Victorian Christmas Decor was WEIRD (and dangerous)
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- Ever wondered what a Victorian Christmas looked like? While they certainly had the greenery we’ve come to know as tradition, it turns out they were a bit more creative than expected in the 19th century! Trees were covered in fake snow, palm trees were all the rage, and don’t forget the glitter. It’s one big, messy craft project and no one has a vacuum cleaner. Nevermind the goblins hiding in the foliage. No “dark yule” themes here, just chaos and sparkle.
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00:00 Greenery from Afar
05:33 Strange Meats
07:41 Glitter & Snow
11:30 Fear of Fire & Goblinsstmasn - Навчання та стиль
Crushed glass snow, metal trees with built in gas lights, burning candles on dried up tree branches. It sometimes amazes me we've survived past the 20th century 😂
Real candles on Christmas trees remained popular in Germany until fairly recently, so another traditional Christmas decoration was a bucket of water next to the tree.
Christmas goblins - the first HOA
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Karen!
😂
HOA?
@@georgeoldsterd8994 home owners association
My grandma kept on insisting to have real candles on the christmas tree. It didn't matter if we had a dog running around or little children, the candles had to be lit. Since I have been the one to decorate the tree for years now, I begrudgingly put them on but every year I argued with her to not light them, most times losing so the candles were lit at least once on the 24th (where we celebrate in germany). It is definitely an art to put the candles on the tree in a way so they wont burn the tree or any decorations. I bought her some wireless led candles last year and she happily had them lit every day 😅
A christmas tree decorated with taxidermied birds covered in crushed glass "snow", next to a table set with meat in whatever "leaf lard blanket" looks like.... the stuff if nightmares.
Don't forget the candles. 😅
A leaf-lard blanket would probably look like it's slathered in butter. Leaf lard is the really pure fat from a pig (I think along the spine). It has less water and internal meat bits than other fat deposits, so it lasts longer and doesn't taste like the meat it came from. It makes for the very best pie crusts.
It looks a lot like white frosting icing. Very pure fat from around the kidneys. Very very white, very fine grained. It's quite stiff at room temperature unless the cell walls have been broken by kneading, when it assumes a more butter like texture, though still more pure white in color compared to the yellowish tint butter often has.
@@drekfletchyou can get it at the butcher as suet. It's used in mince pies and put out for the birds.
@@westzed23Suet is cow or sheep, leaf lard is pork; same part of the animal though. It's slightly softer than suet, and not to be confused with regular lard, which comes from the rest of the pig like tallow.
I mean, not gonna lie...the idea of spending the holidays alternately nibbling snacks off of my own private treat-adorned Christmas tree and then napping underneath it sounds like #PeakChristmasVibes for myself, as well.
I hope linear time is an illusion so you can be reincarnated as a Victorian dog and find true peace.
People still make cookies and hang them on the tree with ribbon, along with fruit slices. Perhaps a little dried prosciutto rose that you take off the tree and put in your soup?
The rats and roaches seeking refuge from the cold will be grateful for the unexpected nosh, too
In my Home in Germany it is common to hang unwrapped chocolate wreaths, covered in round sprinkles, on our Christmas Tree, so with something like that u could totally do that.😅 When my cosins and I were younger, some of them always disappeared before Christmas somehow, we usually weren't allowed to eat them before Christmas, so the tree would still look good then.😅
I remember my grandma telling me not to touch the fake snow in her Christmas village because it had "bits of glass that will cut you." She put shards of sharp glitter (not actual broken glass, but it could cut you) on top of white cottony material. Apparently she was inspired by the Victorians. This was in the 90s-2000s. 😆
When I read what you wrote (don't touch the fake snow, it's bits of glass that will cut you), I flashed back to a memory of being told that back in the early 70's as a child. From the 50's (from pictures) to the 70's (I remember) a lot of Xmas decorations were very reminiscent of what the Victorians did. A lot of 'don't touch' stuff!
