Census Sleepers, Festive Gifts and a Twixmas Gathering
Gift ideas, the 1911 census boycott, and an online live gathering for P&S Patreon members.
This newsletter was originally sent on 16/12/2025.
Good tidings we bring!
How did we get to mid-December?! The festive season is here, and our last newsletter of the year is full of holiday gift ideas. You still have a chance to catch us in person if you’re near Byres Road Market, Glasgow on 20th December.
The last posting date for Christmas Cards and goodies from our shop is NOON on 20th December (1st class).
And did you know – you can GIFT memberships to our new Patreon right up to Christmas Day! Our first ‘Meet the Team’ Live Gathering event for Patreon members will be on 27th December and we have a verrrah special guest (read on for the deets). Hope to see you there!
Festive gift ideas from P&S
Our online shop is full to bursting with herstory-themed cards and gift ideas.
You’ll have heard us shout about our fabulous suffrage holiday card collections. Printed on high-quality watercolour card with recycled brown craft envelopes, there are three (3!) different sets to choose from:
• The Black & White Collection – featuring some of our favourite photos of suffrage activists reimagined with a festive theme (set of 5 for £10)
• The Angels & Heralds Collection – adapted from suffrage newspaper and banner images created by WSPU and WFL artists (set of 5 for £10)
• Vintage Santa & Drummer Girl – two remastered illustrations of WSPU Christmas cards created by the Suffrage Atelier (3 each of 2 designs for £12)
If you’re looking for stocking fillers or Secret Santa gifts, our Scotland’s Suffragette Card Game is the perfect size and price at £12. We also have co-designed posters (£10) with a choice of six inspirational suffrage/ttes, made in our creative workshops during our Glasgow Herstory project.
From our Rent Strikers & Suffragettes series we have posters (£10) with a choice of four rebels, like Mary Barbour and Agnes Dollan. We also have Zines (£7) celebrating the Glasgow suffragettes and activists who led the 1915 Rent Strikes, including Helen Crawfurd and Jessie Stephen. We’ve recovered the words of these activists and quoted them alongside details of their actions and campaigns. They were made during zine-making workshops in 2019-2020 and there aren’t many of these collectors’ items left!
And last – we have Protests & Suffragettes wrapping paper! Each pack contains two sheets (700mm x 500mm), one each of two bespoke P&S designs, printed on bright recycled newspaper. One features suffragist Helen Fraser, the other suffragette Teresa Billington-Greig, with inspirational quotes and text.
The last order dates to ensure this festive goodness reaches you in time for Christmas are:
• before noon on 18 December (2nd class)
• before noon on 20 December (1st class)
If you’re around Byres Road Market in Glasgow on 20 December, visit our stall to see all of this for yourself. You’ll also have a chance to buy some exclusive merch (Suffragette Pennies, anyone…?) that aren’t available in the shop!
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Gift a Patreon membership and join us for Twixmas!
If you’ve already become a Patreon member, welcome to the community! You can join our community chat on Discord any time. Our first members’ event will be online Sat 27 December, 3pm. Treat yourself to a herstory hour during Twixmas – meet the P&S team and hear from some about their research, AND we’ve an exciting guest:
Doctur Normul (aka Lorna McBean) will be performing her new songs, setting The Holloway Jingles poems to music!
If you haven’t joined our Patreon yet, it’s not too late! You can choose a tier to suit your budget (from £5-20 per month), each with access to the P&S community and a range of goodies to choose from. Your monthly subscription will help us build a movement that celebrates Scotland’s changemakers. Visit the NEW P&S Patreon to learn more…
Gift membership to a friend
As it’s the giving season, you can also share a subscription for a friend – right up until Christmas Day! The gift is emailed to you with a gift link that the recipient can redeem anytime within 90 days.
Last order date: Xmas Day!
Check out our Patreon tiers
Herstories: 1911 Census Boycott
If you’re a researcher or Wikipedia editor, you may have noticed how difficult it is to find suffragettes in the 1911 Census records. That’s because the Women’s Freedom League organised a boycott of that Census on the basis that women didn’t have full citizenship.
Across the UK on the night of 2 April 1911, suffrage activists (mostly women but some men) gathered away from their homes to avoid being recorded. This photo from The Women’s Library Collection at The LSE shows seven unidentified WFL members sleeping on floors and chairs on the night of the Census.
Some activists used the Census forms to write messages of protest and support for women’s suffrage. ‘No vote, no census, as women do not count, they refuse to be counted.’ (Sophia Duleep Singh)
We adapted the photo of the Census Sleepers for our Black & White Suffrage Collection holiday cards. External text reads ‘Happy Hogmanay’, and the inside carries the message ‘Lang May Yer Lum Reek’.
Check out the Suffrage Sleepers and other festive cards in our shop
Welcome to our newsletter & MORE Festive Markets
We’ve been busy at Festive markets and we’ve met some wonderful people who’ve signed up to our mailing list. If this is your first time receiving the P&S newsletter, HeLLOooO and WELCOME! We’re aimimg to send these out once a month, packed with news and opportunities to get involved – like creative workshops, online talks and Wikipedia editing, as well as herstories of suffrage and other activists from our archives.