Posts Tagged ‘timeline’

30
Nov

2021: A Christmas Reference

   Posted by: craig    in History, Uncategorized

A Christmas Reference for 2021

Announcing my all new Christmas Reference PDF. It’s up to 22 pages now. Improvements include an expanded section on Christmas literature, a whole new listing of Christmas movies, updates to the timeline, a complete listing of the White House décor themes (2021 is Gifts from the Heart), and more.

Did you know that Christmas was once outlawed? Did you know that poinsettias are named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the American Ambassador to Mexico who introduced us to the plant in 1828? How about that the English like to eat their Christmas cake with a slice of cheddar cheese, or that the candy cane was invented as a way to keep children quiet in church? And, I bet you can’t guess when and where the first Ugly Christmas Sweater party was held, can you?

This is my gift in hopes that 2021 ends on a happier note for you than it began. Enjoy.

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25
Nov

A Timeline of Christmas through the Victorian Era

   Posted by: craig    in History

Christmas was hardly celebrated in Britain, nor in the States, in the early 19th century. It only became popular mid-century which many attribute to Queen Victoria’s marriage to the German-born Prince Albert.

In 1848 the Illustrated London News published a drawing of the royal family celebrating around a decorated Christmas tree according to the ways of Prince Albert’s childhood in Germany. Because of this, the German tradition of a candle-lit tree adorned with sweets, fruit, homemade decorations and small gifts quickly spread throughout Britain. This supplanted old traditions of gift-giving at New Years. Gift-giving also became more important during the Victorian era, morphing from small, homemade gifts being hung on the tree, to larger, shop-bought gifts being placed under the tree.

At around the same time, the mailing of Christmas cards became a new tradition, one made possible by the industrialization of color printing and by the economies of the postal system such that postage only cost half a penny.

A myriad of new practices and refinements grew from there. For example, the Victorians revived and popularized the singing of carols, putting old words to new tunes and forever associating them with Christmas. Also, in Victorian Britain it was established that Christmas was time for family reunions — and that’s when it was determined that a roasted turkey was the perfect size to serve such a family gathering, rather than roasted goose.

And then there was Charles Dickens. While A Christmas Carol did not invent the Victorian Christmas, it certainly helped to spread the traditions and to focus the celebration of Christmas on the notions of happiness and peace, family togetherness, charity, and goodwill.

325 AD

  • Saint Nicholas (born sometime during the 3rd c. in the ancient Lycian seaport city of Patara) attends the first Council of Nicaea under the rule of Emperor Constantine the Great.

336 AD

  • Christmas first celebrated in Rome.

6th c.

  • Roman emperor Justinian I builds one of the first of many thousand churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas at Constantinople (now Istanbul).

8th c.

  • The Christmas tree tradition begins with Saint Boniface, who converted the druidic German people to Christianity.

1087

  • Italian sailors steal Saint Nicholas’ alleged remains from Myra and take them to Bari, Italy.

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