@@lisam5744You can still get angel hair which is spun glass. We weren't allowed to have it because it was dangerous.
My grandmother was always telling me this too!!
I feel so surprisingly validated. We moved into a new Victorian home this year and I made most of our ornaments with my kids using biodegradable glitter and paper chains and candy on the tree.
One year when my kids were little. I did the whole tree with edible things individually wrapped except for the popcorn garland. I did also have a hard candy garland too. It was pretty and pretty tasty if I don't say so myself. Nicely colored and all the neighborhood kids could come and eat a few whenever. It was so packed full of stuff it took to after Christmas to undecorate but it was an easy job by new years. 😁
I'm not sure why I didn't expect Victorian Christmas to be absolute chaos given... everything else, but yet my mind is blown. Amazing
You should see the games they played....like setting a bunch of nuts and dried fruit on fire with alcohol and having the kids grab pieces out of the blaze.
Yes. For real. 😂
If the candles and electricity didn't end you, the party games will do their best!
I just realised I had Victorian Christmas decorations as a child in the 80s. I grew up in Bulgaria, behind the iron curtain. We made garlands from paper, we were putting cotton snow on the tree and even lit candles on it. Yes, we did that...
My in-laws are Eastern European and I think twice in the twentysome Xmases we've spent with them, we've had real candles on thetree. It just has to be the right shape of tree so that you've got long branches without other branches over top of them, and it's decorated without the long tinsel strands they usually use, and all the dangly ornaments are hung under candles, not over or beside them. And when the tree is lit, someone is assigned to watch the tree, not just be in the room with it, actually WATCH it. The candles are extinguished before the watcher leaves the room. Most years there are just candle-shaped electric lights.
I think if I make a pet Christmas Tree, it'll be made entirely of applewood sticks so my rabbit can just eat the tree. Maybe some lettuce hung throughout and the occasional dried cranberry stuck on to make it more festive.
Central European here. We still use real candles and the tree catching fire a standard element of the festivities. We also still gild our walnuts and make endless paper chains ✨🎆✨
My great-grandfather was from Sweden and according to the information passed down to me, they did the very same thing (pre-1920). They had real candles on the tree, when the tree was lit there was one person assigned to watch it, and they stood by with a bucket of water in order to extinguish it if it got out of control, and after they were done looking at it while it was lit. Clearly the desire for fire safety hasn't changed much! I was not surprised to hear this from my great-grandfather however since in Sweden there is tradition of celebrating St. Lucia's Feast. This holiday calls for a young girl to be elected as St. Lucia and then she wears a white robe and an evergreen wreath with candles to be worn on the top of her head as she serves the family pastries and coffee. Pre- electric lighting this had to have been a stressful event!!
Back in the 50s in the Netherlands we had a tree with candles. It was a big production to put them on correctly. It was only lit once on Christmas day and dad stood by with a bucket of water, while i crouched terrified by the door. Once we immigrated we got electric lights and the tree was never lit with candles again.
The Victorians were nothing is not extra when it comes to decorating, lol. The BBC Victorian Farm series has a great three hour Christmas special. It’s on UA-cam and they really show how they did Christmas during Victorian times. Great video series all around. I’ve watched it several times and highly recommend. Merry Christmas.
you sounded surprised by it, but fairies as tree toppers are still common in the UK. we have a dragon, but the default is fairy/angel or star.
this makes sense. actual victorian aesthetic is always more garish/naff/just plain weird than modern interpretations of what victorians liked.
I was so suprised by Nicoles reaction to the fairy. Lol
Is it not a thing outside europe? Because we do that too in finland, though you see more and more stars now a days
I live in Germany, and dont recall ever seeing anything else than a simple (in Form, compared to a dragon or fairy) Christmas tree topper or, more rarely, a star, on a Christmas tree here. I heard about it somewhere, but it doesn't seem to be an all over Europe thing.
