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Early Christmas trees
Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, is credited for introducing the Christmas tree to Britain. In 1848, the Illustrated London News published a drawing of the Royal family celebrating Christmas around a decorated tree at Windsor Castle.
Prince Albert brought the tree over from his native Germany, where it was already commonplace to bring evergreens inside the home at Christmas and decorate them.
People of the Victorian era soon followed in the footsteps of the Royal family and introduced Christmas trees into their homes. They would gather a tree from the hillsides and put it up on Christmas Eve, until the 12th day of Christmas, on 6 January.
Christmas trees in the Victorian era would be decorated with fruits, nuts and homemade sweets, biscuits or gingerbread men. Sometimes, decorations would be made by hand, such as ribbons or paper chains. Candles would also be placed on the tree, to represent the stars in the sky when Jesus was born.
Those people with more wealth would own larger trees and their decorations would be bigger and more elaborate than those who were poor. Whatever the status of the owner, families would gather around their tree and sing traditional carols.
As industrialisation took hold, factories started to pop up, where mass-produced glass decorations became increasingly popular. The first adverts for tree ornaments were published in 1853, and by 1880, Woolworths started selling manufactured tree ornaments.
Other Victorian traditions
It's not just the Christmas tree that the Victorians introduced to Britain. Many other Christmas traditions stem from this time. Interestingly, Christmas was hardly celebrated before Queen Victoria's reign in 1837, but by the end of the century, Christmas was the most important celebration in Britain.
The Christmas card was also introduced during Victorian times, by Sir Henry Cole, in 1843. He commissioned an artist to draw a festive scene and got 1,000 copies printed. As technology and printing techniques advanced, sending Christmas cards became a popular and affordable activity for everyone.
Sweetshop owner Tom Smith invented the Christmas cracker in the 1840s. It was inspired by a French sweet wrapped in paper. As Tom's idea developed, he added small gifts instead of sweets and made the cracker go bang.
The industrialisation of the Victorian age allowed some families to enjoy increased wealth. This meant they could take time off on Christmas day. Servants would be allowed the day off after Christmas, and they would be given a box of gifts by their employer. This is where Boxing Day is said to stem from.
Christmas trees today
While many people still enjoy decorating a real Christmas tree, artificial trees became popular from the 1930s onwards, and are still widely sold today. Often made of wood, plastic or glass, mass-produced ornaments are also readily available and inexpensive nowadays. While few people now hang nuts or fruit on their tree, hanging chocolate coins is popular. Almost certainly, nobody today will decorate their tree with real candles because of the fire risk, but instead, the lights to represent stars in the sky are replaced by fairy lights.
Whatever you decide to hang on your Christmas tree, it's always a good idea to store decorations away safely and securely for the following year. At Solent Plastics, you'll find a great range of affordable storage solutions in different sizes that are ideal for storing your Christmas tree decorations.
The Solent Plastics team would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!