Position:Home>History> What was Christmas like in the Victorian times?

It did sometimes snow at Christmas in England, but not always (the same nowadays)!.

Then, as now, some people were more selfish than others!.

What sort of gifts you gave or received was likely to depend on how much money you had, then as now!. Children would probably hope to receive the latest toys, then as now!. Dolls and dolls' houses were of course popular with girls, and toy soldiers with boys!. Books and balls and paintboxes would be popular with both boys and girls!.

Goose had long been a popular Christmas dish, but turkey became more popular in the Victorian era as it had more meat on it!. The plum pudding was a popular part of Christmas dinner, it would have brandy poured over it which would be set alight!. Traditionally, there would be small silver charms inside the pudding, the one who got the sixpence would be rich, the one who got the thimble would be an old maid, the one who got the horseshoe would be lucky, and so on!. Mince pies wre another popular Christmas dish, originally made with meat, 'mince' had come to mean a mixture of dried fruit similar to the contents of a Christmas pudding!.

Santa Claus was not known in Britain until the mid-Victorian era, when his cult arrived here from America!. The idea that Christmas presents were delivered by a supernatural agency was a new one!. I don't know at what age children would stop believing in Santa Claus (Father Christmas as he was more popularly known in england), again it probably varied!. Poor children, who might leave school and go out to work at ten or twelve years old, probably grew up quicker than the children of the wealthy or the middle classes!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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I'm sure that this link is a shopping site, but it may give you some ideas!.

http://www!.victoriana!.com/christmas/defa!.!.!.

When Queen Victoria was crowned, Christmas in England was passe - the only people who celebrated it were Catholics, and you know how they are! A "God bless ye, merry!" might have been exchanged on Christmas Day, but otherwise, it was business as usual!. Nobody "kept" Christmas!.

Then, though, a treaty required Young Victoria to marry Prince Albert of Germany, and HE brought the Teutonic Christmas to Buckingham Palace with it's decorated yew tree (an evergreen tree) in the parlor, and the candles and apples (the ancestors of today's lights and ornaments) on it, and the hearth decorated with fir branches and stockings (for presents and candy), and, for the first time, a card in the mail with a photograph of the Royal Family and a Christmas sentiment - the first Christmas cards!!.

Most of today's Christmas comes from the German holiday that Albert brought to England, and at the time, after some resistance from people like Ebeneezer Scrooge (it was this resistance to German Christmas that inspired Dickens to write his famous Christmas Carol) England accepted this good thing into their lives!.

As for your other questions, there was no Santa Claus, he's really an American adaptation of the Dutch Sinter 'Klaus (Saint Nicholas) and didn't become popular until Clement Moore's poem!.!.

The selfishness and greed that marks our holiday really is a child of television, so it didn't start until after WW II!.

Snow was more common in England then, despite the effects of the Gulf Stream due to the last years of "the LIttle Ice Age" which was caused by volcanic activity!.

The traditional Christmas meal was a fowl of some kind: a stuffed goose if you could afford it, otherwise, a turkey or duck!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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http://www!.amazon!.co!.uk/Christmas-Carol-!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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