Christmas as we know it today was not always how the holiday was celebrated and it was not always so widely acknowledged by people in all walks of life. It wasn't until the Victorian era and the publishing of Dickens' A Christmas Carol that celebration, generosity, and festivity of all sorts were associated with the holiday. For my research on the show I dove into the evolution of Christmas throughout Dickens' life and how the novella as well as the era itself shaped the holiday as we know it.
“While Charles Dickens did not invent the Victorian Christmas, his book A Christmas Carol is credited with helping to popularize and spread the traditions of the festival. Its themes of family, charity, goodwill, peace and happiness encapsulate the spirit of the Victorian Christmas, and are very much a part of the Christmas we celebrate today.” (Victorian Christmas)
Regency Era Christmas
Late Georgian era England, or the Regency era was the time that Charles Dickens grew up. In this period Christmas was celebrated mostly in the country and with much less fanfare than we see today. Mostly Christmas was celebrated by the wealthy at their country estates by hanging greenery, depending on the part of England, you might use evergreen boughs, holly, ivy, hawthorn, rosemary, and/or Christmas Rose (hellebore). One might also use mistletoe, although it grows mostly in the western and southwestern parts of Britain. Christmas was also celebrated by attending church and having a large meal shared with as many friends and family as one could gather. The most important part of a Christmas celebration was the gathering of people, but there was not much about the holiday that set it apart from any other gathering throughout the year. Due to the holiday’s lack of popularity, the celebration did not even reach the city, as mentioned before, and those from London who did choose to celebrate often did so by visiting family in the country.
Victorian Era Christmas
The popularity of Christmas grew dramatically under the rule of Queen Victoria, mostly due to the influence of her husband Prince Albert as he was from Germany where Christmas was a much more widely celebrated holiday. Common Christmas traditions that we know today began under their rule, and many of them were created by Dickens himself and popularized due to the success of the novel.
“Christmas, I always look upon as a most dear happy time, also for Albert, who enjoyed it naturally still more in his happy home, which mine, certainly, as a child, was not. It is a pleasure to have this blessed festival associated with one’s happiest days. The very smell of the Christmas Trees of pleasant memories. To think, we have already 2 Children now, & one who already enjoys the sight, — it seems like a dream.”
Entry from Queen Victoria’s journal on 24 December 1841
Victorian Christmas stockings: filled with sweet treats
One way to celebrate Christmas that began thanks to Prince Albert’s German traditions was that of Christmas stockings. Victorian children looked forward to finding their stocking full of sweet treats and handmade presents, as was popular at the time. Upper class children would find treats like barley sugar twisted into festive shapes, one that remained popular being that of a cane, and one especially sought after treat was that of Everton Toffee, a treacle and butter mixture that is similar to our toffee today. Lower class children were more likely to receive gifts such as citrus fruit and a few nuts.
TO MAKE EVERTON TOFFEE
Get one pound of treacle, the same quantity of moist sugar and half a pound of butter. Put them in a saucepan large enough to allow of fast boiling over a clear fire. Put in the butter first and rub it well over the bottom of the saucepan, and add the treacle and the sugar, stirring together gently with a knife.
After it has boiled for about 10 minutes, ascertain if it is done, in the following way:- Have ready a basin of cold water, and drop a little of the mixture into it from the point of a knife. If it is sufficiently done, when you take it from the water it will be quite crisp.
Now prepare a large shallow tin pan, or dish, rubbed all over with butter, to prevent its adhering, and into this pour the toffee from the saucepan to get cold, when it can be easily removed. To keep it good, it should be excluded from the air.
From Cassell’s Household Guide (1869)
Victorian Christmas Dinner
“It was a regular Christmas dinner, with turkeys, Baron of Beef, Plum Pudding & Mince Pies.”
Entry from Queen Victoria’s journal 25th December 1843.
“Perhaps this was a regular Christmas dinner for Queen Victoria, but for her subjects the Christmas feast was a less elaborate affair. No matter what your economic circumstances a festive bird was central to Christmas dinner. During the early part of Victoria’s reign this would have meant a goose (like the one consumed by the Cratchits in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol).
Local ‘Goose Clubs’ were established early on in the year so that poorer people could save a few pennies a week from their wages to buy their bird. If you didn’t have your own oven (which many households did not) then you could take your goose to the local baker to be cooked ready for Christmas morning.” (Sanders)
“The turkey truly began to usurp the goose (or swan if you were royalty) from pride of place towards the end of the 19th century, particularly in middle class households. Royal Christmas feasts would include a dazzling array of dishes. These sumptuous spreads would feature a choice of soups like Mock Turtle (made from calves head – a very popular alternative to real turtle soup during the Victorian era); several fish dishes; a number of roasts including a baron of beef and boars head (a particular favourite of Prince Albert); game pies as well as plum pudding and mince pies.” (Sanders)
The Invention of the Christmas Card
“In 1843 Henry Cole commissioned an artist to design a card for Christmas. The illustration showed a group of people around a dinner table and a Christmas message. At one shilling each, these were pricey for ordinary Victorians and so were not immediately accessible. However the sentiment caught on and many children - Queen Victoria's included – were encouraged to make their own Christmas cards. In this age of industrialization color printing technology quickly became more advanced, causing the price of card production to drop significantly. Together with the introduction of the halfpenny postage rate, the Christmas card industry took off.” (Victorian Christmas)
The Invention of the Christmas Cracker
“The greater widespread industrialization of the country had helped to create a new middle class with a greater disposable income. Increased prosperity across Britain saw a rising market for mass-produced toys, decorations and novelty items such as the Christmas cracker. Inspired by bon bons (French sugared almonds wrapped in paper) he saw during a trip to Paris, sweetshop owner Tom Smith first invented the cracker in the 1840s.
