Blogmas day 4- Christmas in the Victorian times
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
The Victorians introduced for the first time modesty and elegance to Christmas decorations. Many attribute the change from old medieval decorating to new Victorian decorating to Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, who was born in Germany. The Illustrated London News published a picture of the royal family celebrating round a decadently decorated Christmas tree in 1848. This was a tradition upheld by Prince Albert's childhood in Germany. Like a fashion statement, nearly every house in Britain was decked with a beautiful tree, candles,sweets, fruits, homemade decorations and gifts.
Before, Christmas cards were also introduced. Henry Cole commissioned an artist to design a Christmas card in 1843. The illustration was of a group of people around a dinner table with a Christmas message also added. Since these cards were one shilling each, it became too pricey for ordinary Victorians to buy making them not easily accessible. Although, with high sentiments of the cards caught on children (Queen Victoria's included) many were encouraged to make their own. With the added popularity and industrialisation of colour printing, prices of cards were were dropped significantly. In the 1880s, there was a high abundance of cards with 11.5 million produced in 1880 alone.
In 1848, British confectioner Tom Smith, thought of a new innovative way of selling his sweets. Intrigued after seeing bon bons and sugared almonds wrapped in twists of paper from his trip to Paris, he came up with the Christmas cracker. The simple package filled with sweets that was snapped when pulled apart, is still Christmas tradition continued today. From the late Victorian period till now, the sweets were replaced with gifts and paper hats.
The classic Christmas dinner we see today all dates back from the Victorian era. The popular mince pies we see today were originally made from meat in the Victorian times. This was a commodity continued from the Tudor times. A new composition however of the recipe, was made after a 19th century revolution. Mince pies without meat gained more popularity and turned into the delicious desserts we see in modern day life.
The roast turkey also made first appearances in the Victorian times. Before, middle class families would eat goose or beef; turkey was usually eaten by upper class and wealthy families. However, it's perfect size for a middle class family made it a prominent dish at the beginning of the 20th century.
We can see many of these traditions in the book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The themes of family, happiness, food, love, and goodwill are all popular of the time the book was written in. If we think about it, we should really credit more of the Victorians. They truly shaped the Christmas we love and know today.
What's your favourite Christmas tradition? Let me know in the comments below and I will be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
Website used for research:
BBC
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My second blog:
The Book Hub
The Victorians introduced for the first time modesty and elegance to Christmas decorations. Many attribute the change from old medieval decorating to new Victorian decorating to Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, who was born in Germany. The Illustrated London News published a picture of the royal family celebrating round a decadently decorated Christmas tree in 1848. This was a tradition upheld by Prince Albert's childhood in Germany. Like a fashion statement, nearly every house in Britain was decked with a beautiful tree, candles,sweets, fruits, homemade decorations and gifts.
Before, Christmas cards were also introduced. Henry Cole commissioned an artist to design a Christmas card in 1843. The illustration was of a group of people around a dinner table with a Christmas message also added. Since these cards were one shilling each, it became too pricey for ordinary Victorians to buy making them not easily accessible. Although, with high sentiments of the cards caught on children (Queen Victoria's included) many were encouraged to make their own. With the added popularity and industrialisation of colour printing, prices of cards were were dropped significantly. In the 1880s, there was a high abundance of cards with 11.5 million produced in 1880 alone.
In 1848, British confectioner Tom Smith, thought of a new innovative way of selling his sweets. Intrigued after seeing bon bons and sugared almonds wrapped in twists of paper from his trip to Paris, he came up with the Christmas cracker. The simple package filled with sweets that was snapped when pulled apart, is still Christmas tradition continued today. From the late Victorian period till now, the sweets were replaced with gifts and paper hats.
The classic Christmas dinner we see today all dates back from the Victorian era. The popular mince pies we see today were originally made from meat in the Victorian times. This was a commodity continued from the Tudor times. A new composition however of the recipe, was made after a 19th century revolution. Mince pies without meat gained more popularity and turned into the delicious desserts we see in modern day life.
The roast turkey also made first appearances in the Victorian times. Before, middle class families would eat goose or beef; turkey was usually eaten by upper class and wealthy families. However, it's perfect size for a middle class family made it a prominent dish at the beginning of the 20th century.
We can see many of these traditions in the book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The themes of family, happiness, food, love, and goodwill are all popular of the time the book was written in. If we think about it, we should really credit more of the Victorians. They truly shaped the Christmas we love and know today.
What's your favourite Christmas tradition? Let me know in the comments below and I will be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
Website used for research:
BBC
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My second blog:
The Book Hub
Thanks for all of this info! I think the most fun we have at Christmas dinner is the crackers. We all have fun snapping them and wearing the crowns through our dinner. The jokes are pretty lame and we all groan over them although we do like reading them.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the jokes at pretty rubbish but it's the tradition that makes Christmas special!
Delete