Victorian Christmas

Ferestraoaru Maria, II BRomanian-English, group 6

Victorian Christmas

Today, everybody knows and loves Christmas. The idea of giving and receiving gifts

makes people became closer to each other. But had Christmas been always like this? On

this essay, we will try to discover what were the major changes that lead to the holiday

which makes us love December.

All starts in Victorian time, when young Queen Victoria married Prince Albert de

Saxe-Coburg, her German maternal cousin. They were married for 22 years and lived a

beautiful love story. Queen Victoria has always respected her husband’s decisions and

traditions. 1

In Germany, Christmas was quite different from the one celebrated in 19th century

Britain, who had no Christmas Tree tradition, an element which dated back to 17th

century for the Germans. Here, this element was present in every house, and that is why

deforestation was widespread in this country.2

In 1848, the Illustrated London News published an article with a drawing which was

representing the royal couple celebrating around a decotted Christmas Tree. This type of

celebration was Prince Albert’s idea. When he was a child, in Germany, young Prince

used to decorate a tree on every Christmas holiday. Since 1865, people started to create

glass ornaments, wire ornaments, artificial flowers, elements which soon began to be the

popular elements in the decoration of the Chtistmas Tree. These ornaments were inspired

both patriotic and modern motifs. Little red, blue or white paper flags, glass baoons or

model-wax figures of angels, which were regarded as symbols of children’s innocence

and purity. Modern symbols were the airships, the trains, aircraft, balloons and animals.

All these decorations were handmade by wemen.3

1. Godeanu, Oana: A Brief Introduction to British History and Civilization,ed.2, Bucuresti, 2003, Editura Fundatiei “Romania de maine”2. http://www.santas.net/germanchristmas.htm3. http://www.victoriana.com/christmas/featherchristmastree.htm 4. idem 3

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus


Another element of this holiday in Victorian times were the four candles and the

wreath. These four candles were symbolizing good fortune, faith in God, love for the

people all around and peace. Lightening all of the four candles was supposed to show that

the birth of the baby Jesus was bringing light into the world. Lightening candles,

especially homemade ones, were carefully placed on each branch of the Christmas Tree.

The first Christmas Tree in Great Britain was erected in 1841 in Windsor Castle. This

tree was also adorned with German traditional Christmas decorations, which probably

reminded Prince Albert the moments spent with his family when he was a child. The

Christmas Tree have soon become the most popular symbol of the this amazing holiday

in Great Britain.4

In December 1843, the illustrator John Callott Horsley drawn the first Christmas card

for his friend Sir Henry Cole. “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you” was the

text of this card, which was believed to be something totally new and different than the

conventional letter. Amazed, Sir Henry Cole printed 1000 copies of this Christmas Card

in a handmade colored edition. And this was only the beginning of this cards tradition.

Queen Victoria loved this idea so much that she was sending thousands of Christmas

Cards each Christmas holiday.

In the same year, Charles Dickens wrote and published “A Christmas Carol”. No one

could guess then that this novel would have such a great success and also would remain

like a reference point in world’s literature. The story is about Ebenezer Scrooge’s

ideology about Christmas, about the idea of sharing what you have with people around

you. In fact, the novel is about the nostalgic interest of forgetting Christmas traditions, all

represented by Ghosts: Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.5

This noven is written an published in early Victorian era, when Britain was

experiencing a whole new type of Christmas, with new elements and traditions, it is clear

for us to see that what Dickens is trying to do is to create a character to whom this

holiday is not important. And by this selfish character, Dickins wants us to see that giving




attention to this event of the year, our relationship with people around us and, finally,

with our own soul would definitely be a better one.

Beside Christmas Tree, many other traditions dated from Victorian period are still

popular nowadays. For instance, the Christmas Cracker, which was invented in 1846 by

two famous London bakers. The carol singers have also their origins back to the

Victorian era.

Exchanging Christmas presents was a very popular manifestation between the

Victorian middle-classes and upper-classes. Children begun to receive home-made or

brough toys from adults.

Another important aspect is the origin of Santa Claus, who initially was believed to be

an USA creation, but the reality is that he comes from Victorian England, when he was

named Father Christmas, the one who brough gifts for childred on Christmas Eve.6

In conclusion, Christmas can always evolve. Depending on the human mentality, on

ideology and on the permanent changes that happen in the world, people will always

understand Christmas differently. But what really matters is the spirit of this holiday, the

feeling of giving gifts and spending time with the one you love, and this kind of spirit

would never dissapear, no matter what major changes happens in this relative world.



Victorian Christmas

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