The way Queen Victoria (reign 1837 to 1901) and her family celebrated their Christmases became familiar to the public over the years, thanks to the intense media coverage of the royal family, particularly the regular features in popular illustrated magazines. Victoria's German husband, Prince Albert (1819 to 1861), made Christmas trees popular in Britain, and her children helped the idea of sending Christmas cards take off. Victoria and Albert loved to give gifts to each other, usually ones that reminded of what they had done together that particular year or included portraits of their children. The royal family also helped promote the idea of charitable deeds as the old year was replaced by the new, distributing Christmas trees, presents, food, and useful goods like blankets and coal to the poor.

Queen Victoria was certainly a fan of the Christmas season, once saying, "This happy, most blessed Festival again returns, and with it so many joyful feelings" (Cooling, 6). The queen wrote the following diary entry on Christmas Eve 1843:

This happy day has again returned, & it seems but yesterday we had last celebrated it. Time flies too fast. I feel certain that our Heavenly Father through His blessed Son, whose birth we at this time so joyfully & gratefully commemorate, will grant that we may celebrate many more happy Christmas Eves together, & with our Children.

(Cooling, 10)

Just what the Queen, her consort, and their nine children got up to at Christmas was of great interest to the public, and many a trend became an enduring national tradition thanks to its endorsement by the royal family. All of Victoria's Christmases with Albert were spent at Windsor Castle, but following his death in 1861, other favourite residences for the end-of-year celebrations included Osborne House on the Isle of White and Brighton by the sea. Victoria, even after Albert's passing, continued many of the long-established family traditions, such as decorating Christmas trees for each of her children, but the golden era of Victoria's Christmases was from 1840 to 1860.

The first Christmas cards came about in 1843, thanks to Sir Henry Cole, who had illustrated preprinted cards made, which he could send to all of his friends and family rather than write individual letters. The image on the cards showed the Cole family raising a toast surrounded by illustrated acts of charity. The greeting was the now familiar "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You." Cole had 1,000 of the cards printed, and some were put on sale, but the idea did not take off. What was needed was a royal endorsement. This came not from the queen but her children, who sent each other and their parents handmade greeting cards both at Christmas and New Year. Victoria then adopted the idea and became the first celebrity card sender. Victoria's cards, as with today's royalty, usually showed a picture of herself and her family.

From 1844, printed cards, now with more jolly Christmas imagery, were sold with great success. Printers knew they were onto a good thing, and they became more and more ambitious with the designs of their cards, which were available to buy everywhere from tobacconists to drapers' shops. With the new half-penny post for postcards, people of all classes could send Christmas cards to their loved ones. Victorian Christmas cards soon became hugely popular as the designs and materials used became ever more ambitious, and the cards began to include printed poems and longer greeting messages.

The first British royal to have a Christmas tree was Victoria's grandmother, Queen Charlotte (1744 to 1818), wife of King George III of Great Britain (reign 1760 to 1820), although this tree was not a fir but a yew tree. It is Prince Albert, keen to recapture the glittering memories of his own childhood Christmases in Coburg, who is credited with popularising the Germanic tradition amongst the British public. A handsome fir tree was selected for the role of becoming the family's Christmas centrepiece. Each year, from the early 1840s, Albert had a number of German Springelbaum trees cut down in Coburg and transported to Britain.

Albert's trees were set upon tables and decorated with candles, gift-wrapped small toys, sweets, charms, and candied fruit. Each family member had their own tree, as well as the queen's mother, the Duchess of Kent. Albert's idea was a hit with his two children (the other seven were yet to come), the Prince Consort noting they were "full of happy wonder at the German Christmas-tree and its radiant candles" (Cooling, 21). Each table was laden with gifts of all kinds. In addition, there were often several other Christmas trees set up in the same residence, and there was one for the senior household staff. For Christmas in 1860, Albert had some of Windsor Castle's chandeliers taken down, and Christmas trees were hung upside down in their place.