It wasn’t until the 1860s, when Smith perfected its explosive ‘bang’ that the Christmas cracker as we know it today became a popular seasonal staple. Along with a joke, gifts inside could range from small trinkets such as whistles and miniature dolls to more substantial items like jewellery.”(V&A)
The Christmas Tree
The Victorian age placed great importance on family, so it follows that Christmas was celebrated at home. For many, the new railway networks made this possible. Those who had left the countryside to seek work in cities could return home for Christmas and spend their precious days off with loved ones. Family life was epitomized by the popular Queen Victoria, her husband Albert and their nine children. One of the most important Christmas traditions, the decorated Christmas tree, was a custom introduced to Britain by Prince Albert.
The idea of an indoor Christmas tree originated in Germany, where Albert was born. In 1848 the Illustrated London News published a drawing of the royal family celebrating around a tree bedecked with ornaments. The popularity of decorated Christmas trees grew quickly, and with it came a market for tree ornaments in bright colours and reflective materials that would shimmer and glitter in the candlelight.
Christmas Carols
The publication of Davies Gilbert's 1823 work Some Ancient Christmas Carols, With the Tunes to Which They Were Formerly Sung in the West of England and William Sandys's 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern led to a growth in the form's popularity in Britain.
Direct Effects of the Novel - Christmas traditions
While all of the traditions shaped in the Victorian era were somewhat inspired by the publication of A Christmas Carol, some traditions that are still known today were directly shaped from the novel itself.
A more general effect is the atmosphere and spirit of the holiday that has stuck around all this time. While it was always seen as a time to gather with loved ones, it was not the essential time of giving and togetherness that it has become today until Dickins made it so.
“A Christmas Carol tapped into a long-repressed hunger for what historian Ronald Hutton calls ‘a family-centered festival of generosity’ which Dickens himself defined in the aftermath of the success of a A Christmas Carol”(McGovern):
Christmas Day … bound together all our home enjoyments, affections and hopes…
Charles Dickens What Christmas Is As We Grow Older, 1851
Merry Christmas
While the term merry had been associated with Christmas since the 1700s it did not pick up in popularity until the almost overlapping events of Henry Cole’s first Christmas card, which had the phrase Merry Christmas printed on the front, and the publishing of A Christmas Carol. Both of these events spurred the public to begin using the phrase as a greeting and it has stuck around ever since.
“Bah! Humbug!”
A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. When referring to a person, a humbug means a fraud or impostor, implying an element of unjustified publicity and spectacle. This phrase was coined by Dickens for his character Ebenezer Scrooge and became a slang term in common vernacular, however today it is most often associated with the character and novella.
Sources for this post
A Georgian Christmas: A Regency Christmas. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/A-Georgian-Christmas/
A Victorian Christmas. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/A-Victorian-Christmas/
Christmas, Regency Style. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from http://www.reginascott.com/christmas.htm
First Victorian Christmas Tree. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from http://www.victoriana.com/christmas/tree-99.htm
Geoffrey Rowell | Published in History Today Volume 43 Issue 12 December 1993, & Fellow, G. (n.d.). Dickens and the Construction of Christmas. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.historytoday.com/archive/dickens-and-construction-christmas
Hanc, J. (2015, December 09). The History of the Christmas Card. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-christmas-card-180957487/
Humbug. (2020, October 22). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbug
Kosann, M. (2019, November 26). Monica Rich Kosann. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.monicarichkosann.com/blogs/journal/a-royal-love-story
McGovern, K. (2020, October 04). Did Dickens invent Christmas? Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://medium.com/@eslreading/is-charles-dickens-the-man-who-invented-christmas-9391d2bf9e8e
McNamara, R. (n.d.). How Most of Our Christmas Traditions Began In the 1800s. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-christmas-traditions-1773799
Rex), (., & Getty), (. (2012, December 27). Charles Dickens is the REAL Father of Christmas: How the author defined our festive spirit. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-charles-dickens-shaped-christmas-1506955
Sanders, K. (2017, January 03). How did Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularise Christmas? Retrieved November 06, 2020, from http://blog.english-heritage.org.uk/how-did-queen-victoria-and-prince-albert-popularise-christmas/
Some ancient Christmas carols : With the tunes to which they were formerly sung in the west of England : Gilbert, Davies, 1767-1839 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. (1970, January 01). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/SomeAncientChristmasCarols
Victorian Christmas - History of Christmas. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2020, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/victorianchristmas/history.shtml
V&A · Victorian Christmas traditions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/victorian-christmas-traditions
An engraving depicting the maid bringing in the Christmas pudding. Illustrated by Davidson Knowles (1852-1901) a British landscape painter. Dated 19th century. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Bettmann. (n.d.). Illustration of children unpacking an enormous stocking full of toys... Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/christmas-greeting-card-illustration-of-children-unpacking-news-photo/517201934?adppopup=true
Christmas card showing a boy and girl pulling a cracker, about 1880, England. Museum no. E.2669:357-1953. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Christmas with Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, their children and Queen Victoria's mother, in 1848 (from Illustrated London News), 1848. Found in the collection of Royal Collection, London. Artist : Anonymous. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
circa 1850: Queen Victoria's Christmas tree on display on Christmas Eve at Windsor Castle. Original Publication: The Graphic - pub. 1887 By J Roberts (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Hanc, J. (2015, December 09). The History of the Christmas Card. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-christmas-card-180957487/
Some ancient Christmas carols : With the tunes to which they were formerly sung in the west of England : Gilbert, Davies, 1767-1839 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. (1970, January 01). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/SomeAncientChristmasCarols
VICTORIA & ALBERT DECORATE THE CHRISTMAS TREE, ILLUSTRATION FROM GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK, DECEMBER 1860.
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