Really? I'm from Germany and we have 3 groups:
1. Star
2. Traditional glass tree topper, typically made in Lauscha
3. Rauschgoldengel (gold angel), which come from Nürnberg
And of course modern variations of all sorts and the heavily decked american tree with fake florals, picks, branches etc.
The star or the angel is the most popular in America, the bow is popular too. In America fairies + Christmas is mostly associated with the nutcracker
The fairy doesn’t surprise me. Swiss Family Robinson on the tree on the other hand…
Several years ago we picked up an inflatable Halloween decoration for cheap after Halloween. Since it was too late for Halloween we kept it out for Christmas. Frank the Christmas demon has been a thing ever since. Turns out we were doing Victorian Christmas before we even knew about it
Those Christmas rooms are giving big "Laudanum and chaos" vibes
Maybe call it the green fairy , or goblin, room?😅
We had candles for our Christmas tree a couple of years in the 90s. The candle holders were weighted brass (decorations in their own right) so the candles always stood upright, and someone always adjusted their positions. They weren't suitable for slender trees, but the short and fat ones had a perfect cone shape to avoid setting the branches above on fire. And of course, we had no small children or pets running around at the time. There is nothing comparable to a candlelit Christmas tree. The glow is beauty. Then twenty minutes later, after we had our moment and taken our snapshots, we blew the candles out, plugged in the twinkle lights, and got on with the day. You literally could not turn your back on a candlelit tree.
My family stuck to Twelfth Night as being the latest that Christmas decorations could remain in place. The tradition has stuck with me and my siblings throughout the decades. And yes, it was because of the goblins …
my grandma, was born in 1910 (3rd from youngest of 19), she had some feather butterflys and glass birds, that she inherited from her mum. i still have one of her victorian glass birds, it never comes out of its box
My great grandparents were Victorian, and it's interesting how many of these traditions carried through my childhood. My mother had me making paper chains, stringing cranberries, and our holiday was far from just one day.
Same. We opted for the modern, foil covered chocolate decorations but paper chains and decorations made from paper, cardboard, poster paint, cotton wool, and lots of glitter kept us out of trouble for Santa coming. A silver, tinsel tree was put up Christmas Eve multicoloured flower lights and our ornaments. Taken down by 12th Night to prevent a year of bad luck and my mother's interrupted dusting. England 1960s.
Milkbone dog biscuits wrapped in colored foil and tied to tree branches with satin ribbons sounds like a good variation on the meat tree for dogs.
In my family (in Denmark) we still water our Christmas tree, and we don't bring it in until the 23rd. It's taken out on epiphany, usually on the evening of the 5th.
Christmas goblins are basically just elves with some edge, not that different from our Christmas then. In Finland there is still an idea that Santa's elves keep an eye on people before Christmas to see if they've been naughty or nice, but I haven't heard them coming afterwards to check on the decorations. According to an old tradition, the Christmas season ends 13th of January, which in fact had some halloween-esque traditions for grown-ups related to that, but those are practically obsolete nowadays.
For everyone who is horrified about the crushed glass glitter, appearantly that was also recommended for hair glitter as well...
(The Long Haired Flapper has a great short video about victorian hair glitter. She didn't try the glass one though)
I was born in 1962, we had what was called "Angel hair". I think it was spun fiberglass, and taken off the market due to toxic nature !? I remember it gave horrible splinters ! But it did look lovely once on the tree !
Growing up my dad would only ever use actual candles in the Christmas tree, and he still does!
For this to be safe, you need a really sparse tree, so that there's enough space between the other branches and the candles. The main thing is that you need to be careful about where you place the candle holders, and of course keep an eye on it while the candles burn, but it's been decades of using candles and we've never had an actual fire happen because of it.
As an amateur obsessed with historical accuracy this video is incredible! I always suspected that there was more to the story some home paper chains or cranberries. I appreciate your scholarship in putting this together from primary sources (but your videos are always so well documented).
