Canadians celebrate a wide range of
traditions at Christmas, originating from all over the world. However, in the early days of Brandon, around
the time when it became a city, holidays and cultural identity were almost
entirely borrowed from England. Therefore, the Christmas celebrations of
Brandonites during the Victorian period were very similar to those which had
begun to develop in England only a couple of centuries before. This blog will focus on the Victorian experience
by British subjects, whether in England or Canada.
When we
put up our Christmas trees and decorate for the holiday season, we feel as
though we are taking part in an ancient tradition. Truthfully, however, we are participating in
a cultural experience which began only 170 years ago. In fact, almost all of the major Christmas
institutions we take for granted became popular in England during the 1840s,
the first decade of Queen Victoria’s reign.
Queen
Victoria was one of the greatest trend setters in history, and her family’s
influence on Christmas is a perfect example of her power. Few people in England
had ever heard of a Christmas tree until 1941.
Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was German-born and for the
Christmas of 1941 he brought the German tradition of decorating a Christmas
tree into the royal home. Images of the
Royal Family gathered around their Christmas tree covered with candles and
artificial snow were published in magazines around the empire, and soon indoor
Christmas trees became widely popular.
The
first decorated indoor Christmas trees were somewhat different from what we are
used to today. Almost all decorations in
the Victorian era were homemade, and most were also edible. A typical tree would have candles, candy, and
even wrapped cakes. Homemade fans were also a popular decoration. Stringed nuts or popcorn were used as
garland. The first artificial Christmas
trees appeared as early as 1860, and were made of feathers. They were smaller than real trees and usually
placed on a table.
The
mid-nineteenth-century was also the era in which the figure we recognize as
Santa Claus emerged. In England, Father
Christmas had been an important part of the Midwinter Festival for centuries.
However, Father Christmas did not physically resemble Santa Claus, and his main
purpose was to welcome in spring. The
traditional English Father Christmas combined with the Dutch figure of Sinter
Klaas in the 19th century to create the jolly, red-clad man we know
today.
Almost
all of the most well-known traditional Christmas carols were written in a small
period of time, between about 1840 and 1860.
These carols include O Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night, Good King
Wenceslas, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. This period also saw the invention
of the Christmas Cracker and the popularity of hanging stockings.
It’s
amazing how so many traditions that are second nature to Canadians today developed
in such a short period of time. The
relatively short history these institutions have does not take away from how
powerful the idea of Christmas is to people in Canada and around the world.
