Victorian Christmas Traditions

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Christmas is a celebration of hope, happiness and Mother Nature. People join each other in welcoming and celebrating the festival of Christmas. The fresh smelling and evergreen Christmas tree is synonymous to Christmas. Dining, parties, family reunions are the things one associates with Christmas. The cleaning of the home and decorating the home with Christmas lights, wreaths and flowers is a great fun. The entire family joins in and takes the required effort. The entire atmosphere is filled with festive fervor and everyone enjoys the Christmas holiday season. There are a lot of traditions related to Christmas that one observes. Through out the world, there are various customs practiced during the Christmas festivities.

There are many Victorian Christmas traditions that are practiced even today. Many traditions that we see during Christmas were started in Victorian age. Some of the popular traditions like sending Christmas cards, Santa Claus and Christmas crackers emerged in Victorian period. They are popular even today. The Victorian period gave the Christmas a true picture that we observe today. The food related traditions, various church traditions, etc. started during those times. The custom of gift giving was also popularized in Victorian age. The author Charles Dickens used his writing to popularize the festival of Christmas.

Christmas Crackers are the popular sweets that one gets during the Christmas time. A layer of cracker is inserted between the two layers of sweet. These crackers are shaped like Yule logs. The emergence of these Christmas crackers is seen in the decade of 1840. The tradition of preparing Christmas greeting cards started in Victorian period. The kids used to prepare these cards for their parents in best handwriting. The elder people wrote cards for wishing happy Christmas to their friends and extended family. Slowly with the invention of print media, hand written cards were replaced by printed cards giving special Christmas messages. They were sold at affordable prices in the local market.

The gifts in form of toys, games, dolls, books were given to children during Christmas. This was possible due to factories that produced large number of toys before the holiday season. The local markets were full with such types of gifts. Santa Claus coming on reindeer and distributing gifts was another tradition that stared during this period. Kids thoroughly enjoyed both Santa and his gifts. Earlier, the stockings were filled with apples and other nuts but in Victorian period these gifts were replaced by dolls and toys. The industrialization that happened during Victorian period helped the middle class get jobs and money. This allowed them to buy gifts, Christmas tree, rich food and celebrate Christmas with family.

The tradition of roasting turkey for the Christmas feast stared during Victorian age. This tradition is still followed today. One cannot think of a Christmas feast without roasted turkey. These traditions started in Victorian period were popular and so they still hold their ground.