christmas is quite possibly the most widely celebrated holiday around the world
but that wasn't always the case it might be hard to imagine this but it wasn't until the mid-1800s
that christmas became the festive celebration wrapped in traditions that we know today
in fact many businesses did not even consider it to be a holiday so what happened hi everyone my
name is ken welcome to this house today we are uncovering the victorian era roots of today's
christmas traditions the iconic scenes that we now recognize as belonging to christmas can
be traced back to queen victoria in 1848 the illustrated london news published a handmade
drawing of queen victoria and her german-born husband prince albert along with their entire
family posing in front of an evergreen tree that was decorated with candles and set indoors
this was a tradition that was celebrated in germany and was known as the paradise tree
christian german families as far back as the 16th century would decorate a tree
on december 24th with candles and wafers to celebrate the religious feast of adam and eve
a tradition that symbolized to christian germans the idea of redemption in their faith
when the illustrated london news published the photo of the royal family posing with the tree
the entire western world soon followed suit it was said that the very next day every house in
london could be seen with the tree in their front window decorated with candles fruits and homemade
decorations and even small gifts around this time the first christmas card was commissioned
by henry cole in full color the card depicted a family sitting around a table with a message
merry christmas and a happy new year to you these cards were sold at the price of one shilling each
this was very expensive at the time and only the wealthier victorians could afford to purchase
them to greet each other the sentiment of sending christmas cards quickly caught on
and working-class people began to make their own at home to give to family and close friends this
activity was especially popular with children who would have fun crafting the cards and decorating
them with household items such as noodles string and anything else that was inexpensive and could
easily be arranged on a card this all happened during the age of industrialization so the
price of christmas cards would quickly become more accessible by the working class as printing became
a major part of everyday operations for companies by the year 1880 the sending of christmas cards in
full color was common practice for people of all economic backgrounds and the industry grew to sell
over 11 and a half million christmas cards in that year alone going back to the year 1848 another
tradition had been born tom smith a british confectioner pioneered a new way to advertise
the sale of his sweets he visited paris where he encountered a new type of candy the bon bon these
were almonds that had been sweetened by sugar and wrapped in colorful twists of paper smith
decided to recreate this back in london where he would call his new candy the christmas cracker
it was a simple package of assorted sweets that was wrapped in paper and would make a satisfying
popping sound when a child would open it later on the sweets would be replaced with smaller gifts
and then again with paper hats that the children could wear the christmas cracker would continue to
evolve into what we know it as today following this time decorating the home would become a
tradition that persists to this day the medieval tradition of decorating walls and windows with
twigs and sprigs would no longer be seen as desirable in towns it became of high fashion
to decorate the home with synthetic materials such as garland and reeds in fact specific instructions
would be given out by the media of the time for decorating homes the cassells family magazine ran
an article in 1881 that read to bring about a general feeling of enjoyment much depends
on the surroundings it is worthwhile to bestow some little trouble on the decoration of rooms
messages like this would encourage families to create a festive environment throughout the house
and from this era were born window displays seasonal tabled cloths and assortments of other
festive decor traditionally new year had been the major holiday where families would exchange small
simple gifts of fruits nuts and sweets with each other but as christmas grew in popularity the
tradition of exchanging gifts was moved forward to christmas day as the years went on the tradition
of gift giving became more central to the holiday the simple gifts would be replaced by store-bought
gifts and would be placed underneath a tree and wrapped in colorful paper a tradition that
continues on to this day gifts would be opened in the morning and followed by a feast traditionally
there had always been a feast on this day ever since the height of the roman empire however
instead of celebrating the pagan holiday of saturnalia people were celebrating christmas some
of the earliest victorian christmas recipes called for mince pies made for meat to be served this was
a traditional dish that was served throughout the middle ages at this time of year this would
quickly change as the upper classes would serve pies made without meat the main course would
become either a beef dish or a roasted goose by the late 1880s wealthier victorians had replaced a
goose with a roast turkey the middle class quickly caught on to this dish as it was the perfect size
to feed a large gathering of people for dinner the practicality of a roast turkey meant that it
would go on to become the most popular dish by the beginning of the 1900s while christmas had
been celebrated only by the most devout christians before the victorian times it was the victorians
who popularized the holiday as we know it today they centered the festivities around family
gatherings gift giving feast and entertainment to be shared by the youngest and the oldest in the
whole family thank you all for watching please make sure to like and comment if you liked this
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