© The Royal Collection, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Christmas Trees
Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, is usually credited with having introduced the Christmas tree into England in 1840. However it was actually ‘good Queen Charlotte’, the German wife of George III, who set up the first known tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, in December 1800.
Christmas trees became very popular with the upper classes, especially for children’s gatherings. Any handy evergreen tree might be uprooted for the purpose and they were usually candle-lit, decorated with trinkets and surrounded by piles of presents.
In December 1840, Prince Albert imported several spruce firs from his native Coburg, in Germany, to serve as Christmas trees. But it was not until a few years later, when periodicals such as theIllustrated London News,Cassell’s MagazineandThe Graphicbegan to depict and describe the royal Christmas trees every year, that the custom of setting up such trees in homes really caught on amongst the general public in England.
