Fun and Festivities

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Despite the reputation of Queen Victoria—stuck up, formal, and unapproachable—the young queen and her family helped change the way Christmas was celebrated nationwide. The royal family enthusiastically decorated Christmas trees every year. This tradition was inspired by Victoria’s German mother and her German husband, Prince Albert. In a diary entry, Victoria stated,

“It is a pleasure to have this

blessed festival associated

with one’s happiest days.

The very smell of the

Christmas Trees is of 

pleasant memories” (Entry

from Queen Victoria’s

journal on December 24th,

1841). By the 1860s,

hundreds of Christmas trees

were being sold in London.