Shocking, how familiar it sounded 😂. Paper chains are popular to this day, but back then we also had sweets and ginger bread figures in our tree, gold & silver painted walnuts, glittering "angel hair" , glass birds and (earlier) real candles. And we kept the tree until 6 January (3 Kings day). OMG, I feel old...
@annazann7236 - Don't feel old -- feel festive!
We’ve done painted walnut shells (not necessarily gold and silver), sometimes with glitter glued on them. My grandpa on my mom’s side used to make them as a kid.
latin american here! Epiphany is celebrated the 6th of January but commercially is called The Day of the Magi. We don't leave milk and cookies for santa but leave fresh cut grass and water for the Magi's flying camels. Kids get presents that day as well! So you wake up, unwrap presents while having breakfast and then you take down the decorations.
‘It wasn’t enough , they wanted glitter- lots of glitter’ inserts picture of completely OTT tree decoration in my house- no meat though xx
We kind of used to make a pet friendly chrismass tree when i was a kid and we had a cockerspaniel. She was aleays a very gentle and polite eater so when we realized the first year of having her that she's been nibbling on gingerbread decorations (yes, we used to have the tree decorated with cookies and sugar confety and nuts, i didn't know that this was such an OLD custom), from that year on we proceeded to make a batch of pet friendly low sugar ones just for her. Btw by the end of the chrismass, which yeah, we put everything down on 6th of january, the majority of edible stuff was gone with only empty paper wrappings and ribbons staying on 😊
Maybe we need a collaboration with Rachel Maksy who would definitely make all these decorations.
Please, please, please do not encourage Rachel to glue crushed glass onto cotton batting. I think we'd all like her to keep her hands and fingers intact for other projects.
Nicole, this was the most in-depth, interesting, fantastical video on Victorian Christmas I've ever discovered. Thank you so much for what I expect was hours & hours of research.
I had the EXACT same thought about cleaning all of the glitter/paper/glass up before electric vacuums! I don't even want to clean it up WITH vacuums!
Looks like the carpet sweeper was invented in the 1870s, so they may have had those...but still!
As a mom of a preschooler and 4 cats I can't imagine the mess of fake snow and fake glitter everywhere. I suspect that these things were mostly found in homes where they at least had a housekeeper who cleaned for them.
my grandma's wedding dress burned down : she got married on christmas 55 because seally liked the movie "winter wonderland" (called "noel sous la neige/chrismas under the snow" in french) and she wanted a snowy wedding (it rained that day lol) during the party she ended up dancing with her now brother in law who had drunk quite a bit already and didn't feel his strength, he ended up throwing her on the tree and the dress caught the flames of the candles. It was more fear than harm she didn't have anything wrong happening, except now she lost a gorgeous dress
That is so terrible and so funny at the same. 😢😅 Hope the marriage and lifetime were wonderful.
This story wins
@@sherylmccrary9045 their marriage however troubled and short-lived (she got widowed very young) was a very happy and examplary one
My mother insisted that all Christmas decorations had to be down by Jan 5th or it would be a bad year. As I got older, I had a sneaky suspicion that my mother might have made this up simply because by the time Christmas was done, she wanted the house back to normal and none of all that clutter around. So, to me having Christmas decorations up until February seems very long. I think if I kept them up that long, I'd probably get used to them and forget to take them down and eventually just leave them up all year round. I do like twinkly lights....
There are some great descriptions of crafting Christmas decorations in Louisa May Alcott’s book “Jack and Jill”… also, the homemade gifts the children made for their friends. Have to admit, her books definitely influenced me…I’ve always loved making homemade gifts for my kids and family.
I love how chaotic and over the top the victorians were. xD
So much glitter, fairies, goblins...
