Many festive traditions, from the Christmas tree to carols including Silent Night, O Little Town Of Bethlehem and Good King Wenceslas, and even eating turkey and Christmas pudding, date back to the reign of Queen Victoria and were described by author Charles Dickens.
Carols were the ‘pop hits’ of earliest days of Christmas festivities – academic Some of the oldest Christmas carols were the pop songs of the Victorian age, an academic has said.
Dr Leon Litvack, a reader in the School of Arts, English and Languages at the Queen’s University Belfast, said he believes so many of the Victorian Christmas traditions have survived because of the power of nostalgia.
“And they were kind of the pop songs of their day and particularly being associated with Christmas, people began to not only use them in worship but also the tradition of carolling in the streets became popular,” he said.
He explained the emergence of most Christmas festivities during that period was because families started to have more leisure time and more money.
