Victorian Christmas Traditions

The Victorian Roots of Our Modern Christmas

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Many yearn for an old fashioned Christmas enjoyed by our ancestors. the problem is the old fashioned Christmas was just a marketing ploy to appeal to a growing Victorian middle class

Christmas was generally a family feast in well to do households in the early 19th century household. if their Church affiliaton approved.

Source: Public Domain by Charles Green

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The Not So Deep Roots of Christmas Present

The modern holiday of Christmas the modern holiday of Christmas as celebrated in the Western world, has its roots in the Victorian era. Both the he British and American public; took traditions from other northern European cultures and created the modern Christmas. This is a look at some of the development of these new holiday traditions.

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The English embraced the German tradtion of Christmas trees in 1851.

Source: Public Domaint

Oh Christmas Tree!

The Germans were responsible for giving us the Christmas tree. Many pagan civilizations have used evergreens as a symbol of life during the dead months of winter. We have the Royal family of Queen Victoria to thank for making Christmas trees wildly popular in the US and Britain. Prince Albert in 1841 introduced the idea of a Christmas tree or Tannenbaum. In 1850 an etching of a Christmas tree at Windsor Castle was published. every well to do Victorian home decided that they too should have a Christmas tree. A tradition kept by German immigrants in the past, the Christmas tree soon was fashionable in America too. In America soon, it was popular to decorate your tree with handmade cornucopias filled with nuts, dried fruits, and candies.

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Source: Publcic Domain

Traditional Gift Giving taught by The Three Wise Men in the Macy's Window!

In 1870 in America and Britain Christmas trees were so popular; that commercial ornaments were first made. These included molded wax figures of angels, gold paper, and balls decorated with powdered glass Americans further commercialized the new holiday, by taking the tradition of homemade family gift exchange to a new level. Nn the 1880s Macy’s department store started to feature Christmas windows with toys from around the world.. They enticed shoppers into the store, with indows that featured whimsical mechanical decorations.

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Victorian protrayal of colonial carolers who just happen to have printed sheet music.

Source: Public Domaint

Now We Can All Sing and Play Jingle Bells

Caroling was originally a way for clever entrepreneurs to take advantage of the presence of pianos in well-to-do Victorian house households.Carolers performed in groups of three. A caroler might play violin, while another sang.A third would sell the sheet music to the popular holiday tune.. Carolers with less commercial goals might sing for neighbors in hopes of being invited in for hot cider and holiday sweets.

Source: Christmas Card 1885

The First Hallmark Moments

Christmas letters to friends and family, where the norm for holiday communication in most Victorian households. Soon the idea of sending Christmas greetings on printed cards are became popular. Early Christmas cards depicted acts of charitable giving, and family celebrations. Many cards tried to portray Christmas as a long held and old fashioned holiday

Market To Market!

This was all part of the marketing of a new holiday, that required consumers to purchase ornaments, store-bought gifts, and of course Christmas cards. It became increasingly popular, to focus on children . This was the reason the Victorians could really take to the holiday. The concept of a happy and somewhat carefree childhood was a growing reality for the middle class in many countries. This was a concept that was non exsistence a few generations before. Children were just adult capable of doing less productive work.

Taking the cue from many northern Europeans, ideas about elves bringing Christmas goodies to children, the tradition of Father Christmas and Santa Claus became wildly popular. Toy makers everywhere knew they would soon have an outlet, by which to guilt parents into purchasing factory produced toys, instead of the handmade standbys.

Santa was not always pictured in red and white until Coke Cola advertising made the red and white Santa clothing standard.

Source: Public Domain

Was Christ Ever The Reason for the Season!

Americans on the whole had had a historic love-hate relationship with Christmas. Many Protestant Americans considered the pagan roots of many of the trappings of Christmas, and rejected it as a proper Christian holiday.-Christmas in the New England colonies was actually being banned. Christmas in the Cavalier colonies was associated with body drunkenness and a work stoppage. Churches struggled to keep the religious and moral significance of the holiday. Charles Dickens, story the Christmas Carol helped reestablish the myth of Christmas being a time of family emphasis and helping. Soon Christmas was being this started nostalgically remembered as a time for family gathering and community concern for the hungry. While, there was not an established tradition of this, churches could encourage the celebration of Christmas with of some moral underpinning.