I'm putting a glittery unicorn on my tree, I think they would have loved that.^^
Til it's apparently normal to take your Christmas decor down before new years, ours has always stayed up until after the 12th day of Christmas
I loved your comment about pampas grass from Santa Barbara! I have grown up with it all over the place and never really thought about it until I read "Goleta the Good Land" by Walker Thompkins. It was farmed here and that's why it's all over the place now.
wait, americans take down their decorations right after new years?! that's so strange! we take them down on the thirteenth day (of christmas) or a bit later. and the window lights stay up for a while after that since it's so dark outside still in january and the lights look extra nice compared to regular lamps.
In Greece, the traditional Christmas decoration is not a tree but a ship, decorated with lights and treats for the children, like apples, dried figs and walnuts.
"Who's going clean that up" the servants... This stuff is mostly just for the rich buggers
The Victorian Farm team used some of these methods for decorating in the Christmas special. I've heard someone say that because we only have Christmas once a year the traditions and food etc haven't had as much chance to evolve.... Mind you Christmas in the Southern hemisphere has definitely tried to change to match the climate! Even Santa sometimes appears on the beach in shorts and a t-shirt!
I’m interested in the connection of goblins with Christmas as they are the theme of this year’s Christmas Doctor Who Special. It makes me wonder if the writer was aware of this tradition (though as he’s very chatty I’m sure he’ll let us know sometime). It wouldn’t surprise me.
I know ghost stories were traditional for Christmas Eve, so there might be some connection.
I was just about to write a similar comment. It was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard christmas goblins.
As a german I'm truly sorry what we did to the world. The moment one guy plucked a tree and put it indoors it all went festively mayhem.
Merry Christmas & frohe Weihnachten! 🌲
We still strung cranberries and popcorn when i was a kid. As an adult, i have used real lit candles on our Christmas tree. It practically gave my brother a conniption fit and he would sit next to it with a pail of water while I read A Visit from St. Nicholas.
My grandma said when her dad was a boy (in the 1870s) that he and his family opened their presents on Twelfth Night.
As a Greek the Christmas Ship doesn't surprise me one bit. Before the introduction of thr Tree we decorated Boats on Christmas, I've seen mentions of both downsized ship decorations, like a decoration for the table be decorated for Christmas and actual Boats. Some say it's either to thank Saint Nicholas, Patron Saint of Sailors or to Wish the Family members away a Happy Christmas cause they can't attend. The practice faded andvis slowly coming back these days.
What seems like every single modern Christmas movie: Christmas is about more than the glitter and decorations! It's about family and love!
Victorians: Pft! Don't be stupid! It's about having ALL the glitter and decorations. Now, come check out my Christmas room! I went for the blackbirds theme this year, and I think the glitter I added to the canary cages adds something special, don't you?
I unintentionally have a "pet christmas tree" every year. My cat thinks I put a tree in the living room for her to climb and scratch, and all those dangly balls are cat toys. She also likes to sleep under the tree when she's done playing, so the tree skirt gets covered in cat hair.
The Christmas goblins were a nice surprise :D
We still have a real Christmas tree with real candles and it is absolutely vital to keep it watered! Otherwise it gets really dangerous. Don't buy it too early and stop using candles when you notice that the tree gets too dry despite the watering. We leaves ours up until 6th of January, so epiphany and burn it around candle mass to mark the light coming back. It's a tradition I'm really fond of.
From what I remember reading about xmas in pre-Revolutionary Russia (because my country was part of the Russian Empire, though I imagine it wasn't too different across Eastern Europe), live candles were used for light. For decorations there were baubles (not necessarily balls, though, and not too many), fruits, candy and nuts. Paper garlands and cotton snow were also used. Decorations were simple and readily available. That is to say, they also had strings of beads.
Also, about meat-decorated xmas trees, i got reminded of those old Merry Melodies/ Looney Tunes cartoons. 😂
You are such an amazing researcher! I have researched Christmas decorations for historic homes for over 20 years and you came up with many things I have not found. Great program, I hope you will do another one next year. Thanks.
A gaslit christmas tree just sounds like you're lying to the tree until it doesn't trust it's own senses.
