Blog Tour: A Princess by Christmas by Julia London

Many of Britain’s Christmas traditions were popularised by Queen Victoria through her husband, Prince Albert. Albert was brought up in Germany where, during the Christmas festivities, it was popular to bring in a tree to the home, decorating it with candles, fruits and sweets. He brought the tradition to Britain where it quickly became the fashion.

In 1848 the Illustrated London News published a drawing of the royal family celebrating around a Christmas tree filled with candles, ornaments and with an angel on top.

Although Christmas carols, or Christmas hymns, can be traced as far back as the 4th century, many of our more well-known carols were either written or popularised in the 19th century. This was, in part, to do with the publication of Christmas music books – sheet music that people would buy to play the most up to date music at home. Similarly, the Victorian era saw the first time that Christmas carols were sung in churches, further popularising the festive tunes. It has been suggested that this might be the reason that people went to the streets to sing carols – since they couldn’t do so in church.

Mistletoe, in many cultures and religions, has magical properties, offering protection from witches, demons, spirits while also being regarded as a symbol of fertility.

The Romans also associated mistletoe with peace and love, hanging it over their doorways both to bring good favour to the household and also offer protection. They also used mistletoe in the festival of Saturnalia, from which many Christmas traditions take their roots.

Kissing under the mistletoe was immortalised in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 1843. It is thought that the serving class in Victorian England helped to really cement this tradition in our traditions.

The original mincemeat pie was likely invented in the 13th century. Mincing meat with spices, suet and fruits was an alternative preserving method to salting or smoking.

With the inclusion of meat, mince pies started off as a main course dish. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that the inclusion of meat fell out of fashion, and the pies became smaller, rounder and turned into the sweet treat we know today.

They haven’t lost their appeal since Victorian times, either. In 2019, the UK would eat approximately 781,177,935 mince pies during the Christmas season.

The origins of plum pudding are just as unclear as many other Christmas traditions we still hold dear. What’s clear is that plum pudding was definitely being eaten well before the Victorian period, even being served at William IV’s birthday feast.

In 1861, Mrs Beeton included a recipe for Christmas Plum Pudding in her popular cookbook but its popularity was cemented due to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s inclusion of the pudding in their own Christmas day festivities.