Attempts to put the Christ back in our modern Christians Christmas are based on the false notion that there was a time when all the trappings of the holidays, had more spiritual meaning. Since most of the popular traditions of Christmas developed from pagan roots, this isan impossibility. Victorian myths of magical Christmas charity overcoming the Scrooges of the world is not a bad idea . It allows all people to enjoy and give during this fairly new holiday season. A true old-fashioned Christmas, it might just have included a day of work followed by a Sunday sermon, on the starkness of Christ birth in a manger. We can all be glad that the Victorians claimed Christmas as a fun children’s holiday that reminds adults of the joy of childhood.

Make Your Own Victorian Ornaments

By the early 20th century children and toys were the main focus of the holiday.

A couple could only kiss if there was berries on the mistletoe,

Source: Public Domain

The Greening of Christmas: Making Our Pagen Ancestors Proud!

Ivy greenery, mistletoe, and holly all have their roots in pagan practices honoring the winter solstice. The Victorians wanting Christmas, to be a special time even for young adults, made up the concept of kissing under the mistletoe. If a supposedly, unlucky couple found themselves under the mistletoe, powers that be insisted they kiss. The number of couples who could kiss under the mistletoe was determined by the number of berries on the mistletoe. One kiss and one berryremoved. No more berries, then there were no more kissing games. I am sure most households, tried to have mistletoe with many berries.

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The life of a woman such as could be imagined in the Anglo-Saxon world around 1840. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the first daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. She was viewed as an ideal Gibson Girl Library of Congress and Public Domain Source: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/gibson.htm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Pen and ink drawing of the Gibson Girl by illustrator Sarah Kaplan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Ideal Victorian Women and Reality

From Domestic Goddess to the Gibson Girl

In the first hundred fifty years of this nation's history the "ideal" image of womanhood was defined by the individual culture a young woman was raised in. Her ethnic background, religion, social status, and geographical location defined for her in large part what the desirable attributes of womanhood were.

The Victorian period 1837 -1901 gave rise to a broad middle class and an increase in national media in the form of widely available books and national publications. The art as well as the literature of the time gave rise to a more national definition of what the ideal women was that was widely accepted and seen as a standard by which younger women tried to imitate.

The growing Victorian middle class lived life differently than the vast majority of people who still craved a living on the family farm. This was a social class that did not have to produce endlessly all the things necessary for their daily survival. The increase in cheap immigrant labor available made it possible for the middle class housewife to free herself from time consuming domestic duties to pursue other interests that revolved around the family.

Unlike her farm housewife counterpart she did not labor next to her husband on the family farm, her domestic sphere was completely separate from the public working life of her husband.

Her social relationships and domestic obligations did not include an extended family and few close friends like that of her counter part in the farming community. She was free to pursue religious interests and domestic interests within organized groups. The serious focus of her life did not have to be stretched beyond her own front porch.

The life of the middle class housewife was called the "cult of domesticity " and was widely promoted as the ideal womanhood in newly created women's magazines, advice books, and religious publications. Godey's Lady's Book is a good example of a publication that promoted the ideal of Victorian womanhood. It not only promoted the fashion of the day, but promoted the ideals of Victorian womanhood. These ideals were Piety, Purity, Submissiveness, and Domesticity.

The ideal of piety came from the idea that women were more innately moral than men and in charge of forming the early spiritual values of the children. Religion was seen as a positive way for women to occupy their minds and impact social change in society. It was not seen as normal or respectable for women to work for social change by an organized political activity. Women could strive to change life for the poor and fight the vices of drinking under the guise of piety. Men too were expected to religious but never overly unless they were members of the clergy.

Purity was of utmost importance to a young Victorian girl. Girls had no practical knowledge of their bodies or reproductive system. They were taught that Virginity was their ultimate gift to their husband on their wedding night. Normal women were thought to be asexual and sex was a marital obligation. It was seen as a Victorian wife's job to preserve the health of her husband by giving him some sex but not to wear him out or cause illness by overly sexing him. She was the moral keeper of the bedroom. Men were expected to maintain a level of sexual purity and monogamy but slip ups were expected and the wife was obligated to help save a straying husband from himself.

The ideal of submissiveness was what had been expected all along in American protestant culture. The order of things was God, husband, wife, and underage children. Victorian's added romantic charm to submissiveness with the ideal that women were physically weak and sweet natured .They needed the protection of a man. No respectable farm wife would have believed such things as she many times did the work of a man and housewife. Clothing of the Victorian housewife was so restrictive it would have made any truly physical work impossible. The tendency of women who wore tight corsets to faint simply feed the myth of a women's weak constitution.

