School Christmas tree (1857)

Post date: Apr 24, 2012 10:39:13 AM

The following extract from the Kentish Gazette of 29th December 1857 shows how quickly the recently introduced and fashionable German custom of Christmas trees had been adopted in Wateringbury. It was not even a long-standing German custom, initially in the 18th century confined to the upper Rhineland and having a Protestant association. In England the tradition of decorating with evergreens was long-established but not using a tree. Although its use was recorded within the royal family as early as 1800 (Queen Charlotte) and Queen Victoria as a child had one each year in her room, it did not spread outside the royal family until Victoria's marriage to Albert when it spread to wealthier middle-class families. .

In 1842 a newspaper advert for Christmas trees makes clear their smart cachet, German origins and association with children and gift-giving. An illustrated book, The Christmas Tree, describing their use and origins in detail, was on sale in December 1844. A boost to the trend was given in 1848 when The Illustrated London News, in a report picked up by other papers, described the trees in Windsor Castle in detail and showed the main tree, surrounded by the royal family, on its cover. In fewer than ten years their use in better-off homes was widespread. By 1856 a northern provincial newspaper contained an advert alluding casually to them,as well as reporting the accidental death of a woman whose dress caught fire as she lit the tapers on a Christmas tree.

They had not yet spread down the social scale though, as a report from Berlin in 1858 contrasts the situation there where "Every family has its own" with that of Britain, where Christmas trees were still the preserve of the wealthy. In 1906 a charity was set up specifically to ensure even poor children in London slums 'who had never seen a Christmas tree' would enjoy one that year. Anti-German sentiment after World War I briefly reduced their popularity but the effect was short-lived and by the mid-1920s the use of Christmas trees had spread to all classes.[source: Wikipedia]

WATERINGBURY. Christmas at the School.—The children of the National Schools of this parish were assembled in the school-room, on Wednesday, the 23rd, to partake of very bountiful tea, provided by the subscribers. A magnificent German tree, well furnished with suitable presents for every child, was most liberally supplied by Mrs. Lancaster and family. Extra prizes were awarded to several pupils for good attendance, by the Rev. H. Stephens, vicar. To those who excelled in writing, arithmetic, and reading, books were presented by Messrs. Evans and Goodwin. The whole affair went off in a most pleasing and satisfactory manner.