yourself caught up in a riotous game of Snap Dragon with the children. Christmas in Regency times is brought to life at Red House Museum in Gomersal, which is decorated as it would have been when the Taylors – a cloth merchant’s family – lived there in the early 19th century.

On display during this week’s Regency Christmas Festival are cards, trimmings and gifts spanning 200 years, unwrapping the customs and traditions associated with the Christmas of today.

A pre-Victorian Christmas was all about food, evergreens and goodwill, which continues today, albeit in a more commercialised package.

“Many traditional customs such as crackers, cards and Santa Claus, are fairly recent Victorian introductions,” says curator Helga Hughes. “Others, such as lavish feasting, evergreen decorations and gift-giving, have much longer roots in ancient pagan winter festivals.

“In 1644, Christmas was banned by the Puritans who saw it as an excuse for greed and drunkeness. In 1660, with the restoration of the monarchy, it was no longer banned, but celebrations were more restrained.

“By Regency times in early 19th century, Christmas was undergoing a revival and becoming popular again. Later, the Victorians transformed it into what we know today.

“At Red House it would have been celebrated in a quiet, family way. Christmas Day formed part of the 12-day period; there’d be supper parties and family parties leading up to Twelfth Night, celebrated with special games and a cake.”

The Christmas Past exhibition features more than 100 years of Christmas cards, from an early 1843 design to a card sent by a soldier at the end of the Second World War. Cards sent during the wars are particularly poignant; one from 1916 reads, ‘To my dear absent brother at Christmas.’ Early Christmas cards featured ornate designs, often trimmed with lace and featuring seasonal scenes, flowers or humorous cartoons and verses. On display are rare Victorian and Edwardian cards, loaned from a private collection.

“They were usually small and flat. They didn’t stand up like the ones we have today,” says Helga. “Cards weren’t affordable to the masses until the cheap penny post came in and printed cards took off.”

Also on display is information about the ancient custom of evergreens, traditionally gathered in to bring light and life to dark winter days. “Leaves and branches, laurel, bay and rosemary were used, along with today’s favourites such as holly, ivy and mistletoe,” says Helga. “Holly is a symbol of long life and the red berries were believed to protect against witchcraft.”

The exhibition also looks at the origins of Father Christmas. “The Santa we know today emerged at the end of the 19th century on a Coca Cola advert,” says Helga. “But the idea of a gift-giving figure, usually travelling by night with an animal, had been around for centuries.

“The idea of a bearded jolly Father Christmas arriving on a sleigh with reindeer and coming down a chimney came from an 1822 verse called The Visit Of St Nicholas.”

We have the Victorians to thank for the commercialisation of Christmas. Images of Albert and Victoria with their family around a Christmas tree, in the 1840s, inspired the growing middle-classes, who had the wealth to celebrate a commercial Christmas.

Christmas crackers were introduced in the mid-19th century and, with the popularity of Christmas trees came the trend for making tree decorations. “People made gilded fruit, little garlands from raisins and cornucopias made from plums to hang on trees,” says Helga. “There will be demonstrations throughout the week and visitors can have a go at making them.”

There’s also chance to meet the Red House cook, who will be making festive treats in the kitchen. “Regency Christmas food included plum pudding, roast goose and beef, along with the roast and mashed potatoes we have today, sage and onion stuffing and apple sauce using apples from the garden,” says Helga. “We have found one of the few medlar jelly producers in the country, who uses medlars from Anne Hathaway’s garden, and there’ll be samples for visitors to taste. Revisiting the old traditions of Christmas may inspire people to be creative with recipes and decorations.”

Also on display are 1950s festive trimmings and a selection of advent calendars through the decades and younger visitors will have chance to make scrap decorations and learn about parlour games before the days of PlayStation and Wii. “Snap Dragon, played in the early 19th century, was quite a daring game,” says Helga. “It involved a dish full of raisins with brandy poured on, set on fire. The idea was for each person to pull raisins off as the others chanted a verse.”

Among the 20th century Christmas games on display are a David Nixon magic box – “Lots of visitors say they used to have one, they were hugely popular in the Fifties,” says Helga – a Bayko building set, Bunty and Beano annuals from the Seventies, and Escalado, a horse-racing game.

“The idea behind this exhibition is to shed light on Christmas traditions and bring back memories,” says Helga. “Grandparents and parents will find things they remember as children, and can tell their children about them. “Christmas has become so commercialised and stressful, people hanker back to simpler times.”

The Regency Christmas Festival runs at Red House Museum until Sunday. On Saturday there will be festive music from the Valley Flutes, and on Sunday there will be carol singing from Gaudeamus. Also on Sunday, Victorian parlour magician Chris Black will be doing card tricks. For more information ring (01274) 335100.