The idea of a decorated tree was spread by popular colour-illustrated magazines, starting in 1848 with an edition of the Illustrated London News, which revealed the private festivities of the royal family and their marvellous-looking Christmas trees. That edition of the magazine included a coloured engraving of one of Albert's trees at Windsor and gave the following description:

The tree employed for this festive purpose is a young fir, about eight feet high , and has six tiers of branches. On each tier or branch, are arranged a dozen wax tapers. Pendant from the branches are elegant trays, baskets, bonbonnieres, and other receptacles for sweatmeats, of the most varied and expensive kind; and all forms of colours, and degrees of beauty. Fancy cakes, gilt gingerbread and eggs filled with sweatmeats, are also suspended by variously-coloured ribbons from the branches. On the summit of the tree stands a small figure of an angel, with outstretched wings, holding in each hand a wreath. These trees are objects of much interest to all visitors to the Castle, from Christmas Eve, when they are first set up, until Twelfth Night, when they are finally removed.

(Cooling, 24)

The royal couple was also more directly responsible for spreading the new fashion, since each year they gave free Christmas trees to various institutions such as schools and army barracks. Soon enough, other public places began to set up a Christmas tree, notably London's Crystal Palace from 1854. The public could buy a tree for their own home at such places as Covent Garden market. In this way, Christmas trees gradually replaced the traditional rings of mistletoe, which had been popular in many a medieval Christmas household.

The gifts hung from the tree were opened by the royal family on Christmas Eve, in keeping with the German tradition, although, there could be so many, it needed a little time to appreciate them all. Victoria wrote in her diary on Christmas Day 1859: "Immediately after breakfast, went to have a look at our present tables & admire them in detail" (Royal Trust Collection). Presents could range from finely bound books from family members to exquisite jewellery from fellow European royals to portraits given by famous theatre actors of the day. A diary entry for Christmas Eve 1845 records some of the gifts Victoria received:

At 6 Albert took me into the Blue Closet, where as usual my frosted tree stood & my presents were all arranged on a table. Amongst them was a most beautifully executed inkstand, with a stag in frosted silver, standing on Scotch stones ... & a beautiful little onyx Cup set in enamel and precious stones. Dearest Albert had so wonderfully thought out all his gifts.

(Royal Trust Collection)

Victoria was just as thoughtful for Albert. The young queen gave her husband a beautiful malacca walking stick for their first Christmas as a married couple in 1840. The top handle of the cane was made of enamel and set with semiprecious stones. Victoria records in her diary that Albert was delighted with it.

The gifts the queen and consort exchanged very often reminded of the travels they had made together, such as for Christmas 1845, when Albert gave Victoria the ornate gold inkstand mentioned above. This gift was a reminder of the couple's sojourn at Blair Castle in the Scottish Highlands that year. As so often with Albert's gifts, he designed it himself and had ordinary stones incorporated into it, which he had collected on the trip. Another such souvenir of travels together was a Celtic silver brooch studded with garnets, which Albert had secretly bought during the couple's visit to Ireland and which he presented on Christmas Eve 1849.

Another popular gift was an item that incorporated portraits of family members, both of each other and their children, and sometimes even the royal dogs (Victoria once gave Albert a portrait of his favourite greyhound Eos). Perhaps the most impressive such gift, one that took many years to complete, was a gold and pearl bracelet which Albert presented to Victoria with enamel portraits of all nine of their children. Each Christmas, Albert gave Victoria a new link for the bracelet when another child had reached four years old. To make the gift even more personal, each portrait panel of the bracelet contained a lock of hair of the child shown on the front.

The queen was keen to capture precious Christmas moments for posterity, and she often engaged a photographer such as Dr Becker, Albert's librarian, or even a painter for that express purpose. In 1850, for example, James Roberts was asked to create a watercolour capturing the main Christmas tree at Windsor Castle. Many of these photos and pictures, as well as pictures drawn and given by their children as Christmas gifts, were organised by Victoria and Albert into chronological albums, which captured their family life together.

Ever since William the Conqueror (reign 1066 to 1087), British monarchs had attended church services on Christmas Day. William had even chosen 25 December for his coronation day. Victoria and her family attended the Christmas service each morning of Christmas Day. She also made sure her children understood why, noting in her diary: "Talked to Vicky & Bertie together of this day, the meaning of the great festival, & read to them part of the account of the birth of Our Saviour." (Cooling, 10). Victoria continued the tradition right through her life, even when she reached her eighties and was too ill to go out, a service was arranged for her at home.

