The Victorians are often credited with the invention of Christmas as we know it. That’s because the culture of Christmas was transformed during this period and expanded into a major holiday. It’s when several familiar Christmas staples emerged, such as decorated trees, cards and crackers.
While shop windows would be full of enticing commodities, and periodicals gave readers advice on what kinds of gifts to purchase (surrounded by columns of advertisements for new things to buy), the Victorians were also mindful of the excesses of the season and its injurious effect on their pockets.
Writing nostalgically about Christmas-time in the 1860s, even novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair, observed that it’s an excessive – and expensive – time of year. While young people gathered around the tree to enjoy toys and sweets, Thackeray would find himself worrying about bills and settling accounts.
If anything, the pressure to buy stuff has increased exponentially in the modern world. But there are ways to both reduce unnecessary spending, and to give gifts that are much more personal and meaningful. Here are a few Victorian paper crafts to try this Christmas, from greetings cards to decorations and games.
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Christmas cards originated in the 1840s, following the success of Valentines, which had initiated the commercial manufacture of seasonal cards. By the end of the century, Christmas cards had become an even more popular trend than their romantic counterparts. They ranged from simple engravings to wildly elaborate creations – and many Victorians made their own.
Making your own cards means you can tailor them to your own aesthetic. The Victorians used various materials, from colourful printed scraps, to fabric swatches, feathers, beads and dried flowers. And they’d often combine them with their own hand-drawn illustrations.
The Victorians excelled at reusing the materials they already had to hand and paper could be expensive, so it was often repurposed. Recycling greetings cards by giving them new life as labels for presents is another thrifty way to reuse your old cards.
You can make them as small or as large as you like and most cards will probably have a blank reverse side that’s perfect for an inscription. My mum does this every year.
The technique of papier mâché – combining paper pulp and adhesive paste in a process that means “chewed paper” in French – goes back much further than the Victorians. By the 19th century, though, it was reasonably common. It was used to make light but strong decorative items and even furniture.
Papier mâché is a fun activity to try with family and friends. Use moulds, shape it firmly in layers with your fingers, or make supersized baubles by covering inflated balloons with layers of newspaper and flour-and-water gluepaste. Once dry, they can be painted.
Victorian paper weaving or decorative cutting were often very elaborate and the best pieces were framed for display. The easiest and most familiar type of paper cutting nowadays is probably making snowflakes.
Fold a circle of paper into quarters or eighths, then add strategic cuts to create gaps that, when unfolded, look like the crystalline structure of a snowflake.
They are quick and easy to do, and the end result can be stuck on windows or other surfaces for a little extra adornment.
Crackers were another popular Victorian invention and they’re now synonymous with Christmas dinner. In 1847, confectioner Tom Smith started producing sugared almonds wrapped in colourful twists of paper enclosed with mottoes. He added his patented “snap” mechanism to them – the explosive “pop” crackers make when pulled apart that is now a staple feature of the Christmas cracker.
Cardboard snaps are readily available for purchase, and you can reuse old wrapping paper and toilet rolls. Add handwritten mottoes or jokes on little slips of paper for extra personality.
The Victorians were big believers in the power of the written word – but they weren’t above bowdlerising or borrowing from other works.
The 19th century saw a profusion of anthologies on various topics and themes, from sentimental collections of poetry, to potted histories of admirable figures designed to inspire the reader.
This year, why not make your own anthology? It could even have a festive theme: there are lots of novels, stories and poems about Christmas in the public domain to choose from. You could print your anthology at home, or hand-write it for that personal touch.
Many Victorian families passed the time over the festive season by playing parlour games. Some have evolved into modern board games, but there are plenty that you can do yourself at home with only pens and paper.
One of these is Consequences. On a single sheet of paper, each player will begin by writing the first sentence of a story and folding it over before passing to the next player. They write their own addition to the story, before folding and passing it to the next player. The result is a humorously composite story.
A pictorial variation has the first player drawing a head, the next a torso and then the legs.
Scrapbooking – pasting a range of cards, newspaper articles, colourful scraps and even pressed flowers into the leaves of a blank album or notebook – was a popular Victorian pastime, especially for women.
People would also solicit messages, poems, or illustrations from family and friends with which they could adorn the pages of their albums. Why not follow in their footsteps by curating a lasting memory of the festive period by making your own scrap album full of mementos and photos as a meaningful souvenir?
Alice Crossley receives funding from the American Antiquarian Society, Library Company of Philadelphia, Huntington Library, and Bodleian Libraries (research fellowships). She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a member of the British Association for Victorian Studies.
