The Christmas Tree, a German Tradition
Decorating the home with evergreens had long been a tradition in England during the festive season, and the same could be said for our German cousins. They had long been bringing evergreen trees into the home at Christmas time, to decorate them normally on Christmas Eve, not like today where it is not uncommon for people have their trees up in as early as October.
The Spruce
It was in 1840 that Prince Albert had the simple spruce tree brought over from his homeland Coburg. From then on, we saw German Christmas tree merchants travelling in droves to England, and setting up stalls is big cities like Birmingham, Manchester and London. Albert had fond memories of his own childhood Christmas tree and wanted this tradition for his own children.
Prince Albert donated decorated Christmas trees to the army barracks in and around Windsor Castle.
The Fir-st Tree?
Victoria’s mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was German so the Christmas tree would not have been an unusual sight for the young princess. Queen Charlotte, Queen Victoria’s paternal grandmother was German, and she decorated a Christmas tree in 1800 in Windsor for the local children, a whole 50 years before Prince Albert popularised them!
In 1848 a picture of Queen Victoria and Albert alongside their children and their fabulously decorated Christmas tree, was published in The Illustrated London News. This brought the Christmas tree to homes of the middle classes. The paper described the scene at the time, “the Christmas tree is a young fir, about 8 ft high, six tiers of branches, hanging from the branches are elegant tray baskets filled with sweet meats”.
Sweet Meats?
The term “sweet meats” describes the delicate sweets hanging from the branches of the tree. These were sugar plums and bonbons, candy canes and gingerbread men (- I see some recipes coming soon!).
Candy Canes
Candy canes were invented in 1670 by a bishop in Germany who wanted a way to keep the children occupied during a live scene of the nativity. The candy canes took the form of the shepherd’s crook. These were soon adopted as a favourite of Victorian children.
Sugar Plums
The process of making sugar plums was slow and labour-intensive, which in turn made them an expensive treat. This became a favourite that only wealthy children enjoyed. By the 1860s, steamed heat manufacturing made such items more readily available and easy to produce en masse, making sugar plums available to all Victorian children.
Christmas Eve in Windsor Castle
Every Christmas Eve Prince Albert and Queen Victoria would fill Windsor Great Hall with trees, making sure each child had their own fully decorated tree, which was decorated personally by the Royal couple themselves. Once Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had decorated the trees, they would ring a bell and all the children would run in searching for the tree that belonged to them. If there were any special visitors, they would each get their own tree. Every tree filled from root to tip with delicate treats or small gifts.
“Logs on the Fire and Gifts Round the Tree”
This was the start of the gifts around the Christmas tree tradition. As time progressed and manufacturing made larger items affordable and available, so the gifts descended to the floor to save the trees poor branches!