A Victorian Christmas

In the Victorian age, a small table-top Christmas tree was usually set up in the living room area. Instead of electric Christmas lights, people decked their trees with real candles. Although the tree looked wonderful when every candle was lit, families couldn’t leave the candles burning for long because the open fires were dangerous. A bucket of water was often kept beside the tree for emergencies.

Also hung on the tree were strings of popcorn and cranberries, which were simple and inexpensive, but colorful and festive. Some families set up a Nativity or outdoor scene under the tree, using moss for grass and mirrors for ponds. Because ornaments weren’t popularly sold at stores, most ornaments were home-made. Young women spent hours crafting detailed, exquisite paper ornaments from scraps, adorned with lace, ribbon, and beads. Decorations included fruit, cotton-batting Father Christmas, pine cones, children’s mittens, paper fans and paper cornucopias filled with nuts, candies, and berries. Among the branches were hidden goodies and trinkets of all kinds, like jewelry, tin soldiers, whistles, dolls, and cookies, and of course, an angel at the top. Victorian families adored finding new exciting ways to give their gifts. One way they did this was by hanging tags on the tree, each with a family member’s name on it. Connected to each tag was a long ribbon, which they wound through the branches and around the furniture. Tied to the end was the matching name’s gift!

The War Years and Christmas

In the 1940s, the ideal Christmas tree was large and exquisite. The bigger the better. Large colored lights lit the tree with artificial beauty. Because of the industrial revolution, mass production was able to turn out inexpensive plastic and blown glass ornaments, like the brand Shiny Brite. Absolutely the most important feature of the tree was the amount of silver tinsel dripping from its boughs. During most of the 40s, World War II was being fought, so patriotic details were popular on the Christmas trees, like small American flags. (Those original flags would have included only 48 stars). Other nifty trends were making Chinese lanterns and paper chains out of construction paper for tree decorations. A favorite activity for families in 1930s and 1940s was sitting around the radio listening to the Orson Welles dramatization of “A Christmas Carol.” From 1934-1938, the voice of Scrooge was brilliantly played by Lionel Barrymore, while in 1939 it was played by Orson Welles, himself. Fun fads for children in the 1930s and 1940s were games like Dominoes, Monopoly, Sorry, Candy Land, Shoots and Ladders, Clue, and Scrabble. Children also enjoyed paper dolls, marbles, Raggedy Ann and Andy, comic books, and metal die-cast trucks.

The Space Age and Christmas

In the late 50s and early 60s an extremely different sort of tree was being set up in living rooms around America: the aluminum tree. Many pamphlets were available during the 60s declaring the most fashionable ways to decorate your aluminum Christmas tree. Putting lights on the tree was an electrical hazard; therefore, a color wheel¸ which is a rotating wheel made up of four different colors that reflect off the tree, was a must-have. Matching color schemes were all the rage, especially in colors like blue and pink.

Instead of a radio, the center of the living room was now the TV, with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer debuting on television in 1964.
Although many things changed in the 50s and 60s “A Christmas Carol” did not fail to be included in this decade. In 1951 the movie “A Christmas Carol” was released with Alastair Sim as hum-bugging Ebenezer Scrooge.

Because of the baby boom in the 40s and 50s, over half of the population was made up of children, so children’s toys were being made at a gigantic rate. As most adults had grown up during World War II, parents were eager to give their children all the things they hadn’t been able to have when they were young. The shelves of stores boasted numerous kinds of toys, including Slinkies, Silly Putty, metal doll houses, dozens of different board games, matchbox cars, and the Barbie Doll, invented in 1959. Gone were the days of only one kind of dolly! Mr. Potato Head, the Hula Hoop, Ant Farms, and Frisbees were also big hits.