A Victorian Christmas

By Elizabethan times Christmas had become a festival of food. Eating, drinking, and the exchanging of gifts predominated, and the more extravagant the better. In particular sweets, and the cake became the centrepiece of the Christmas meal, and warm drinks were particularly popular, especially hot cider. Less than a hundred years later there would be a backlash to all this extravagance.

” More mischief is that time committed than in all the year besides. What dicing and carding, what eating and drinking, what banqueting and feasting is then used, to the greatest dishonour of God and the impoverishing of the realm.” So wrote the Puritan, Philip Stubbs. In 1644, an Act of Parliament banned all Christmas celebrations, though it had to wait 3 years for the conclusion of the Civil War before being implemented. The law, however, was widely ignored and riots ensued, culminating in the 30 day siege of Colchester. Shops refused to open on Christmas Day and decorations would surreptitiously appear in towns overnight and had to be torn down by the Authorities the following day. The attempt by Parliament to abolish Christmas failed due to the intransigence of the people. There celebration was returned to them following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660.

Many of the traditions of Christmas, however, that we now hold so dear do indeed originate from the Victorian era. This was in large part due to Queen Victoria and her Consort Prince Albert.  As a couple they were determined to distance themselves from the trappings of royalty and instead embrace bourgeois familiarity and the normality of family life. Albert, who was German, introduced many of his homelands traditions into the Royal Families celebration of Christmas. In particular, the Christmas tree. The large Christmas tree that we know now would come later in the Victorian era, in its original form it would be a series of small trees placed on tables that would be decorated with candles, sweets, and small toys.

Father Christmas, who had existed in legend long before the Victorian era and had been associated with the God Odin, and later with Saint Nicholas, in the early nineteenth century became Santa Claus. This originated from the Dutch Sinterklaas, who was believed to be a benevolent figure who was kind to children and good to the poor.

The first Christmas cracker was invented by Tom Smith, who had lived in France and had become fascinated by how they wrapped their sweets, or bon bons, but didn’t know how to introduce a similar treat to England. One night when snoozing before an open fire he heard the popping of the wood and coal as it burned. What he imagined was cracker that would pop as it was pulled. The pop he believed would excite the children, he then placed little mottoes inside to amuse the adults. It was another Victorian invention.

In 1846, Sir Henry Cole, tired of writing so many letters to his friends and associates at Christmas time thought of an idea to save time, a card that merely had to be signed. He approached J Calcott Horsley to design just such a card. This was to be the first Christmas card and traditionally Victorian Christmas cards carried images of plum puddings, snow, and Church bells. It also coincided with the introduction of the penny post which allowed even those of little means to send festive greetings.

Charles Dickens brought all these things together in his wonderfully sentimental, evocative and also haunting story A Christmas Carol. For Dickens, in the character of the miserly and curmudgeonly Scrooge, it was a warning, a wake up call to those who may have lost their common humanity in the pursuit of wealth. He wrote, ” I have endeavoured in this ghostly little book, to raise the ghost of an idea that shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and may no one wish to lay it down.” The book was a sensation and Christmas was revived. In the final pages of A Christmas Carol he wrote, ” . . . it was always said of him (Scrooge) that he knew how to keep Christmas well . . . may that also be said of us, and all of us!”