A History of Achievements
When Christmas 1841 rolled around in addition to a Christmas Tree in their private apartments, several trees were put out and decorated in the public areas of the palace. By Christmas 1843 there was an entire process by which the drawing and waiting rooms of the palace were decorated, each with its own tree, and a pair of staff at the palace who were officially responsible for them. The word was out and Christmas 1844 was the first yuletide holiday in which Christmas Trees were widely sold and placed in British homes, with a very brisk trade in ornaments and trimmings that reached so furious a level and scarcity that Deal Smugglers were bringing them into the country along with French perfume and other luxury goods via their notorious town and tax-free route, with the precious decorations being acquired in Germany one day and sold on the streets of London two days later!
It must be understood that Queen Victoria was perhaps the most popular Royal in the entire history of the British Crown -- her popularity greater than even that of Princess Diana if that can be grasped (and that in an era before television and the Internet) so the trend towards emulating the Royal Family by their subjects in the United Kingdom -- and also in colonies and former colonies -- helped the weeks leading up to Christmas 1846 into becoming intense celebration of how the Royal Family celebrated the holiday, so naturally there was interest in the press to present an accurate depiction of this.
One of the most popular publications at the time was the Illustrated London News, and as part of a Christmas 1846 feature article, they were depicted standing with their children around their Christmas Tree (see image embedded above). The issue in which the article ran sold out and was reprinted immediately, and sold out. Of more interest for our story, the reprinting (it is uncertain just how many there were) that made it to America were quickly snapped up by the upwardly mobile of Americans and, not surprisingly, by the time Christmas rolled around in 1847 there was a thriving Christmas Tree business and imported ornaments both from Germany and the new ornament industry in the UK did brisk trade.
The interesting part of all of this, and the justification for this admittedly lengthy (but we hope entertaining and educational) section to the article has to do with the events that followed the publication of this article and its wild acceptance in America. You see Anna Cabot Lowell, the author of the book Theory of Teaching (1841) -- as well as a dozen other books -- was an exceptional figure in Victorian era America in which most women of the times did not enjoy a career as an author. In addition to being published and well-read, she was the wife of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., and mother of Civil War General Charles Russell Lowell, and it is fair to say that she was a socially prominent figure in the Boston area. Lowell was an avid diarist and correspondent, and in the Winter of 1847 she wrote to her friend Sarah Elizabeth Choate of Salem: "Today we decorated the Christmas Tree that William brought home to us as we always have this time of year, and the new ornaments are beautiful..."
Understand, the Christmas Tree was fashionable for only a few years -- three at the most -- so how they "always have this time of year" is a bit mysterious, especially considering it is the first time in all of her correspondence, or in her diaries, that she mentions Christmas Trees. This was not an uncommon attitude to take it seems, as it is reflected in many other cases, and even the advertisements for ornaments and trimming aimed at housewives treat the subject as if it had always been a major concern of the holiday. This is a perfect example for how image and the popular view of events tends to flavor their history and how we remember them.
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