These Victorian Christmas images will get you in the holiday mood

By | December 22nd, 2023|Categories: Christmas, Holidays, Victorian Era, Victorian Era Celebrations|Tags: , |

“I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas. It brings people together while time stands still.” -Rachel Cohn  Happy holidays, dear customers! We hope that the jingle bells are jingling and that you are already creating memories you will cherish. The Christmas season is a time of year with a hard-to-describe ethereal thickness [...]

Snapdragon: Extreme Victorian Parlour Game

By | December 22nd, 2021|Categories: Christmas, Entertainment, History of the home, Holidays, Victorian Era, Victorian Era Celebrations|Tags: , , , |

How do you spend time with family and loved ones over the Christmas holiday? Are there games or traditions that you enjoy? Do any of them involve trying not to catch on fire? In the Victorian era, that is exactly what one could anticipate with the playing of a popular Christmas eve parlour game, snapdragon.  [...]

The history of mistletoe: from naughty Georgians to a Victorian courting custom

By | December 19th, 2021|Categories: 19th Century Literature, Christmas, Holidays, Victorian culture, Victorian Era, Victorian Era Celebrations|Tags: , , , |

Do you hang mistletoe in your home over the holiday season? Do you know that of all the holiday traditions that have both ancient and pagan roots that this is one is among the oldest? Or that it was ever-so-saucy Victorians that turned it into the kissing ritual as we know it today? The history [...]

A Victorian Christmas party

By | November 27th, 2020|Categories: Christmas, Holidays, Victorian Era, Victorian Era Celebrations|Tags: , , , |

The Victorians knew how to celebrate Christmas! During the reign of Queen Victoria, the holiday grew more popular with each passing year, becoming a national holiday in America in 1870. A good majority of the traditions we enjoy today were either started or popularized during the late 1800s and early 1900s, though in some ways [...]

Victorian cocktails: The Golden Age of mixology

By | November 26th, 2020|Categories: Christmas, Holidays, Victorian culture, Victorian Era, Victorian Era Celebrations|Tags: , , , , |

The holidays are here, and boy, don’t we all need it? It’s been a year of struggles for all of us, and I can tell how much people are looking forward to being with their families and to enjoying some comforts as we wait for the fresh start of the new year. And some of [...]

The history of Advent calendars

By | November 22nd, 2020|Categories: Christmas, Holidays, Victorian Era Celebrations|Tags: , , |

Do you count down the days to Christmas with an Advent calendar? What kind? The Advent calendar is a holiday tradition with historic roots that seems to be increasing in popularity each year. There are now the beloved Trader Joe’s version, versions with tiny bottles of booze, luxury versions, numerous food Advent calendars, versions with [...]

5 Fun facts about A Christmas Carol

By | October 29th, 2020|Categories: Christmas|Tags: , , , |

Do you have a copy of A Christmas Carol at home? Or is there a film adaptation that you enjoy watching each year? The Charles Dickens’ tale is such an ingrained part of our holiday celebrations in the Western world that it is something that we might not think much of as it begins to [...]

Christmas and the Victorian Era: 5 More Interesting Observations

By | December 10th, 2016|Categories: Uncategorized, Victorian Era, Victorian Era Celebrations|Tags: , , , , , , |

Looking into the Victorians and how they influenced our modern Christmas celebration was so much fun that stopping at five was just not possible! So, here are five more interesting observations. The first of our observations is that the singing of Christmas carols was revived and popularized during the Victorian era. Old words were paired [...]

Christmas and the Victorian Era: 5 Interesting Observations

By | December 7th, 2016|Categories: Uncategorized, Victorian Era, Victorian Era Celebrations|Tags: , , , |

Christmas celebrations at the beginning of the 19th century were very different from the way we celebrate today. Here are some interesting facts on the evolution of the Christmas holiday and how the Victorians shaped what we now consider a tradition. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are integral to the evolution of the modern Christmas [...]