Christmas through the ages has involved feasts of fine foods, and Victoria was no different from her predecessors in putting on a lavish spread to honour the season. The dining room, typically the Private Dining Room at Windsor, was decorated with several Christmas trees, garlands of winter foliage, and the whole scene brilliantly lit by an army of silver candelabras.

Victoria adopted the custom of her predecessors and had a boar's head on the Christmas Day menu, a complex speciality which was pickled, stuffed, braised, and roasted. The dish was one of Albert's favourites. In later years, Victoria's table centrepiece was usually supplied by her grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II. In fact, having relatives all over Europe was a distinct advantage in amassing a spectacular array of dishes for Christmas. The Russian Tsar sent Victoria sturgeon, the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin gave pâté de foie gras, and the Emperor of Austria-Hungary offered a case of Tokaji (Tokay), a renowned sweet white wine.

Other dishes on offer at the royal Christmas Dinner included a massive baron of beef (two sirloins with the backbone), which usually came from a prize-winning animal in the royal farms. Such a huge chunk of meat, which weighed in at well over 400 lbs (180 kg), took a long time to cook well, usually 15 hours over an open fire. Another speciality was a woodcock pie, which contained the meat from 100 birds. There was roast swan, curried hare, turtle soup, and carp. Then there were the more usual meat offerings like game pie and roast pheasant, grouse, and turkey, then only a cameo player in this all-star culinary cast. Victoria noted in her diary that it was expected she at least try a bit from every dish available, and there were usually around 35. Fortunately, some dishes, like the boar's head and baron of beef, remained on the Christmas sideboard for many days.

Dessert was as impressive in variety as the main courses. The royal chef might make a model of Windsor Castle in sugar. There were cakes, mince pies (then still a mix of fruit and beef), sweets, pastries, fruit jellies, plum pudding, dried fruit, candied fruit, nuts, and small sugared toys for the children. An equally extravagant meal was enjoyed on New Year's Day. A third grand meal took place on Twelfth Night (5 January). This feast included a Twelfth Cake, which, by the 19th century, was a large, rich fruit cake covered in almond paste and sugar icing. The cake, the forerunner of today's Christmas cake, contained a silver trinket in homage to the bean once put there in medieval times; the lucky finder of this bean or trinket received a crown. In the 20th century, the silver trinket was replaced by a silver coin and hidden instead inside the Christmas pudding. Victoria's Twelfth Cake was, naturally, bigger than most and usually measured around 30 inches (76 cm) across, its top decorated with miniature Christmas trees and figures.

Christmas has always been a holiday when games of all kinds have been played at parties and dinners, and the Victorian royal household was no different from any other happy home. Victoria recorded in her diary in 1841: "We played & sang… & we had some dancing afterwards… Such a happy ending to the old year" (Cooling, 82). There were musical performances, often of pieces Albert had composed or those sent as gifts by such illustrious friends as Felix Mendelssohn. There were traditional games like blind man's bluff, charades, and snapdragon (picking out raisins from a bowl of flaming brandy). Victoria and her family usually attended a play or pantomime during the Christmas week, but famous actors of the day also came to perform at the royal residence. Victoria's children frequently put on a performance known as tableaux vivants, where scenes from real life or famous historical events were recreated with costumes, scenery, and props, but where none of the actors were allowed to move. Finally, the holiday season was an opportunity for winter sports. Albert loved ice skating and ice hockey, while Victoria preferred sleigh rides.

British monarchs have been giving gifts on New Year's Day since the Middle Ages. On 1 January, Victoria typically distributed gifts to the poor and needy. These presents were usually such practical items as bread, meat, blankets, and sacks of coal, although there could be more festive items, too, like plum pudding. These acts of generosity were held, for example, at the large hall in Windsor Castle's Riding School, and they benefited around 1,000 people each year.

On 6 January, Feast of the Epiphany, the giving of three gifts given to baby Jesus by the Magi in the story of the Nativity was repeated with the queen distributing frankincense, myrrh, and 25 newly minted gold sovereigns – it was Albert who had decided to replace the traditional sheets of gold leaf with more practical coins. This event, still today, marks the traditional end of a royal Christmas.