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.

 

Yesterday

Mike has asked me to thank you for all your kind Birthday wishes.  We had a lovely time yesterday. Becky and Nathan spent the day with us, Dean came over after work and we had a nice meal together.  Mike was pleased with all his presents and we even had sunshine for the only day this week.

After the family had gone, Mike popped out as he wanted to take some photographs of a particular set of Christmas lights.

We have a house not to far from us that draws people from miles away each festive season.  The light display is something to see.  The owner does it to raise funds for our local Children's Hospice and he has raised thousands over the years.

The photographs do not really do it justice.  When you are there in person and walk all around, it is a wonder to behold.

These are just some of the decorations. There are many more, Victorian ladies and gentleman, around fifty snowmen but this gives you some idea of how wonderful this display is.  It takes him weeks to get everything up and running but he does not mind because it is all in a good cause.

Short

Just a short entry from me today.  It is my beloved's Birthday and Becky and Nathan will be coming for the day.  It will be nice to spend it together.

We were all delighted to see Nathan in his Santa suite chosen to appear on the seasonal pics on You've Got Pictures main page!  A lovely surprise.  Five months old and fame already lol.

It is nice for Mike and I to be together on his Birthday when he was always usually working and we are going to make the most of it.

Hope that you all have a lovely day. (P.S. after yesterday's entry and your comments, I can see that I was not the only one frightened as a child!)

 

 

Christmas Horror

The day before yesterday I mentioned in my entry that my Dad once gave me a present that badly misfired. So, are your sitting comfortably?  I will tell you the story.

I had not long turned six years old.  I guess the reason that my Dad chose this present was that I had been badgering my parents for a baby sister.  I had no way of knowing that this request was impossible as my Mum was in her forties when she had me!

Well, although my father was a "city gent" he had hobbies that he could turn his hand to, hobbies that surprised most people. For instance, it was my Dad and not my Mum who taught me to knit.  My Dad was an excellent knitter. During the war he was an Ack Ack gunner and was stationed up in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands at one time.  To pass the long, lonely hours when there was no action, he taught himself to knit and was a dab hand at making socks.

As he did not earn a large salary and times were very tight when I was young, he also tried his hand at woodworking and furniture upholstery.  He had recently re-covered an old sofa and two large armchairs in a beautiful dark red, heavy-duty material.  I loved this and the pattern it had.  So, he came up with the idea of making me a present.  My own little armchair to match.  He must have spent long hours at it and only when I was asleep in bed because I never saw or heard anything.

I suppose he had thought that just giving me an empty chair was not much of a present. I guess that between them they came up with the idea of putting a doll in the chair.

Now, this was not any ordinary doll.  It was the size of a  one year old child and was dressed in proper clothes for a child of that age. I remember it well, a pale lemon dress with white net frills around the neck, hem and sleeves.

So, came Christmas morning. I have already mentioned that I always used to wake up in the early hours.  This particular morning I woke when the sky was just turning to grey instead of dark blue.  I woke in the gloom so tospeak.  Realizing it was Christmas day and I had missed Santa yet again, I eagerly rolled onto my left side (my bed was positioned so you had to get out on the left). 

I froze in absolute horror.  There was this face looking at me. Stary glass eyes, arms reaching out towards me as a real child would reach out to its mother, but the worse thing was its mouth.  It had bright red lips that were parted in what was supposed to be a smile and it had teeth!!!!!  Upper teeth and lower teeth that gleamed white in the dim light.  It seemed that it was reaching out to devour me!

The doll was similar to this

This is the nearest picture I could find, but my doll was worse than this.  It  had the same painted hair but the eyes were much bigger, much more wide-open and they were pale blue and very very glassy. The smile was wider as well and the teeth more pronounced.

I let out a scream that must have woken the neighbourhood. My parents came running.  All I could say, between sobs, was "take it away, take it away".  It took them some time to realize what I was talking about. They assumed that I had experienced a nightmare.  The doll was duly removed and my Dad sat and talked to me and got me to try my little armchair which was a perfect fit.  I loved that armchair which was placed in the lounge between my Dad's chair and the sofa.  I was to spend many happy hours sitting in that chair reading my books.

The doll was another story.  Later in the day they brought it out again.  I burst into tears.  This was not a pretty, hugable doll that I would have loved.  This was not a baby sister. This was a monster.  A thing of terror.

It must have cost them a good deal of money and looking back through the mists of time, they must have been hurt and upset by the whole thing.

Every time it was placed in my bedroom I would drag it to the toy cupboard, pull everything else out, place the doll in the very back and pile everything else on top of it.  I wanted to bury it, I wanted it gone.  Even the knowledge that it was in the toy cupboard gave me the horrors at night.  I imagined that it would open the door when I was asleep, crawl out and bite me.

