Originally seasonal gift giving was reserved for the New Year’s celebrations. They were also sold under the name 'Bangs of expectation.'īy the 1870s they had the jokes and hats in them that we associate with crackers today. Originally Christmas crackers were called ‘cosaques’, as the noise they made was supposedly reminiscent of Russian Cossak horsemen cracking their whips. Tom Smith crackers are still made, and are the official cracker supplier for the royal family. Smith worked in music hall and so would have been well versed in these silver fulminates. However it is also true that silver fulminate ‘snaps’ had been in existence for a while, so it may well be that Smith simply wanted to use these to his advantage. The ‘bang’ was added later after Smith was reportedly inspired by the sound of a log crackling on a fire. Originally the cracker just contained a sweet and a small motto. However, the first person to sell crackers may actually have been Italian confectioner Sparagnapane, whose company described itself as 'the oldest makers of Christmas crackers in the United Kingdom.' The ability for anyone to pay half a penny to post cards across the country made sending Christmas cards a popular and affordable tradition.Įarly Victorian Christmas cards often depicted celebration and merriment, as well as acts of charity and helping the less fortunate.įirst Christmas card courtesy of Wikicommons History of Christmas crackersĬonfectioner Tom Smith is widely credited as inventing the Christmas cracker, supposedly after seeing bon-bons wrapped in twisted paper in Paris. The introduction of the halfpenny postage rate in 1870 also contributed to the growing success of Christmas cards. However, Cole's 'first Christmas card' would, along with Prince Albert's palace Christmas tree, set an example that would later become a key part of the Victorian Christmas.Īdvances in printing processes and colour techniques meant that by the 1860s complex designs could be produced on a large scale. At the time this was expensive, and the venture initially failed to take off. When postal service reformer Henry Cole created his own Christmas card in 1843 to send to friends and family, he also put them on sale to the general public for a shilling. Putting a star or angel on top of the Christmas tree is also a tradition that began in Victorian times. This could be seen as an attempt to bring the natural world into their homes in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. She died in 1901 due to illness, her son King Edward VII and her eldest grandson Emperor Wilhelm II at her deathbed.Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle - first published in 1848 by the Illustrated London NewsĪs well as trees, the Victorians decorated their house with things such as holly and ivy. In 1876, she took on the title of Empress of India after the British East India Company dissolved after the Indian Rebellion of 1875. She rarely made any public appearances after Albert's death. She later had nine kids, despite the fact she was noted to hate pregnancies.Īfter the death of her husband, she went into a mourning stage, wearing only black for the remainder of her life. She later got married to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in an attempt to avoid living with her overly controlling mother. On 20 June 1837, Victoria became Queen of England just barely a month after her eighteenth birthday when her uncle, King William IV, died. Queen Victoria was very lonely, growing up with Baroness Lehzen and her half-sister Theodora. Her father, Edward, died when she was one. Queen Victoria was raised in Kensington Palace by her mother, Victoria of Kent.
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