The humble Christmas Tree which has brought delight to many a happy household, arrived in Britain in the late 18th century, and it’s the Royal Family that we’ve got to thank.
Up till then the tradition over here had been just to decorate homes and churches with evergreens, but it was the German born Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III, who brought the tradition of decorating a small fir tree with candles, paper flowers and sweets over from Germany, where it had been the custom since the 1600’s.
However it was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who were responsible for popularising the Christmas tree, when an illustration of their family gathered around a decorated tree first appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848.
To start with the custom was mostly taken up by the middle classes and the wealthy but their use in public buildings, entertainment halls and hospitals across the country, eventually made them a familiar sight.
Anti-German sentiment in this country after the First World War temporarily reduced their popularity, but by the mid 1920’s the popular use of Christmas Trees in all homes had become widespread.
For London, one of the main events in the run up to Christmas is the arrival of the Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square, a gift from the people of Norway since 1947, as a token of their gratitude for British support during the Second World War.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia. The royal Christmas tree is admired by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children, December 1848. http://www.webstermuseum.org/christmas.php