My Mum kept getting the damned thing out again.  Give them their due, they did try to win me over.  They did explain time and time again that it was harmless, that it was just a doll.  I would have none of it.  I wanted this ugly evil thing gone.  In the end, it was gone.  They gave up and I believe gave it away.

After that, I always had a horror of store mannequins.  I was alright approaching them but if I had to walk past one, I immediately felt light headed and sick.  I feel the same way about waxworks.  We have taken our own daughter to Madame Tassauds and I had to steal myself to do that.

Who knows what goes through the mind of a child?  Things that parents would think of us harmless can leave lasting trauma.  I can still see that hideous (to me) face to this day.

My Dad never made the same mistake again.  The following Christmas he gave me the most beautiful doll I had ever seen (he must have saved for months).  She was dressed in victorian clothes, silk clothes, all in beautiful blues and pinks. She had long brown ringlets, beautiful dark eyes with long lashes and if I held her hands she "walked" for me.  I named her Betsy and she was my pride and joy for several years.

Let There Be Lights!

I promised we would try and get some photos of our Christmas lights .  Some have come out better than others but you will get the general idea.

We have not taken photos of everything. We have other illuminated things around the house like a Father Christmas and a Snowman. We even have lights around our bedroom mirror and a fibre optic village scene in there as well! 

It does look so warm and cosy in the evenings, just sitting by the glow of the lights.  That is what I miss after Christmas, not the tinsel or the articifical snowflakes, it is the lights.  It always looks so cold and cheerless for the first few days.

Hope that you enjoy these pictures.  The first two are different shots of the front of our home.

Next, some assorted shots, our Reindeer in the back garden although you cannot capture their movement on film, a view of the back lights, a view from our lounge looking towards the garden and you will see that even our little fishy friends have lights!

Lastly, a view of our fireplace.  It really does have this glow to it.

We enjoyed taking these.  Hope they cheer your day.

Christmas Past

As I get older I cannot but help recall Christmas as it was when I was young.  Things were so different then.

Christmas did not start in September as it seems to these days.  Yes, we really do have shops selling cards and decorations as early as that.

When I was a child, people did not really start preparing for Christmas until a week beforehand.  Only the Christmas pudding and the cake had been organised.  My Nan used to make all our Christmas puddings and our cake because she was such a wonderful cook.  I can still recall our steamy kitchen as the pudding was boiling in the pot and the tiny silver sixpenny coins that were lovingly placed in the puddings.  You could break a tooth on one of those, but each of us hoped we would get a slice of pudding with a coin in it.

The big London stores in Oxford Street would put their decorations up during December and we often went to see the switching on of the lights in Oxford Street, a great treat.  We would meet my Father at his place of work and then go to see the wonder of the lights and then have a meal together before taking the train ride home.

Refrigerators in those days were only for the rich, us ordinary folk did not have one.  In fact, we never had a t.v. set in the house until I was fifteen.  So, no fridge meant that you could only do your food shopping in the couple of days before Christmas.  Cheese could be kept in a cheese dish or in the larder which was always cold because it had a metal grill to the outside to let in the cold air.  Fruit and Vegetables were bought usually on Christmas Eve and so was the bird.  At first, it was always a Chicken but we later progressed to a Turkey. Dad would leave work a little earlier than usual and make his way to Smithfield meat market where he could be sure of getting a nice fresh bird and probably a good deal on it as well.  He would also bring home the Holly and the Mistletoe.

The week leading up to Christmas, I would be busy making endless paper chains which Dad strung all around our hall, our living room and our dining room.  How cheap they seem now, people would not dream of having them today with all the beautiful and glitzy decorations available, but to me, they were Christmas.  As soon as I sat down to make them I knew that Christmas was here again.

We always had a small tree.  A real one and, once again, Dad did the honours bringing one home about three days before Christmas.  Mum and I would decorate it with baubles that she bought when she had first married.  Each one was kept carefully protected in tissue paper and treated like a treasure.  Those decorations lasted so long that I even used a few remaining ones during the early days of my marriage but they are long gone now.

I remember the tree lights.  They were bought from Woolworths and were glass globes.  They were Santa heads and snowman heads and they came out year after year along with the fairy for the top of the tree, who had seen better days even when I was a child.  Of course, there was nothing you could spray on trees in those days to stop needle drop so long before New Year, we were left with bare branches with the ornaments hanging on them!

It was a busy time.  One of my jobs was to go to the local Ironmongers shop to buy in extra bundles of wood for the fire.  I remember them so clearly.  Like little log rolls, there were quite a few pieces of wood held around with a piece of wire.  I used to love the Ironmongers shop with its smell of paraffin and candle wax.  Likewise the butchers that had wonderful marble tiles around the walls and sawdust on the floor.  I hated to see the dead birds hanging up there and the rabbits but you got used to it.

