Christmas, everyone’s favourite holiday, has its roots deep in our history. Although it’s celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ in Christian culture since its dawn, it has taken the modern known form only over the last two hundred years or so. What makes you think of Christmas? Perhaps it’s Santa Claus, sliding through our chimneys to bring presents, or festively decorated trees that illuminate the whole house. Maybe it’s a table covered with elaborate dishes, and your family gathering around it to celebrate the holidays. 

Whatever it is, the traditions you love were most likely born during the Victorian Era, a period of change and innovation. Let’s see which of the customs we have today are much older than one would imagine. 

The Christmas Tree

It’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly the first Christmas tree was decorated: some sources cite the Protestant Martin Luther as the one who thought of adding candles to an evergreen tree. What’s for sure is that this tradition was born in Central Europe, particularly Germany, and the Baltic States. The first concrete evidence of trees being decorated in these places can be traced back to the late Renaissance, where, on Christmas Day, in rural households, trees were adorned with sweets for children to find. Similar stories are told about small trees filled with nuts, fruits, and paper flowers in other places in Europe. 

Everything changed when, in the early 19th century, European nobility discovered these customs and adopted them. Decorating trees became a staple of Christmas celebrations when a 13-year-old Princess Victoria, future Queen of England, asked for a tree to be placed in her room every year. After her marriage to the German-born Prince Albert, such custom became even more popular when the middle class could afford to follow suit, thanks to industrialisation. 

Depending on where you live and your family tradition, the day for setting up the tree for Christmas varies. Traditionally, the tree was decorated on Christmas Eve as it was a gift itself, or on Advent Sunday, the first Sunday of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

The most commonly used type of tree was the fir tree, and people would fill its branches with whatever they had at hand: dried fruits, nuts, wooden objects, and, in wealthy houses, gingerbread and white candy canes. They were all lighted with candles, and the very first glass baubles were handmade in Germany. Illustrations of the Royal Family together, decorating a Christmas tree, that could be found in newspapers back in the day, not only humanized the sovereigns, but also helped turn an almost unknown tradition into a Christmas staple.

Father Christmas

Yes, Santa Claus wasn’t always called by that name. In fact, the picture we have of him is relatively recent when compared to the ‘original’ one, that of Father Christmas. The personification of Christmas, in the beginning, was but a symbol of the festive season, of what good and abundance it brought. Throughout history, there can be found some instances where people weren’t visited by Father Christmas, but by similar figures. Arguably, the most famous is that of St. Nicholas. He was a 4th-century Greek bishop who was credited with doing many miracles. The most famous was one where a poor man was about to sell his three daughters, out of despair, so, one night, St Nicholas slipped into their house and left three bags of gold into the stockings which were drying by the fire, therefore saving them. His name was widespread throughout Medieval Europe, to the point where a new tradition was born, that of him supposedly leaving gifts to children on the night of December 6^th, which is still celebrated in Eastern European countries.

When immigrants brought stories of St. Nicholas to the USA in the 18^th century, Santa Claus was born. He carried presents for (good) children as the saint did, yet he took on a final form later on, as we’ll see.

The English Father Christmas differed slightly from Santa Claus, as he was a figure thought for adults, the emblem of ‘good cheer’ and prosperity. He was often seen in newspapers during the holidays, and his looks were inspired by the Ghost of Christmas Present from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The cheerful, green-robed phantom, surrounded by holly and delicious dishes, was everything Christmas stood for in many Victorian families. He showed Scrooge that, even in situations of poverty, what should be celebrated was the presence of loved ones in your life.

It wasn’t until the late Victorian period that Father Christmas and Santa Claus became one. The similarities between the two merged into a singular figure. In the UK, he was still called Father Christmas and held onto his blue or green cape, while the rest of the world fully embraced the gift-bearing Santa.

Nevertheless, it is said that the Santa Claus we know was actually just the mascot of a marketing campaign. During the 1930s, the Coca-Cola company needed to prepare efficient advertisements to promote their soda for the holidays, so they decided to give Santa Claus a bright red suit, an icy bottle of Coke, and phrases of the likes of ‘’My hat’s off to the pause that refreshes.’’

Some, after the drink became a universally known, thought that Santa Claus was ‘invented’ by Coca-Cola, yet as we’ve previously seen, it’s more accurate to say that Charles Dickens did.

Christmas Dinner

Speaking of the English novelist, did you know that he turned the casual dinner people had on Christmas Day into a tradition? Perhaps he didn’t start it, but the mouth-watering descriptions of feasts found, once again, in A Christmas Carol were great enough to prompt people into creating their own banquets. The origins of such dinners can be traced back to Medieval times, where these gatherings weren’t about being together and sharing a moment of peace, but rather an act of hope for the new year. During the Winter Solstice, great banquets were held, tables filled with beef, fruits, and other types of meat, all symbolizing fortune and prosperity.

            In A Christmas Carol, we see the Ghost of Christmas Past helping the old man to remember one of the parties he attended in his youth, at Fezziwig’s, one of Scrooge’s first employers. ‘’There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and a great piece of cold roast, and a great piece of cold boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came after the roast and boiled.’’ This is what he sees happening in his past, and this scene is a perfect example of how the bourgeoisie and aristocracy celebrated Christmas, with fat turkeys (like the one Scrooge buys at the end of the novel) as well as Christmas pudding which is a traditional british dessert that consists of a mixture of breadcrumbs, sugar, dried fruits, and spices, topped with holly, popularized during the Victorian Era by Dickens’ book. Sometimes, a silver coin was added to the pudding, and it was said that he who would find it in their portion of the dessert would have a wealthy year.

