Page 43 - All About History - Issue 59-17

The Secret History of Christmas

a DiCKensian ChrisTmas

How Charles Dickens has shaped the
holiday we all know and love
When it comes to the holiday season, dinner, helped to influence others to
Charles Dickens and Christmas go do the same.
hand in hand. He is often credited So what about Dickens? Well, thanks
with inventing Christmas as we know to his Christmas novels, in particular A
it and while it is an exaggeration, his Christmas Carol, published in 1843, he
vision of the perfect festive holiday has helped to spread the festive traditions
continued to persevere to this day. that are so dear today. Through his
At the beginning of the 19th century, novels he encouraged the message
Christmas was rarely celebrated with that Christmas was a time for love,
many treating it like the average family and goodwill, which struck a
workday. As new traditions began chord with moral Victorian society. The
to emerge such as Christmas cards story also served as a way for Dickens
and crackers, the festive season soon to promote the need for charity with
developed into one of the biggest the use of poor Tiny Tim, having
holidays of the year. experienced poverty as a child himself.
It was also during the Victorian era As the popularity of his novels spread
that Christmas really started to become throughout the country, Dickens helped
about families spending time together. to revive the idea of the perfect family
Images of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Christmas. His novel was so well loved
and their many children enjoying the that the author began to do public
holiday together, whether it was by readings in 1849 and they continued Charles Dickens is perhaps best
the tree or eating their large, decadent right up until his death in 1870. known for his festive fiction

eaTing To

The Coin a

Turkey Phrase

In almost every film or Did you know that the
television adaption of terms ‘Merry Christmas’
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and ‘Bah! Humbug’ were
Scrooge wakes up on not widely used until
whiTe Christmas Day, turns up at diCkens’ Dickens wrote them in The
A Christmas Carol? Just
the Cratchit house with a
winTer turkey and spends the day oTher like so many other festive real
traditions and phrases,
with them. But Scrooge
dreams never does this in the novel fesTive Dickens’ famous novel sCrooge
helped to popularise
— he actually spends the
It is thanks to Dickens day with his nephew, Fred, novels the sayings among the Dickens got the inspiration
that we all wish for snow and his family, sending a Victorians and we have for the cold-hearted
at Christmas. He grew turkey to the Cratchit house Although A Christmas Carol been saying them ever character of Ebenezer
up during the Little Ice anonymously. is one of Dickens’ most since as a result. Scrooge from real-life
Age and so the winters famous novels, it was people, most notably the
of his childhood were actually the first in a series 18th-century miser and
exceptionally cold and, well, of five books that he wrote politician John Elwes. Elwes
white! He incorporated his for the festive season. The was supposedly so stingy
ideas about Christmas into other four works were The that he would only wear
his novels and the idea of Chimes (1844), The Cricket ragged clothes and would
a white winter wonderland on the Hearth (1845), The eat putrefied meat to save
have continued to stick to Battle of Life (1846) and money. Funnily enough,
this day, perpetuated by art The Haunted Man and the he actually had a large
and films. Ghost’s Bargain (1848). fortune — just like Scrooge.