From crackers to cards: Jersey schoolchildren learn Victorian Christmas traditions

  • ITV Channel's Sophie Dulson steps back in time to see how the Victorians celebrated Christmas

Did you know many of today's favourite Christmas traditions were popularised by the Royal family in the 19th century? From presents to puddings and crackers to cards.

In the late 1800s, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert inspired many of the traditions practised across the world today.

Prince Albert is usually credited with having introduced the Christmas tree into England in 1840 after he and Queen Victoria were famously illustrated standing beside a decorated tree with their children.

The engraving was published in the press in the 1840s and it quickly took hold of the national imagination. Credit: Science History Images and Alamy Images

To celebrate this chapter in history, Jersey Heritage invited 500 schoolchildren to their Victorian House to learn all about how the Victorians would have celebrated Christmas.

Alice Honey, the Education Officer for Jersey Heritage said: "We are making traditional Victorian crafts with them, so we've got our paper cone that Victorians would have put trinkets and gifts in and we're making pomanders as well - with oranges and cloves.

"We're also having a go at writing with dip pens as well which Victorian people would have been using at school."

Schoolchildren had the chance to write Christmas cards using traditional feather quills and ink. Credit: ITV Channel

Year 2 children from Janvrin school also got the chance to explore the Victorian House at the museum and learn about key Victorian Christmas traditions and inventions.

Jon Brennan, Head of Education at Jersey Heritage said: "We try and stage it as we go around the house that we're looking to employ a couple of them.

"In the Victorian era, they probably wouldn't have been in school at their age, or there would certainly be no issue for them ducking out of school.

"They all seemed really happy when I suggested they are going to do 14-hour days stuck up a chimney scrubbing someone's floor."

The children particularly enjoyed making a Christmas pomander, fashioned from oranges and cloves. Credit: ITV Channel

The schoolchildren said they learnt a lot about traditional Christmas values; from the origins of the humble Christmas card, to puckering up under a plant, the classes really did capture their imagination.

So much so, that one pupil even said they would have been happy to have grown up in the Victorian era.

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