The last ideal was that a woman was to cultivate domesticity. The good wife was the goddess of hearth and made a home where her hard working husband could find refuge from his hectic public life. The home and the children were to be in order when the husband arrived home. Women had the greatest influence and sphere of power in her own home. A good wife was frugal but maintained a peaceful and fashionable home that her husband's callers would enjoy being in. Home management was an art as many times wives had to handle the affairs of any hired help and the under aged children in the household. She was to do this in a manner that looked effortless to show her happiness in her domestic position.

Hired help for the farm wife meant hired farm labor. These were men she had to sometimes cook and clean for in addition to her own husband. The task of the farm housewife was to be sure all the farm workers were fed and to tend to her own farm related tasks sometimes while supervising young children. The appearance of the home for social impression would have been the last thing on a Victorian farm wife's mind.

A very personal account of the daily life of an American farm wife can be found a http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/farmwife.htm. Toward the end of the Victorian period a new type of ideal womanhood that set the foundation for a more independent and intellectually equal view of women developed. This women was still ridiculously romanticized, but she was seen as educated and having interests outside of the home and church. The new ideal of womanhood was known as the Gibson girl.

The Gibson Girl was a media icon created by satirist and artist Charles Dana Gibson. This model of perfect felinity lasted from the late 1890's to the start of the First World War The Gibson Girl was socially active . She was pictured attending college and swimming with friends at the beach. The Gibson girl activitely sought her suitors and was innocently, yet somewhat sexually teasing to the opposite sex. She had a public life and young womanhood and would not be expected to part with a degree personal freedom until marriage.

The Gibson girl was engaged in fun or the arts. She was seen as being to cheerful and busy to bother with such drab issues of things like suffrage. The Gibson Girl was a tamed down version of the later flapper girl. Beauty was of utmost important to her and she always sported the most complicated of up dos and she was a slave to current fashion.

Again the late Victorian version of Barbie was not a realistic ideal for a young women growing up on a farm. She would not have the financial means or time to maintain the lifestyle of a society girl. Still the Gibson Girl was seen as one who bettered her mind and selection of mates by attending college. This ideal girl may have inspired many farm girls to seek life outside the farm and attend at least a teacher's college.

Today the Victorian ideals of womanhood seem romantic and repressive ,but they probably only reflected the reality of some women's lives. The strong and thoughtful farm wife who saw herself as a partner( sometimes with bitterness) in the family farm was probably more of a reality and role model for the majority of young women. Urban immigrant women did not have the luxery of being housewives and many times worked in the homes of the middle class or factories to ensure the families survival. These real life role models showed young women that women were more important to society than just providing a domestic sanctuary for men.

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Sleeping Angels: Victorian Death Photography

Victorian era parents posing with their deceased daughter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Slum in Glasgow, 1871 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Victorians were obsessed with death because it was so much part of their daily lives. Victorian photographers many times specialized in certain areas of family photography; including post-mortem daguerreotypes. These pictures taken after a loved one had died. It was not memorial photography, that might post a small picture of a love one in life on a grave stone. These pictures were taken mostly of children. These post mortem pictures of deceased children survive in large numbers and are sought after collector's items for those with sentiment yet possibly slightly morose taste.

The young subjects of these photographs were laid out if asleep perhaps in a cradle or in the arms of the grieving parents, Many times they were also posed with their surviving siblings. Sometimes the deceased child was part of the only family portrait ever taken. In times of epidemic when there were large numbers of children succumbing to the same ailments; local photographers only took pictures of the deceased. If there were no death certificates or birth certificates issued during the period of time the child passed the death photo may have been the only record, besides the cemetery record, of the child's existence.

Changing social attitudes were reflected in death photography during the Victorian era. Pictures of children in a sentimental sleeping state were later replaced by pictures of children in coffins. This reflected the Victorians increasing obsession with the outward appearance of things associated with funeral rituals such as coffins, flowers, and grave stones. This was more evident in the late 19^th century when memorial photography with a portrait of the child while living becomes a permanent fixture on gravestones.

While we may think of the practice of Victorian death photography as morbid, Victorians had a different viewpoint .Since few photographs of most children were taken over their growing years, these photographs were often the only visual reminders grieving parents had of how their children looked at the times of their death. These pictures were not hidden away in family photo albums, but left out in parlor so all could be reminded of the family's loss and continuing love of a child that passed.

Death photography today of still born infants and those who die shortly after birth is still somewhat controversial. While some find it odd that parents would want such a reminder of their grief, others take great comfort in having pictures of a child that they were only able to see for such a short time.