This is fascinating. I always thought victorian Christmas decor was just whatever they could make at home… But with the magazines, different themes, catalogs and imported goods, there was just as huge a market for commercial Christmas decor as we have now with Christmas Shops and such. Even Christmas for pets. I didn’t know that.
In my parents home the tree went up the weekend before Christmas & stayed up until January 7th. January 6th being the Feast of the Epiphany or Little Christmas.
I can imagine the vermin having a field day with egg shells filled with candied nuts… what about the crushed glass as glitter getting in the doggies meat tree. My family is Italian and we had a complete Bethlehem Neapolitan style a Stable with the Holy Family also with small houses and characters doing manual labor like bakers and butchers. A field with miniature plaster sheep and Sheppards. We would go out to collect moss in the forest in preparation for the “Pesepe” ( Nativity) ..la family affair.
Sounds amazing, I would love to see it xx
❤❤❤
@@indiabillypeople would buy tickets to see this
Maybe you cats to keep away vermin.
A Victorian Christmas was just chaotic, filled with over the top decorations and lets not forget a complete firebomb of a tree. Great video, thank you.
Christmas goblin-type things are traditional in Scandinavia, too, they're called Julenisse
I remember when I was 5 or 6 (in the 80's in Soviet Union) and my mother who was kindergarten teacher made some posters for decorating before new year with her friend. For sparkles they used any broken glass decoration which didn't survive in storage from previous year. Glass was crashed and put on the thick layer of glue. I was strictly forbidden to be nearby during this process or touching it after drying.
Also at my grandparent there were some old candle holders for the tree, but I've never see them in use.
My grandma was born in 1919 and so growing up in the 1920s and '30s they still used candles that clipped onto the tree branches. They would light them as a family (maybe on Christmas Eve?), and ooh and aah over it, and then put it out before bed. Someone would always have a bucket of water on hand just in case!
My grandmother still had a bunch of the lights that held candles, and most years she would put them on, but not light them. When I was about 15 or so, SHE LIT THEM!!! It was cool. Nothing happened. IT WAS HORRIFYING!!!!!!! She had to keep telling me that it was fine, nothing was going to happen, and she was right -- I was still relieved when we blew them out.
9:58 "Who's going to clean that up in an era before electric vacuums?" That's what we have servants for! You there! I want all this glitter out of the carpet before the end of the night! You shan't have Boxing Day off until it's done!
Yeah. The target audience of those articles was wealthy people, which is logical, poor people didn't have money to buy newspapers, let alone the items described in their articles.
Tradition finnish christmas game (that began a thing around 1800's):
Very simple: Make some Finnish rice porridge for your family/friends ( i recommend having cinnamon powder, sugar and some kind of berrie soup at the table so everyone can season their porriage how they want) and hide 1 or 2 whole almonds in to the porrige ( granted no one is allergic ofc).
Idea is who ever finds the almond gets a price and they will have extra luck next year (traditionally the unmarried will get married etc.)
🤣 "What I want to know is who's going to clean this up ... ?" 🤣
When I was a kid we did paper chains wrapped around the tree, macaroni ornaments, popcorn garlands and such. My mom grew up in the 20's so I guess she was continuing the traditions she had as a kid even though my grandmother's tree was the fashionable tree of the 1960's. (I actually recall stringing the popcorn while watching the new Christmas cartoon, "When the Grinch Stole Christmas".)
Currently, we don't decorate (no kids or grandkids). In my 20's we found out why I was always sick at Christmas. I'm allergic to pine trees. We tried fake trees but didn't like them. Then we tried live trees in pots to grow outside when you can dig in the ground. Most Christmases it's around May 1st. It is hard for me to keep then alive that long in a pot. But maybe next year we will tried it again. Happy Holidays!
One more thing ... if you go the live trees we will do again in the future, if you don't have room for another tree, donate it to a local park. Then others get to enjoy it and you all can visit it through the years. If not a local park, ask the Forestry folks to plant it were needed.
