I invite you to take a taste of Karen’s outstanding writing as you learn more about how Christmas become what it is today.
Many elements of British life—including railways, manufacturing, the postal service, medicine, children’s schools, and diet—changed shape over Queen Victoria’s long reign, from 1837 to 1901, gradually taking on the forms we recognize today. One aspect that changed almost completely was Christmas. When eighteen-year-old Victoria took the throne, Christmas was barely celebrated as a holiday. Indeed, it was a workday for many. Gift-giving, if it was done at all, was done at New Year’s, and most of the elements we now think of as inseparable from Christmas—the decorated tree, gift exchanges, Santa Claus, and holiday cards—were non-existent in Britain.
However, by the end of Victoria’s reign, Christmas was the largest annual celebration—but only in England and Wales. Interesting fact: despite having joined the United Kingdom in 1707, Scotland held itself aloof from the Christmas traditions that swept Britain in the nineteenth century. Instead, Scots celebrated Hogmanay.
For many scholars of religion, the history of Christmas begins in the 4th century. The Bible does not provide an exact date for Jesus’s birth, but perhaps drawing on the enthusiasm for traditional pagan celebrations around the winter solstice (December 21), Pope Julius I named it as December 25. First called the “Feast of the Nativity,” it spread to England by the end of the 6th century and through most of the rest of Europe by the 8th where it became an established tradition. During a period of puritanism in the 17th century, in America as well as England and Wales, Christmas was outlawed briefly as a “decadent” holiday. Although Christmas reemerged as a holiday in England by the 1680s, it wasn’t until the first half of the 19th century that writers on both sides of the Atlantic played a significant role in bringing modern notions of Christmas, popularizing it as a holiday that celebrates family, charity, and love.
A Christmas Carol, written by Dickens in 1843, is perhaps the ultimate English Christmas story, celebrating kindness, generosity, and nonreligious spirituality.
Christmas in England and Wales also evolved in part as a consequence of the industrial revolution, which helped to create a middle-class—merchants, factory owners, manufacturers, railway and shipping magnates, and so on—with disposable income. They could spend their money on many of the new products manufactured in these factories, including toys, games, dolls, textiles, decorative objects, and so on—which all became more affordable, as they were no longer painstakingly made by hand.
Did you know it was Queen Victoria’s German-born husband Prince Albert who brought the tradition of Christmas trees to England? He brought the first fir tree to Windsor Castle in 1841, and in 1848 the Illustrated London News popularized the idea of putting a decorated tree inside the home for the middle classes by publishing an image of Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, and several of their children standing around the tree in familial bliss.
Christmas cards came into being partly as a result of a change in the postal service. Until 1840, postage was paid by recipients rather than the senders, and the price was calculated by the number of miles a letter traveled. But in 1840, Rowland Hall reformed the postal service, switching it to a sender-pay system, with a flat rate for a letter sent anywhere in Britain, and the Penny Post was born. This made the cost of sending a card or letter affordable for many. (In 1870, a further reduction meant newspapers and postcards could be sent for a half-penny.) In 1843, Sir Henry Cole (later the director of the Victoria & Albert Museum) commissioned the artist J. C. Horsley to design a card with a festive scene, some of which he used himself and the remainder of which he sold.
In it, St. Nick appears as a benevolent, jolly man, in a red suit, with a sleigh laden with gifts and eight reindeer. (Our favorite reindeer, the red-nosed Rudolph, appears in 1939, courtesy of the Montgomery Ward department stores, who wanted to save money on coloring books and printed their own that year, featuring Rudolph. The song was later popularized by Gene Autry in 1949.) But this version of Santa Claus, as a merry gentleman riding behind reindeer, did not cross the Atlantic to England until the 1870s.
One last note: while Boxing Day, celebrated on December 26, is separate from Christmas Day, it is a long-standing element of the holiday tradition in England. It has nothing to do with the pugilistic sport. After working on Christmas Day, servants were given the day off to spend with their families, and it is traditionally a day when money and gifts were distributed in boxes to servants, delivery people, and the poor.
Karen is giving away one paperback copy of A Trace of Deceit! To enter, please use the form below.
The giveaway is open to US residents only and ends at midnight January 1st. You must be 18 or older to enter.
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“Edwin is dead.” This is what Scotland Yard Inspector Matthew Hallam tells Annabel Rowe when she discovers him searching her brother’s flat for clues. Annabel is devastated but not wholly surprised, given Edwin’s history as a swindler and convicted art forger.
Recently released from prison, Edwin swore he’d reformed and wanted to repair his broken relationship with her. Annabel wants desperately to believe him, but when she discovers that a priceless French painting is missing from his studio, she wonders if he had lied to her yet again, or if—despite Edwin’s best efforts—his old life had come back to haunt him.
Determined to know the truth, Annabel convinces Matthew that as a painter at the prestigious Slade School of Art and Edwin’s only family, she is crucial to his investigation. Together they trace a path of deceit and villainy that reaches far beyond the elegant rooms of the auction house, into an underworld of treachery, heartbreak, and secrets someone will kill to keep.
“Odden’s third effort injects a refreshing level of complexity, both in character development and plotting, into what one typically expects to find in historical cozies. This will appeal to fans of Victorian mysteries, as well as those interested in art history.” -Booklist (starred review)
“Odden keenly evokes the physical as well as cultural milieu of Victorian England, and peoples her setting with fully realized and intriguing characters. This book will delight readers who like their mysteries cloaked in well-researched history.” – Publishers Weekly
“…this thrilling, action-packed story [is] an absolute delight to read.” – Historical Novel Society
“Odden’s literary brushstrokes vividly portray the misogyny and gender bias experienced by women in Victorian society, especially a woman battling to exercise her artistic talent. ” -Washington Independent Review of Books
“Fans of Anne Perry, Deanna Rayborn, and Tasha Alexander will root for Karen Odden’s newest heroine, Annabel Rowe—aspiring painter and now amateur sleuth—investigating the murder of her art forger brother. The novel’s a delightful mix of mystery, history, and romance, served with a delicious helping of lush period detail, while chemistry between Annabel and the investigating Scotland Yard detective add spice to the adventure.” – Susan Elia MacNeal, New York Times bestselling author of the Maggie Hope series
“A darkly thrilling story filled with suspense and secrets, a courageous heroine, an edgy climax, and an atmospheric setting that perfectly captures the underbelly of London’s art world in the Victorian era. A Trace of Deceit is an absolute winner!” – Stefanie Pintoff, Edgar Award winning author.
Thank you so much for such a comprehensive post, Karen! This is spectacular!
I agree. This was amazing. Really interesting, and now I want to go off and do more research on Christmas history. Your book sounds amazing too!
Karen’s book is SO good! Well, all of them are! When I grow up, I want to be a writer like Karen. =)
Thank you for letting me share my enthusiasm for the Victorian era!! Those 64 years were just amazing … so many changes in so many aspects of life.