Love Christmas?
Thank Queen Victoria and Prince Albert One of the main reasons the Victorians fell in love with Christmas was because of the way the Royal family celebrated it. Sam Bilton investigates the festive feasts and other Christmas traditions. Queen Victoria had grown up with the tradition of decorating a tree at Christmas time. The custom had been introduced to the English court by her Hanoverian ancestors and was continued by her German mother. However, it was the queen’s husband, Prince Albert, who truly relished this ritual. After their marriage, Albert took on personal responsibility for decorating the trees at Windsor Castle with wax candles and sweets such as barley sugar and sugar plums. These were actually caraway or aniseed comfits, covered with boiled sugar and crafted into the shape of a plum. A little wire ‘stalk’ at the top made them convenient for hanging on trees. The queen appears to have been as enamored with Christmas as her husband: “Christmas, I always look upon as a most dear happy time, also for Albert, who enjoyed it naturally still more in his happy home, which mine, certainly, as a child, was not. It is a pleasure to have this blessed festival associated with one’s happiest days. The very smell of the Christmas trees of pleasant memories. To think, we have already two children now, and one who already enjoys the sight, — it seems like a dream.” Entry from Queen Victoria’s journal on 24 December 1841
By the 1860s, hundreds of Christmas trees were being sold in Covent Garden. Originally, trees would be decorated with oranges stuck with cloves, cinnamon sticks and pine cones. Sometimes the nut would be removed from a walnut shell and replaced by a small gift or candy before being hung on a tree. Just like today, Victorian children looked forward to opening their Christ-
mas stockings. During the 19th century, handmade presents were the order of the day. Sweets were a particular favorite. These would mostly take the form of sugar candies like barley sugar, which could be twisted into different shapes – including canes. If you were really lucky you might be given some Toffee although many less well off children had to content themselves with an orange and a few nuts. crisp. Gingerbread was no stranger to our shores, being sold at fairs (like the Nottingham Goose Fair) or eaten on feast days. However, it is thought that Prince Albert helped spread the popularity of gingerbread as a Christmas treat. “Albert arranged a surprise for the children. In Germany the old saying that St. Nicholas appears with a rod for naughty children, & gingerbread for good ones, is constantly represented, & Arthur hearing of this begged for one. Accordingly Albert got up a St. Nicholas, most formidable he looking, in black, covered with snow, a long white beard, & red nose, — of a gigantic stature! He came in asking the Children, who were somewhat awed & alarmed, — “are you a good child, & giving them gingerbread & apples.” Entry from Queen Victoria’s journal on 24 December 1856
It was a regular Christmas dinner, with turkeys, Baron of Beef, Plum Pudding & Mince Pies. Entry from Queen Victoria’s journal 25th December 1843.
Perhaps this was a regular Christmas dinner for Queen Victoria, but for her subjects the Christmas feast was a less elaborate affair. No matter what your economic circumstances a festive bird was central to Christmas dinner. During the early part of Victoria’s reign this would have meant a goose (like the one consumed by the Cratchits in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol).
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