In my family we still leave the decorations up until Epiphany, everything comes down the day after and the tiny tree is planted in the yard.
Ghost stories were a tradition on Christmas Eve, which is the background behind "A Christmas Carol." You can find others online.
My grandmother told me they used to have real candles all the way until the 50s in Northern Sweden. But they only had the candles lit for a few hours every day at most.
And while I was growing up it was still common to use real moss or lichen for our decorations, along with pine and juniper branches. You can still buy Cladonia stellaris (a common, white lichen) in stores today to use in decorations. You just have to mist it with some lukewarm water every day to prevent any fire hazard, but since we mainly use electric candles now, you don't even have to do that
I swear every time I think I know a lot about the Victorians something else comes along to blow me away and I’m somehow even more bewildered that anyone managed to survive that century.
I love the smell of fresh greenery this time of year.
My husband literally ripped a small tree out of the ground for me and brought it home which I replanted in a nice big pot in our livingroom. So now we have our own live little Christmas tree this year which I will replant in our yard come spring.
Don't worry, the tree came from a co-worker's property and they told him he could take it.
So this is actually a thing... There are companies all over where you can rent potted Christmas trees. They bring the potted tree to your house and take it away and care for of it thoughout the year. You sometimes have the option to rent the same tree every year and then after so many years (I think it's 5 years) they plant the tree somewhere and start over again.
If you google it you'll probably find one around you. I think I first heard about it in the UK, but when I googled it to find them I found a company in Surrey, BC; Carmel, CA; and another in Mississauga, ON.
I live in the UK and we've always left our xmas decorations up until twelfth night! This was such a fun video, I love the weirdness behind the Victorian aesthetic we know and love today xD
I was showing some friends a tree topper of Krumpus. Told them about him, and they all thought that was the grossest story let alone Christmas figure there ever was 😂
7:40 "The birds, if good singers will generally assist very greatly."
Man, back then people wrote so lovely. To me this is so cute!!
On the Christmas tree, I saw some old glass ornaments I remember from my childhood.
the SOUND that came directly from the bottom of my spirit when you said
" in an era before electric vacuum"
like...... six word horror story right there.
my grandparents always had real candles on their tree in addition to the electric ones. and I remember that there was always a bucket with sand beneath the tree and big wool blankets... and every year at least one branch would start to smolder - sometimes more than that... but still they had camdlestje next year again.
I found it quite interesting when you mentioned that it's expected to take down the decorations around new years eve. In my family it was tradition to leave them up until the day of the holy three kings (January 6th). that surprisingly alings quite perfect with those 12 days of Christmas (concept I didn't knew until social media etc!) really fascinating topic!
Dude, I’m all for Christmas goblins as punishment for people who don’t take down their decorations. I can understand if like you’re elderly and don’t want to climb outside taking lights down in frigid January-but that doesn’t mean you need to keep turning them on every night into mid-March!
Wait, do other people not leave their tree up after New Year's? The 12 days of Christmas have always started after Christmas day, as far as I've known. And I know very far.
Yer that really confused me too. Always take things down before twelfth night.
And yer if you don't you get bad luck for the new year from the woodland spirits.
i don't usually decorate for x-mas, but when i do, the tree comes down on December 26.
@@sarav2209 I'm lucky to get mine up by the 26th!
I've always had live candles on the tree - it's pretty common in Denmark, and we manage to not burn down our houses every year!
@@Eet_Mia Oh of COURSE we have - it makes it even more exciting!
In "On the Banks of Plum Creek" by Laura Ingalls Wilder the church has a Christmas tree decorated with gifts for all the children. There's balls of popcorn, little mesh bags of candy, mitts, toys, and other presents.
Around the 10 minute mark , whose going to clean up the confetti mess? Why the servants of course, you silly Billy 😅😂😅
Now all the classic decorations and huge focus on the beauty of Christmas in The Nutcracker makes so much more sense!
