Today, many of us associate December with traditions and festivities that seem like an integral part of Christmas. However, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, before the Victorian era, Christmas was only ever really minimally celebrated in Britain and in other English‑speaking countries. It wasn’t until the reign of Queen Victoria and her German husband, King Albert, that Christmas became the truly festive celebration we recognize today. Thus, it is thanks to the Victorian era that most of our beloved Christmas traditions, such as Christmas cards, gifts, and Boxing Day, are popular.
10 Strange Christmas Traditions Unveiled
10 Creepy Christmas Cards
The Victorian period gave birth to the very first Christmas card, a creation of painter John Callcott Horsley, who answered a request from his affluent friend Sir Henry Cole. Cole had realised he was far too occupied to hand‑write individual holiday greetings for every family member, friend and colleague, and thought a single illustrated card with a short message would speed things up considerably.
Following its modest debut among Cole’s acquaintances, a thousand of these new cards were printed and offered for sale in 1843. The initial reception was lukewarm, and the temperance movement even condemned the cards because several featured glasses of wine, fearing they might promote drunkenness.
Nevertheless, within a year the cards exploded in popularity. Artists quickly diversified the designs, ranging from gentle spring‑time motifs—cherubs, blossoms and the like—to far more unsettling scenes: sinister clowns poking policemen with red pokers, gigantic wasps chasing children, and mischievous gambling monkeys.
9 Glass Pickle
A tiny glass pickle ornament was traditionally slipped into the Christmas tree as a token of good luck. The person who discovered it on Christmas Day either received a special present or earned the honor of opening the first gift.
Legend traces the custom back to a medieval tale about two Spanish boys travelling home for the holiday. Exhausted, they sought shelter at an inn where a wicked innkeeper stole their belongings and stashed them inside a pickle barrel. Saint Nicholas arrived, rescued the boys, and they thanked him before continuing on to their families.
A second version expands the story: three Spanish boys are abducted by a malevolent shopkeeper who chops them up and preserves them in a pickle barrel. Upon learning of their steadfast faith, Saint Nicholas prays, and the boys are miraculously restored to life and health.
8 Wassail Punch
Wassail punch was a beloved winter beverage concocted from fruit, cider and a medley of spices. Victorians would serve it to carolers who roamed from house to house, singing hymns and wassailing. After the singing, the hosts invited the troupe to share a sip from a communal wassail bowl.
Recipes varied widely, but the drink was always served hot. Some families based theirs on ale or cider, heating it until it turned thick and frothy; the foam was affectionately called “lamb’s wool.” Freshly grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, lemon slices and even roasted crab apples were common flavour boosters.
7 Festive Science
During the Victorian age, scientific progress became almost synonymous with Christmas itself. Holiday‑themed books were packed with experiments for youngsters, news magazines printed scientific Christmas stories, and poems and newspapers advertised scientific toys and pastimes.
The 1830s saw the opening of two practical‑science galleries: the Adelaide Gallery and the Royal Polytechnic Institution. The former staged Christmas performances that often projected microscopic organisms, while the latter, under the direction of John Henry Pepper, turned the venue into a winter wonderland of optical pantomimes and a towering Christmas tree piled with scientific gifts.
Pepper’s most celebrated attraction was “Pepper’s Ghost,” an illusion where a phantom appeared and vanished onstage. Though adapted from Henry Dircks’s earlier mirror‑based invention, Pepper’s version projected a hidden actor from an off‑stage room onto the stage. After each show, scientists delivered a thorough lecture revealing the mechanics behind the marvel.
6 Parlor Games
The Victorians adored entertainment, and Christmas was the perfect excuse for a flurry of parlor games. These pastimes kept families amused, filled idle hours, and lifted spirits during a season when few diversions existed. Some games were downright hazardous—take “snapdragon,” where raisins were tossed into a bowl of rum, set alight, and participants had to snatch the flaming raisins and eat them on the spot. Simpler, still‑popular diversions included charades and the whimsical “Change Seats!”