Victorian death photography, especially of children has a sad, strangely positive unusual effect on those who look at the pictures today. Children that passed over a hundred years ago, project the angelic qualities that still bring tears to the eyes of those who view the pictures today.

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Being Laid To Rest In the Victorian Era

English: Funeral procession 

The funeral cortege of Edward the Confessor, from the Bayeux Tapestry (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The funeral procession has been around for centuries in Westren Culture

Trauerschmuck, Brosche, Glas, 19. Jahrh. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Example of Victorian Mourning Jewelry

English: Advertisement for Victorian mourning garb. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Victorian Funerals

Victorians were fond of the gothic and melodramatic .Death was common place and unlike most weddings of the time, they were conducted with great pomp and circumstance. If a man was wretchedly poor in life his grandest moment of social participation may have been so in death.

It was common for many lower class families to have put aside funds and for the burial of their offspring as childhood mortality was high during the Victorian era (1837-1901). The quality of life for living children suffered so that a fine funeral could be provided the dead.

The mark of any proper Victorian funeral was the funeral procession. In England the processions were much more of a spectacle than they were in the United States. It was grand procession in both countries with pall bears that sometimes had batons, pages, and men dressed in gowns that carried wands. These professions many times became drunken parades as the men waited long periods of time in the cold and drank gin to stay warm. A wealthy family might suffer great social embarrassment if the procession ended up looking like a circus parade; because their hired mourners drank too much.

The first vehicle in the funeral procession was the hearse drawn by six black horses. In the United Kingdom it was customary for the horses to sport dark colored feathered plumes on their heads. The hearse was gilded with gold and silver, and the coffin could be seen in a glass car. Some hearses sported a canopy of black ostrich feathers. Coffins were highly polished and sported silver handles and plates. If cloth covering were used on the coffin; they were attached with brass nails. Colors that were acceptable for funeral cloths were rich purples or greens. Gone were the simple sheer cotton shrouds that had graced the body of the deceased in earlier times.

The other carriages the followed contained the mourners and celery in order of their relation to the deceased. Men wore dark suits and women wore black gowns made of black crape and full black veils. Fashion dictated female family members of the departed use black gloves and black fans. Only mourners outside of the family wore fine black silk as less ostentatious black dress was expected of family members.

Only black jet jewelry was worn by mourners and by female family members for up to two years while the family was officially in the state of mourning. Society dictated that Victorian widow wear full and deep veils for up to two years and only black kid gloves for up to six months. All black dress was worn by the relations of the deceased for at least three months. Crepe was the fabric of choice for most women in morning. Younger women could get away with wearing half morning clothes of purple after a few months as long as they were not a widow.

Most widows avoided social events for 18 months after the death of their husband. Children generally were in muted colors, but not full morning garb three to six months after the death of a sibling or parent. Widowers only avoided polite society for a year after the death of their wife. It is unlikely rural farm families had the time or money to follow these strict Victorian customs too closely.

Victorian wakes were held at the home of the debased and might include friends and family not present at the funeral. Invitations might invite visitors to view the corpse with the family sitting in mourning in the next room. Notes of condolence were sent to the family within ten days after the funeral. Calling cards of a common social nature were left but not expected to be acknowledged by the grieving family for at least three months.

The wake tended to be a large meal provided by the relatives but not the immediate family of the departed. In poor homes food would be brought in by relatives and neighbors to spare the mourning family the chore of preparing food for the wake. In wealthier homes footman and servants were expected to wear simple mourning garb until their master's family stopped official deep mourning. Those who attended the wake may have been given elaborate cards commemorating the death.

Those invited specifically to a 'private "funeral were given even more elaborate cards they would keep in books or in special holders in their pillars. Death announcements on printed cards of black edged paper were sent to distant friends and relatives or out to the community in general if their paper did not print death notices.

Many times Victorian women made wreaths of the hair of the departed that might be displayed at the wake or funeral. Some were wreaths that were keep as funeral mementos and had the braided hair of several family members that passed. Some locks were worn as a sort of morning jewelry in the form of woven chokers or bracelets.

When photography became less expensive, many times photos were taken of the deceased in the casket or posed as if they were sleeping. Pictures of children and infants were especially cherished and might be even printed on funeral cards if the the family could bear the expense. Poetic verse and scripture appeared with at least drawings of angels and other religious symbols on most furneral cards.

When the casket was laid to rest in the cemetery it was thought to be too of a traumatic event to be witnessed by the if witnessed by the female members of the family or children  of the newly departed. Only older male members of the family stayed to watch the casket are laid to rest in the ground. 

