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Victorian Christmas Traditions |
| Victorian Christmas - After the Puritan ban on celebrations, it took 200
years for Christmas to once again become an important event. Many of the things we most
love at Christmas started in the Victorian age, such as sending cards, and the invention
of the Christmas cracker. The picture of a fat, jolly Father Christmas or Santa Claus,
dates from Victorian times. The Christmas tree became popular, as did gift shopping in big
stores. In England, the Boxing Day holiday also started in the nineteenth century. |
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| Christmas Crackers - The first illustration of
a Christmas cracker appeared in The Illustrated London News in 1847, but there is some
argument as to who invented them. Two London sweet makers, Tom Smith, and James Hovell,
both claim to have invented the cracker. In 1840s Paris, sweets called
"bon-bons" were wrapped in twists of brightly colored paper. Tom Smith (or James
Hovell) brought back the idea but added a little slip of paper with a message on it,
called "kiss mottoes." Later, other attractions were added, such as little paper
hats, tokens and small toys, plus the "crack." It is said that Tom (or James)
was sitting in front of his Christmas fire where the yule logs were crackling, which gave
him the idea of putting a cracker strip inside his bon-bons. The crackers were also made
to look like tiny yule logs, as they still do today. |
| Christmas Cards - Children in Victorian England had the task of writing
greetings to their parents in their very best handwriting. Sometimes adults wrote
Christmas letters to each other, but this could take up a great deal of time. The printed
Christmas card solved the problem. The custom of sending printed cards was started in
England by Henry Cole, who did not have time to write letters to each of his relatives. He
asked an artist, John Calcott Horsley, to design a card for him. About 1,000 of these
cards were printed, and those not used by Sir Henry were sold by the printer for one
shilling. This was not cheap, which may be why they did not sell very well. With the
introduction of the "penny post" in 1840, it became cheaper to send mail, and as
a result of color printing and the invention of printing machines, cards could be printed
faster and cheaper. The first company to print and sell Christmas cards on a large scale
was Charles Goodall & Sons of London in 1862. The first charity card was produced in
1949 by UNICEF. Richard H. Pease, a printer from Albany, New York, is credited with
sending the first specially printed Christmas card in America, in 1851. It managed to make
the first mistake in Christmas card history. The card showed a building on which was hung
a banner proclaiming "Pease's Great Variety Store." |
| Christmas Mail - In America in 1822, the postmaster of Washington, DC,
complained that he had to add 16 mailmen at Christmas to deal with cards alone. He wanted
the number of cards a person could send limited by law. "I don't know what we'll do
if this keeps on," he wrote. |
Letters to Santa - The following was printed in the New York Exchange in
December 1893 - "Dear Mr. Santa Claus, I only want a pare of skates for Christmas and
if it ain't cold a sled will do. My old ones bust. If they Anita no snow I would like
anything you think of. My mamma says you are poor this year..."
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Charles Dickens - By the early part of the nineteenth century Christmas
had almost died out. The Times newspaper, for example, did not once mention Christmas
between 1790 and 1835. Charles Dickens with his story A Christmas Carol did more than
anyone to change all that. His tale of Scrooge, the Cratchit's, and Tiny Tim was a smash
hit from the start. He wrote the story in just two months, beginning in October 1843 and
finishing at the end of November. The book was published on 17 December 1843 and
immediately sold out.
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