Christmas was the only time of the year when we had a real box of biscuits.  Other than that, I used to go to the Corn Chandlers and get a pound of broken biscuits per week.  The broken ones were cheaper.  Times were much harder in those days.

Apart from paper chains, Dad spent lots of time blowing up balloons, half of which deflated over Christmas but we did not seem to mind.

The air of excitement grew by the day.  The winters were colder than as well and we often got snow which added to the sheer joy of it all.

Mum would spend Christmas Eve making the mince pies and preparing the vegetables.

Came the great day.  I always awoke in the early hours to find presents at the end of my bed and a stocking that was filled.  My stocking was one of Mum's nylons.  It would be filled with lots of little things, small plastic toys, a colouring book, crayons, a pencil case etc. etc. and always, right at the bottom, some chocolate "money" wrapped in gold paper and an orange. My main present would usually be a doll or some other toy and always a book because I have always been a bookworm.

I think I always upset Mum and Dad.  They would have liked me to open my presents in front of them but I saw no reason to.  Why should I wait? After all, my presents had been left by Santa and were nothing to do with Mum and Dad.  I assumed Santa had left them presents of their own, so before it was fully light mine had all been opened and played with.

I remember the year when I found out there was no Santa Claus and how badly that hit me, but that is another story, likewise the present my Dad gave me that badly misfired.

So Christmas morning we would listen to the Carols on the radio and show off our presents and then we would sit down to a hearty dinner with all the trimmings.

For the rest of the day we would play games, maybe hide and seek, Tiddlywinks or Snakes and Ladders.  Sometimes charades.  Then the evening would be quiet. We would listen to the radio or maybe go for a walk. I would be playing with whatever I had been given and was tired out long before bed time.

People really made their own entertainment then and there seemed to be so much joy and goodwill about probably because the war was still very fresh and people could now celebrate in peace and without fear.

It is all so different today.  Children seem to get everything, designer clothes, expensive electronic gadgets, even their own computers, t.v.'s and C.D. players.  People spend far more than they can afford whereas we always kept to a strict budget.  Decorations are much more elaborate and I confess that we now have fancy lights and I try to buy something new each year.

So, as I write this, our decorations and lights are all up, the Christmas cards all sent, the presents are all bought.  All I have to do now is wrap them.  So different from how it used to be years ago.

I enjoy Christmas, I always have, but I have never recaptured the joy of those Christmases long ago.  Maybe it is just because I was a child then but I do not think so.  Christmas now starts so early that the excitement has gone from it all.  By the time the day comes, lots of people are already sick of it and all the hype there is these days.

Memories, however, linger.  Nothing can spoil or mar the memory of those far off Christmases when life was simpler, people seemed friendlier, life was not so full of fear and tension, hurry and frustration.  I wish our little Grandson could know a Christmas like I did, a Christmas that actually came in Christmas week, when pleasures were simple but joy was unbounded.

 

 

Our Day

Today Mike and I celebrate 34 years of married life together.

As usual we have put all our decorations and lights up in time for the day and this time we have really gone to town!!  Taken us three whole days to do it.  In the front we have rope lights around the windows, a rope light Christmas tree on one window, a rope light nativity scene on the other.  A snowman sits on the roof of our little porch , a Santa sitting in the moon hangs on a side wall and even the tree in the front garden has lights.

At the back we have more rope lights and in the back garden two beautiful moving deer, a stag and a doe.  The inside of the house is ablaze with lights as well and the Christmas tree is twinkling away.  Everywhere we could hang lights - we have.

This has been a very busy week what with getting out all the decorations, hanging, pinning, draping etc plus I looked after Nathan for two days. However, it has all been worth it.

Right now we are waiting for Becky, Dean and Nathan to arrive and we are going to have a nice meal together. Nothing too fancy although it is our anniversary but with Christmas looming we do not want to start piling on the pounds now lol!

My beloved is also another year older this coming Thursday. December is quite a hectic month for us with birthdays, anniversary etc.

At least tomorrow we can put our feet up, we deserve it.

I would like to say this to Mike because I know he will read it, he always reads what I put on my journal.  Thank you darling for 34 years of happiness, thank you for being a wonderful support and help to me through difficult times of illness, thank you for being my partner, my friend, my confidante.  Thank you for all the long hours of work you have put in over the years to put a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs.  Thank you for the laughter, thank you for the touching things you have done, thank you even in the tears we have shed together.  I could not have a better partner and I thank God every day for you.  God bless you my darling and may we have many more years together.

Well, I guess I had better get on now and enjoy our day. I hope you are all enjoying yours.  My back is feeling a lot better as well.

I will try and get some photos of our lights to post on here but illuminations tend not to come out too well on camera.  However, we shall do our best so watch this space..............