The Christmas tree, a popular German tradition by the early 1800s, was popularized in the United Kingdom in the 1840s after Queen Victoria's German-born husband, Prince Albert, famously brought in evergreen trees into the royal palaces and decorated them with ornaments and candles.
The history-making moment for the Christmas tree was in 1848 when The Illustrated London News published a drawing of Albert, Victoria and their young children gathered around a decorated tree in Windsor Castle. The widely-published drawing meant that the Christmas tree had arrived as a British tradition, and sparked many of Victoria's subjects to seek out evergreens for their own homes.
The royal family's use of the Christmas tree even helped spread it across the pond to the United States, where the tree – which had originally been only really used by German immigrants – became a mainstream tradition after Godrey's Lady's Book copied the image in 1850.
However, while Albert is often credited with popularizing the tree, he wasn't the first royal to bring the German tradition to England. Victoria – who was herself of German origin on both her father's side (through the Hanoverians) and her German-born mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld – was familiar with Christmas trees before Albert made them a family tradition, with a then-13-year-old princess wrote about admiring decorated trees on Christmas Eve with her family back in 1832. Before that, George III's German-born wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, had brought in decorated evergreens into the royal palaces, but the tradition did not spread beyond the royal family.
The history-making moment for the Christmas tree was in 1848 when The Illustrated London News published a drawing of Albert, Victoria and their young children gathered around a decorated tree in Windsor Castle. The widely-published drawing meant that the Christmas tree had arrived as a British tradition, and sparked many of Victoria's subjects to seek out evergreens for their own homes.
The royal family's use of the Christmas tree even helped spread it across the pond to the United States, where the tree – which had originally been only really used by German immigrants – became a mainstream tradition after Godrey's Lady's Book copied the image in 1850.
However, while Albert is often credited with popularizing the tree, he wasn't the first royal to bring the German tradition to England. Victoria – who was herself of German origin on both her father's side (through the Hanoverians) and her German-born mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld – was familiar with Christmas trees before Albert made them a family tradition, with a then-13-year-old princess wrote about admiring decorated trees on Christmas Eve with her family back in 1832. Before that, George III's German-born wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, had brought in decorated evergreens into the royal palaces, but the tradition did not spread beyond the royal family.
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