A Seasonal Salon Worth Noting
Cabaret artist and storyteller Fiona-Jane Weston launches a pair of online Christmas History Salons tracing the holiday’s evolution from ancient ritual to modern tradition. Blending historical narrative, period readings, music, and conversation, the salons offer a reflective, intimate alternative to seasonal noise.
London-based actress, singer, and cabaret artist Fiona-Jane Weston is offering a thoughtfully curated online project this month: a pair of Christmas History Salons exploring how the rituals, meanings, and emotional texture of Christmas have evolved across centuries.
Fiona-Jane Weston
Weston’s work has long occupied a distinctive space between performance and historical storytelling. Known for her acclaimed solo shows drawn from the words and lives of real historical figures—particularly women—she brings a performer’s instinct and a historian’s curiosity to material that might otherwise feel academic. Her career spans cabaret rooms, theatres, and salons on both sides of the Atlantic, and her style consistently favors intimacy, intelligence, and direct connection with an audience.
The Christmas History Salons extend that sensibility into an online format designed to feel communal rather than didactic. Across two evening sessions, Weston traces Christmas from its ancient and medieval roots through Tudor and Georgian traditions, then into the Victorian reinvention of the holiday and the quieter resilience of the World War years. Each salon blends vivid storytelling with short period readings, character voices, and seasonal music, followed by an optional conversation for those who wish to stay and reflect together.
These are not lectures, but salons in the classical sense: relaxed, conversational, and rooted in shared curiosity. For readers looking for something reflective, humane, and quietly transporting amid the seasonal rush, this project is well worth noting.
If you can’t attend live, please don’t worry — a replay will be sent to all ticket-holders, so you can watch at a time that suits you.
After the Salon, I’ll keep the Zoom room open for anyone who’d like to stay for a little conversation and questions, very much in the spirit of a true Salon.
Tickets are £10 (plus Eventbrite’s fee), and you’re very welcome to attend just this session or both festive evenings.
If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, she’d love you to join her. I’ll be attending myself.
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