Celebrating the joys and traditions of Christmas
Standing on the threshold of one of the most special times of the year it was magical to wake up on Tuesday morning to find our trees, streets and chimney tops covered in snow.
Wide-eyed children must have been driving their parents mad with excitement and hoping they would soon be taken sledging or at least allowed outside to make a snowman.
Sadly for them, it had almost disappeared by lunchtime but who knows how quickly it will return?
The tune of a popular seasonal song was ringing in my ear: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” and for a few hours, at least, it certainly did.
A hit in the fifties for Perry Como and Bing Crosby, it is one of those numbers which will never go out of fashion. It started me thinking about which of our Christmas customs we value the most as we count down the weeks to the magical season..
Sending cards is one which springs to mind thanks to our long standing commitment to selling Christmas cards and other seasonal items at our annual Fairtrade stall.
Sir Henry Cole, founding director of the V&A, sent the first Christmas card in 1843. A prominent civil servant, he reformed the British postal system and helped Rowland Hill set up the Penny Post.
This encouraged the sending of seasonal greetings on decorated letter heads and visiting cards. An artist friend, John Callcott Horsley, was commissioned to illustrate the idea. His original design shows three generations of the Cole family raising a toast in a central, hand-coloured panel surrounded by black and white scenes of celebration and charity.
A printer transferred the design onto cards of which a thousand were printed which Cole personalised with a hand written greeting and added, in place of his signature, a tiny self portrait with the date: “Xmasse 1843”.
Queen Victoria’s beloved German husband, Prince Albert,introduced many other much loved Christmas traditions into our way of celebration. Please let me know some of your favourites as the countdown continues.
— Lynn Radnedge