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The Victorian Baby Farmers

English: The bucket that the baby farmer Hilda Nilsson used to drown her infants. Svenska: Baljan och hinken som änglamakerskan Hilda Nilsson använde sig av för att dränka spädbarn. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Baby farming wаѕ а term employed in late-Victorian Era Britain (and, lеѕѕ commonly, іn Australia and North America) keeping if an infant or child for payment. In the case of an infant if the services usually included wet-nursing.

Some baby farmers "adopted" children pertaining tо lump-sum payments, whіlе оthеrѕ treated infants for periodic payments. Thоugh baby farmer’s were paid frоm thе understanding thаt care wоuld bесоmе provided to infants, the term "baby farmer" wаѕ uѕеd аѕ а роѕѕіblе insult, and improper treatment wаѕ uѕuаllу implied.

 Illegitimacy and to attendant stigma was usually the impetus or the poor working mother's to put the children "out to nurse”. This was a form of being a baby farmer. Baby farming аlѕо encompassed foster care and adoption from the period before infants were wards of the State controlled by British Law.

Gentry, would  put thеіr babies оut tо bе cared for іn the homes if villagers. Claire Tomalin gіvеѕ а detailed account if thіѕ in hеr biography .Jane Austen wаѕ fostered іn thіѕ manner, аѕ were all hеr siblings, frоm а fеw month’s оld untіl infants were they became toddlers.

Usually an the case if lump-sum adoptions, it wаѕ more profitable for the baby farmer if the infant or child he adopted died, ѕіnсе the small payment соuld nоt cover thе care оf thе child fоr long. Sоmе baby farmers adopted numerous children аnd thеn neglected thеm оr murdered thеm outright (see infanticide).  

Several were convicted for murder, manslaughter, or criminal neglect and  were hanged. Margaret Waters (executed 1870) and Amelia Dyer (executed 1896) werre two infamous British baby farmers, аѕ war Amelia Sach and Annie Walters (executed 1903). Thе lаѕt baby farmer tо bе executed іn Britain wаѕ Rhoda Willis, who wаѕ hanged іn Wales іn 1907. Thе оnlу woman tо bе executed іn New Zealand, Minnie Dean, wаѕ а baby farmer.

English: Photo of Minnie Dean (1844 – 1895) at the time of her marriage in 1872. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Spurred by а series if articles that appeared an the British Medical Journal an 1867, Parliament began to regulate baby farming іn 1872 wіth thе passage оf thе Infant Life Protection Act. A series оf acts passed оvеr thе nеxt seventy years, including thе Children Act 1908 and thе 1939 Adoption оf Children (Regulation) Act, gradually рlасеd adoption and foster care undеr thе protection and regulation оf thе state.

Baby farming wаѕ а horrific Victorian practice whісh tооk advantage оf mothers desperate tо give thеіr children а bеttеr life.

The practice occurred іn аn era whеn contraception wаѕ limited and society looked dоwn оn illegitimate children. Thе 1834 Poor Laws regarded poverty and illegitimacy аѕ moral issues. Thе law wаѕ designed tо restore female morality and stimulate thrifty, industrious workers. Thеу contained а Bastardy clause thаt absolved thе reputed father оf responsibility for hіѕ bastard child. This left unmarried mothers socially and economically victimised and unable tо provide for thеіr children.

Unwanted children

Hatbox with baby doll inside of it, for sale outside the courthouse during Minnie Dean's 1895 trial. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Murdering оf unwanted children bу thеіr mothers typically resulted іn thе death penalty. Mоѕt оf thе reported cases tооk place іn London but thеrе war nо doubt incidents іn еvеrу large city, including Southampton and Portsmouth

Some mother’s рrоbаblу sold thеіr babies tо childless couples. Othеrѕ war fostered or adopted for а fеw pounds. Unmarried mothers war often ѕо desperate thаt thеу answered newspaper adverts рlасеd by seemingly reputable people. The ѕо -called baby farmers who would find new families for unwanted babies. The became baby brokers for children that at best would live long enough to be literally farmed out as farm labor or child factory labor.

Murder bу baby farmers

Sadly, а few baby farmer’s found killing off the babies’ lеѕѕ arduous than finding homes to adopt them. Murder gave а quick profit, wіthоut thе nееd tо provide childcare аt thеіr оwn expense. In аn age оf high infant mortality, deaths оf babies and small children attracted lіttlе attention.. When а baby’s body wаѕ found, іt wаѕ usually impossible to trace the mother, аѕ forensic science wаѕ not sufficiently developed to use DNA or accurately decide if a death was murder.

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