A Victorian Christmas
Did you know that in America, our most loved Christmas traditions have only been celebrated since the Victorian era? The traditions of decorating the evergreen tree, gift-giving, Christmas caroling, and even jolly old St. Nick were started and embraced in this country during the last century. Christmas Day in the Victorian Age was the festive highlight of the season - a celebration culminating weeks of parties, ingenious planning and convivial preparation.
Sugarplums and roast goose, candles twinkling on a lavishly decorated tree, the clip-clopping rhythm of horses's hooves accompanied by the musical jingle of sleigh bells, and carolers singing in the glow of a corner gaslight: these were some of the sights and sounds of a Victorian Christmas.
Preparations began long before the holidays. Handmade gifts were lovelingly prepared in the greatest of secrecy!! Friends and family gave and received a dazzling array of cleverly conceived and skillfully made gifts. Directions for creating whimsical as well as practical items abounded in monthly publications and everyone ransacked the house for odds and ends of fabric and lace, lengths of silky ribbon, shiny bits of paper, velvet, feathers, and seashells - all treasures to be used in making that special gift for someone. As the popularity of celebrating the season increased, commercially made items were purchased as gifts - but those "special handmade treasures" continued to be lovingly given and received.
The kitchen was an especially busy place during the holidays. Precious ingredients were assembled, measured and mixed, then baked in the roomy interiors of wood stoves. A parade of fruit-stuffed cakes, crumbly cookies and other toothsome treats emerged from the oven's black depths amid fragrant puffs of steam. The booty was packed away in gaily painted tins and salt-glazed crocks and stored in cool corners of the pantry to await their presentation during the holiday rivalries.
As Christmas Day grew nearer, decorating the home became a priority. Evergreen, accented with bows and beads, was festooned from every available surface - and of course the masterpiece of the house was the Christmas Tree. Queen Victoria and her German prince, Albert set the fashion of decorating the Christmas Tree. This quickly became the custom in America. At first, the tree's decorations consisted of gifts, candies, cakes, and sugared fruits. However, the Victorian love of knickknacks, and ruffles and flourishes inspired engaging trinkets and gossamer baubles, both handmade and commercial, which quickly invaded the tree. Garlands, ropes, paper angels, birds, lacy cornucopias brimming with sugarplums, snowflakes, scraps, candles, and silver tinsel combined in glorious array on the branches of the Victorian Christmas Tree. Often, all of this finery magically appeared on the tree after the children of the house had been tucked into bed on Christmas Eve. Imagine the wonder when the parlor doors were thrown open and the tree stood in all it's glory!!
Another custom embraced by the Victorians was that of sending Christmas cards and post cards. The custom of sending commercially printed Christmas cards originated in London in 1843, but it wasn't until 1875 that Boston lithographer Louis Prang began publishing cards, and earned the title "father of the American Christmas card". During the early part of the nineteenth century people didn't send cards, first because there were none, and second - any mail sent required the receiver not the sender to pay the postage - much like our collect phone calls of today! - and people didn't want to burden the card receiver with postage due. Prang's cards were costly and initially featured not images of the Madonna and Child, a decorated tree, or even Santa Clause, but colored floral arrangements of roses, daisies, gardenias, geraniums, and apple blossoms, or pictures of children, birds and angels. When postal regulations changed and the card recipent no longer had to pay the postage, Americans took to the custom of sending Christmas Cards. However the cost and design of Prang's cards caused them to fall from grace and he was forced out of business in 1890. It was the cheap penny Christmas postcards imported from Germany that remained the vogue until World War I.