Victoria at Christmas

Throughout her long life, Queen Victoria loved celebrating Christmas .  She described it as "as most dear, happy time".  After the death of Prince Albert the joy of Christmas deserted her for many years but she eventually regained it.

The sending of Christmas cards originated in Victoria's reign, made possible by the arrival of the penny post.

Prince Albert is usually given the credit for introducing the Christmas Tree into England but this is not the case.  Victoria had known christmas trees well, even in her childhood.  It was Queen Charlotte, the wife of George the third who was first responsible for the decoration and lighting up of christmas trees (this was a German tradition and probably why it has been credited to Prince Albert).

Victoria always kept a journal and her entry for Christmas Eve 1832 (she was thirteen) reads "After dinner... we went into the drawing-room near the dining-room.  There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees, hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed around the trees."

She goes on to state the presents she gave and received.  Her mother gave her a pink bag which she had made herself, a small opal brooch and earring, books, some prints, a pink satin dress and a cloak lined with fur.  Her Aunt Sophia gave her a dress, one again something she had made herself for the child.  Her Aunt Mary gave her a pair of Amethyst earrings.

Victoria gave her mother a white bag (made by herself) a collar and steel chain for her dog.  To her aunt Sophia she gave a pair of turquoise earrings.  To her governess, Lehzen, she gave a white and gold pincushion and a pin with two gold hearts hanging on it.

After her marriage to Albert, Victoria always took care to encourage German Christmas customs into the royal household to make Albert feel at home.  They had nine children and as their family grew Albert was to write "I must now seek in the children an echo of what my brother Ernest and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas trees is not less than ours used to be."

Albert chose to decorate the trees himself with wax dolls, sweets, strings of almonds and raisins and candles which were lit on Christmas Eve for the distribution of presents (the royal family have always exchanged presents on Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day).  The candles were then re-lit on Christmas Day itself after which the tree was moved to another room until Twelfth Night.

During Christmas Eve all members of the royal household would be invited to meet the Queen and the Prince near a small tree that was decorated with bonbons, gilded walnuts and coloured candles.  Each person was given a present and each present was carefully labelled personally by the Queen with the person's name upon it.  The ladies were given small items of jewellery such as lockets and chains, the gentlemen received pearl studs or gold waistcoat buttons and the governesses were given books.  Everyone was also presented with an engraving of the Queen and her family and also almanacs and German Gingerbread.

The family always gave gifts to the household before they exchanged their own presents and the children would shout and jump for joy when their turn came.  One courtier stated " I never saw more real happiness than the scene of the mother and all her children." 

The Queen had three sitting rooms.  Each sitting room had a tree and those trees were so large that  they had to be hung from hooks in the ceiling and made to appear as if they were partly covered with snow.

Victoria and Albert gave each other special presents that they had commissioned for the occasion.  Usually such thing as paintings, bronzes and other such works of art, maybe an inkstand or a special cup.

In 1850 Victoria wrote in her journal " We all assembled and my beloved Albert first took me to my tree and table, covered by such numberless gifts, really too much, too magnificent."  The presents Victoria received from her husband that year were a water-colour painting, two oil paintings, four bronzes and a bracelet designed by Albert himself which held a miniature of their daughter, Princess Louise.

Christmas Day itself would commence with a short service with carols and hymns and then would follow the traditional feast.

Christmas Cards would not be given until Boxing Day. Christmas celebrations at Windsor lasted several days and a grand ball would be held on New Year's Eve.

On Twelfth Night (January 6th) there were plays and music, a special cake and a game of raising grabbing.  Raisins would be placed into a dish of burning Brandy and everyone would try to grab one until the game ended when salt was thrown onto the Brandy to produce a vivid yellow flame.

After the death of her beloved Albert, Victoria spent her Christmases at Osborne House.  She continued to supervise the erection of the Christmas trees and the distribution of presents which were given to up to 300 servants each year.  She did this despite being in deep depression and despair at the death of her great love.

Victoria was privileged of course, but she did not forget ordinary people, her subjects.  As a young girl she had seen a gypsy camp and witnessed the poverty.  She begged her mother to send food, blankets and fuel. As Queen she ensured that bounty was distributed to seven or eight hundred poor of the town of Windsor. This would consist of beef, potatoes, half a ton of plum puddings, a ton of bread, coal, fifteen hundredweight of blankets and cloaks.  Throughout their marriage the Queen and Prince also presented trees to schools and barracks.

The Queen broke with tradition in 1899 and returned to Windsor. The Boer War was taking place and the 80 year old Queen hosted a Christmas tea for the wives and families of soldiers who were serving out in South Africa.  She made sure that her own family waited on these guests rather than servants.

So, Queen Victoria loved Christmas.  To her it was always more than trees, presents, cards and sumptuous food.  To her it was an opportunity to celebrate family life. She wanted to share her good fortune with others.  Despite her wealth and privilege, she chose to cherish and uphold the simple spirit of Christmas itself.

The above picture is an engraving of Victoria and Albert with some of their children.