Category: Victoria

Queen Victoria was known for eating small cakes with her afternoon tea. The Victoria Sponge cake, or Sandwich evolved from the pound cake. Equal weight amounts of flour, butter, eggs and sugar were used. How did Victoria Sandwich get its name? The way Queen Victoria would have enjoyed her cake was what we have come […]

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland marks the shift in Victorian ideals of childhood from work, discipline, and essential sinfulness to education, play, and innocence, however fleeting. The character of Alice also represents a real recognition of child agency, particularly in response to the Queen’s death threat. What does Alice in Wonderland represent? Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland […]

Perhaps best known as the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the man born as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and known as Lewis Carroll was truly a Renaissance man of the Victorian era. What type of writer was Lewis Carroll? Lewis Carroll was an English novelist and poet. He is best known as the author of […]

In the 19th century, before festive Christmas cards became the norm, Victorians put a darkly humorous and twisted spin on their seasonal greetings. Some of the more popular subjects included anthropomorphic frogs, bloodthirsty snowmen and dead birds. How were Victorian Christmas cards made? Designed by painter John Callcott Horsley, cards were printed lithographically and then […]

Presents were shared on the evening of Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day as is traditional in the 21st century. In the royal household Queen Victoria insisted unwrapped presents be spread out across tables, as they did with royal birthdays. What did Queen Victoria do for Christmas? “Queen Victoria and Prince Albert brought the tree […]

The candle was lit on Christmas Day itself to symbolise Christ’s arrival as the ‘Light of the World’, a phrase used by Christ to describe himself in the Gospel of St Matthew. What is the significance of the Christmas candle? By lighting candles during Christmas eve, this represents the Star of Bethlehem that guided the […]

Giving presents at Christmas is a custom that many of us are familiar with. However, you may be surprised to learn that this tradition, as we would recognise it, only became firmly established in the Victorian era. It was the Victorians, for example, who brought in the practice of wrapping presents. How did they wrap […]

Long Before Festival Fashion Was A Thing, Victorian Women Wore Glitter In Their Hair. Did Victorians use glitter? But there was more to Victorian holiday decorating than tinsel and candles. Just like us, many Victorians had a fondness for glitter and gold. What did Victorians Wear facts? The fashion of the 19th century is renowned […]

English plum cake. The 1840 wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha took this old tradition and turned it into something new. Their cake was big: three tiers of English plum cake that stood 14 inches tall, measured nearly 10 feet across, and weighed 300 pounds. What was the Queen’s wedding […]

One of the most significant seasonal traditions to emerge from the Victorian era is the Christmas card. It was Sir Henry Cole, the first director of the V&A, who introduced the idea of the Christmas card in 1843. What was most important to Victorians at Christmas? Most of all, the Victorians turned Christmas into the […]