This lively picture is contrasted with another pivotal scene in A Christmas Carol, that of the Cratchit dinner. Bob Cratchit is Scrooge’s employee, he has a big family, and they live at the edge of poverty. Ebenezer, being the grouch that he is, is aware of this yet refuses to raise the man’s salary, this until the Ghost of Christmas Past’s intervention. The phantom brings Scrooge to the Cratchit house, where he discovers that Bob’s youngest, Timmy, is seriously ill and walks with a crutch. Even in poverty, the family manages to host a beautiful Christmas dinner, as described here: ‘’Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds […] Mrs Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths […] There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family […] Mrs Cratchit left the room alone — too nervous to bear witness — to take the pudding up and bring it in.’’

This part of the book shows how the essential ingredient for the perfect Christmas dinner aren’t expensive foods, but the love for one another. It’s also an important historical document: we know that with Dickens’ novel’s popularity, the custom of preparing a special set of dishes for Christmas Day became a custom for English households, even the lowest ones.

Cards, Crackers, and Stockings

I think that we can all agree on one thing: Christmas is made of little things, elements that enrich the glowing atmosphere that trees and dinners offer us. A good example are Christmas postcards, and although sending them isn’t as popular nowadays, they were essential for Victorian festivities. The first was sent to James I of England, yet ‘official’ Christmas cards began circulating in the 1840s, when Queen Victoria asked for a series of portraits from the Royal Family’s life to be printed onto cards and circulated, making them the first commercial Christmas cards. From there on, choosing and inscribing beautifully illustrated postcards for family and friends became a way to connect and send wishes at a few pennies’ price.

However, one of the defining Christmas traditions introduced by the Victorians isn’t very popular outside of England, that of the crackers. For those who haven’t heard of it, a Christmas cracker is a candy-shaped packet, usually found on tables before Christmas dinner, which makes a popping sound when pulled open. It contains all sorts of things, from sweets to riddles, but the strangest object that’s always present is a paper crown, which everyone has to wear until the end of the feast. They were invented by confectioner Tom Smith, who, in 1847, noticed that sales of bonbons had decreased, forcing him to find a new way to market the sweets, naming the new product the ‘Bangs of Expectations’. Even now, they always find a way to sneak into English Christmas dinners, bringing along bad puns and candy.

Now, to touch upon a more familiar item, let’s see how the hanging of festive stockings came to be. A Christmas stocking is a large, brightly coloured sock or sock-shaped bag that is, in a way, the tree’s predecessor. As we saw earlier, after the legend of St. Nicholas spread around Europe, some began leaving their socks by the chimney, hoping that the following morning they’d find coins, small toys, and fruits. Early Victorians discovered this tradition and decided to hang stockings on Christmas Eve instead of the 6^th of December. At first, it was for parents to leave little gifts for their children, and as the myth of Father Christmas became more and more popular, stockings were put up in the hopes that he’d be generous enough to give good kids a few additional presents.

Recommendations

As a Christmas present to the reader, I thought that recommending media I came across during my research for this article would be a lovely gift. Grab a cup of hot chocolate and some gingerbread and enjoy!

MOVIES AND SHOWS

• The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) is the story of how Charles Dickens came to write his masterpiece, A Christmas Carol
• Little Women (1994), based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, opens at Christmas, where the March sisters are celebrating, and the whole movie gives us an insight into America during the Victorian period.
• A Christmas Carol (2019), this HBO show is for those who have seen all adaptations of Dickens’ work and don’t shy away from gloomier, at times crude scenes. 
• The Christmas Candle (2013), set in an English Village in the late 19th century, is the story of a pastor who, after losing a loved one, looks into a town’s belief that there’s a candle that, if lit up on Christmas Eve, grants whoever lit it a miracle. 

BOOKS

• Victorian Christmas: Traditional Recipes, Decorations, Activities, and Carols by Lucinda Hawksley is a recollection of Victorian customs, from cuisine to decorations, as well as games and anything in between.
• The Fir-Tree by Hans Christian Andersen is a tale about a little fir-tree who wishes to grow up to be decorated as grandly as the bigger trees, forgetting to seize the moment. 
• The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories by Tara Moore.  In this collection of Victorian-set, Christmas short stories, we can find authors of the likes of Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Arthur Conan Doyle gathered together in a literary Christmas concert.
• A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett is set during the Victorian era, and though it isn’t fully set around Christmas, it includes one of literature’s most famous Christmas scenes as the novel summarizes what the holidays are about: kindness, charity, and the joy one can find in friendship and the small, simple things. 

ARTICLES AND VIDEOS

• https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/christmas/victorian-christmas-traditions/
• https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/christmas/the-history-of-father-christmas/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22TtC0_Mhmg
• https://youtu.be/jdULP-VYuXk?si=6jw1k41-GYZIjuHN

I will end the story by quoting Mr. Dickens, “…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! “