In true Victorian fashion, Christmas went from bucolic shrubbery to lethal weirdness before you could say Yuletide.
Thank you! I now have a fuller understanding of "An Olde Fashioned Christmas!"
I suspect much of the popularity of the crazy, overdone Christmas had to do with the increase of the middle class during the 19th Century. I've never heard of Candlemas or the Christmas Goblins. So funny. I grew up in San Diego, so often we'd have heat waves and Santa Anas (dry, hot windstorms, kind of like today, when it was 82F at 2pm), so we'd buy the tree around Dec 10th, but keep it in a bucket in the garage, then hose it down in the driveway before bringing it inside. Usually by Jan 6th, the tree has gone pale and crunchy, so it's time for it to go. I have a few very old ornaments from my grandmothers...very thin glass, hand painted. Mom's Mother had grandparents from Germany. The wife of a friend who also grew up here shocked her husband by talking about lit candles on a Christmas tree. She was born near Dusseldorf in Germany, and they'd put candles on a fresh tree outdoors on a snowy Christmas Eve. Not the same thing at all. The dead bird thing really got out of hand in the Victorian days, lol.
This year I just did 4ft table tree with roses and fake battery candles. The remote comes in handy. 🌹
First of all, kudos to you for the amazing amount of research you did for this post! I realize that we aren’t that far away from the Victorians in our search for unique Holiday decor. Sadly they had to suffer the ill effects of some of their novel ideas.
Love this video! Nerdy historical Christmas Victorian…ticks all of the boxes for me! 🎄🎅🏻👺
My family still keeps Christmas decoration upto Feburary 2nd. I think it is quite common in Poland.
Full glitter girl here. This year my plan is to put every decoration I have on the tree. Will organize and purge in January.
Your dog is the chillest dog ever
This really explains that one Louisa May Alcott short story where a bunch of boys surprise the girls by hanging dead mice by their tails on the Christmas tree for the girls' kittens to eat.
LoL Xmas goblins ... Glitter goblins are now my theme this yr
I guess I'm in trouble with the goblins cause I haven't taken down my 2ft Christmas tree for going on five to six years. I can't stand glitter, fake snow(want the real stuff in my yard) and stuff that's too sparkly. My cat has his own tree as does my sister's cat. Plus they have their own stockings too.
For greenery I do have one of the most
spectacular flowers in existence: the
Cattleya Orchid & Stargazer Oriental
Lily. Then again, our Christmas isin the
Southern Hemisphere so it's usually a
scorching summer day. Oh well.
I was reading a book where the tradition for christmas was to go steal some greeneryfrom your neighbor's land. Holly, mistletoe, and evergreens.
Ah, fake snow. Better known as Asbestos. Sold all the way into the 1950s. Found several boxes in both my grandparent's homes along with a couple of aunts and uncles homes. Fun.
My great grandfather would put up and decorate a christmas tree on christmas eve after the children were in bed. On christmas morning he would get up early, get the fireplaces going downstairs, and then call down the kids to see the christmas tree with all the candles on it lit. The tree was lit as long as someone was in the room. It was put out if no one was going to be in the room. One year my mom decorated a tree with angel hair, a spun glass similar to that pink insulation material. A tree decorated with angel hair was gorgeous and magical. Artfully arrainged it looked like snow in a fog with the lights shining through the angel hair looking like colors glowing through the fog. It was beautiful!
My family is mostly of German descent. My parents (in Mich.) always put up & decorated the tree on Xmas eve. Magical to wake up to. Extra work for the parents. (Dad born 1920; Mom1923)
I fully expected asbestos to be in the fake Christmas snow mix but it looks like for most of the Victorian era, asbestos wasn't being mined in sufficient quantities to be viable as something purely decorative anyway
This was a hilarious walk thru Victorian Christmas.
Meat tree ftw!
I'd be interested to know if those interesting different themes were done in the UK as well? Seems this is a very american video,though.