Losers typically faced a forfeit. Gentlemen might be obliged to kiss every lady in the room, only to discover that a lady would often do the kissing on their behalf. Other creative penalties included delivering six compliments to a lady without using the letter “L,” or posing like a Grecian statue while others rearranged one’s limbs at will.
Ladies weren’t exempt from playful punishment. One notorious forfeit required a lady to kiss a gentleman in a “rabbit fashion”: each would place one end of a cotton strand in their mouths and inch toward each other until the kiss was achieved.
5 Oysters
The type of protein that graced the Victorian Christmas table depended heavily on a family’s wealth and locale. The affluent favoured beef or turkey, while the less prosperous settled for cheaper fare such as geese. However, even geese could be beyond the reach of many, prompting poorer households to search for an affordable alternative.
Oysters filled that niche perfectly. Abundant and inexpensive, they were sold as quick street snacks, pickled for later consumption, or served in stews, pies, or simply on their own. Pubs often paired them with a stout, earning oysters the nickname “the poor man’s protein” and cementing their place as the centerpiece of many modest Christmas meals.
4 Christmasing
“Christmasing” described a bustling trade where vendors gathered festive greenery—holly, mistletoe and the like—and sold it in the days leading up to the holiday. Homes, inns, churches and even puddings and mince pies were lavishly adorned with these branches.
Holly proved more popular than mistletoe, primarily because it cost less than half as much and grew abundantly in hedges, whereas mistletoe required specific host trees such as apple or hawthorn, making it a luxury for the well‑to‑do and a status symbol for those who could afford it.
Vendors would scour London’s neighborhoods weeks before Christmas, often trespassing onto private grounds to harvest holly. If caught, they might lose only the holly they’d taken. Acquiring mistletoe was riskier, involving entry into orchards where dogs, traps and spring guns awaited the unwary.
3 Goose Feather Tree
The goose‑feather tree—an assemblage of goose feathers dyed green and dotted with tiny ornaments—was the first artificial Christmas tree, originally German and later embraced by Victorians. Feathers from swans, turkeys and ostriches were also employed. German immigrants brought the concept to America when deforestation made real fir trees scarce.
Construction was straightforward: a framework of sticks or wire formed the trunk, while the sticks were wrapped in dyed feathers to mimic pine needles. Small ornaments were then attached, creating a festive, reusable alternative to a cut‑down fir.
2 Football
From the Victorian era right through the 1950s, playing football on Christmas Day was a beloved tradition, often causing fans to postpone their roast dinner to catch a match. Important fixtures were scheduled for both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. In 1888, Everton played two games on Christmas Day, drawing roughly 2,000 spectators—a sizable crowd for the period. Their Boxing Day match, a draw, attracted fewer fans, partly because it rained hail.
The inaugural league match on Christmas Day took place in 1889 when Preston North End faced Aston Villa. Both sides were powerhouses, and about 9,000 fans turned up to watch the spectacle.
As leagues expanded, supporters travelled farther, aided by the fact that public transport remained operational during the holidays. The tradition faded only after televised matches made it easier to enjoy football from home.
1 Goose Clubs
Although a goose traditionally headlined the Victorian Christmas dinner, most families earned only a few shillings a week and could not afford such a bird. Rural workers often received a goose or other meat as a Christmas bonus from their employers, and landowners sometimes provided meals for tenants. Urban poor, lacking such patronage, turned to “Goose Clubs.”
Members contributed a couple of pence each week to a communal fund. Just before Christmas, the pool bought a goose that would be shared among the club’s families, guaranteeing even the poorest a proper festive feast. Local bakers frequently stayed open late on Christmas Day to roast the birds for the club members.
Laura, a student from Ireland who loves books, writing, coffee and cats, shared that the sense of community created by these clubs made the holiday season feel truly inclusive.