TREE CHRISTMAS the

Contrary to popular opinion, it wasn’t Prince Albert who brought the beloved Christmas tree (or German trees as they were initially known) to our shores in the mid 19th century. Queen Charlo!e, the German wife of George III, was the "rst British royal to adopt the tradition decades before. That’s not to say she was enthusiastic about the idea, though. Her reaction, when her lady-in-waiting suggested she bring a tree into the house to decorate, was that it would be far too much e#ort. Queen Charlo!e eventually succumbed to the lure of the Christmas tree and it is thought that in 1800 she decorated a yew at Windsor Castle with glass ornaments, sweetmeats, toys and candles.

It wasn’t until 1848 that the trees, which like most festive customs originated in Germany (where records suggest decorated trees, or tannenbaum, were used indoors in 1605 in Strasbourg although it is believed the ritual dates to much earlier), really caught on in England. And this is when Victoria and Albert come in. That year, The Illustrated London News published an engraving of the royal family gathered round their table-top tree in Windsor, which captured the public’s imagination.