"by the Hanoverians. Queen Victoria as a child made note of it in her diary for Christmas Eve 1832; the delighted 13-year-old princess wrote, ""After dinner ... we then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room ... There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees.."". Since the first commercial Christmas card was produced in London in 1843, cards are sent in the weeks leading up to Christmas, many of which contain the English festive greeting ""Merry Christmas"". On Christmas Day, a public"
"a popular and affordable means of personal communication, due largely to advances in printing, mechanization, and a reduction in postal rates with the introduction of the postage stamp. This was followed by new trends like Christmas cards, the first of which appeared in published form in London in 1843 when Sir Henry Cole hired artist John Calcott Horsley to design a holiday card that he could send to his friends and acquaintances. In the 1860s, companies like Marcus Ward & Co, Goodall and Charles Bennett began the mass production of greeting cards. They employed well known artists such as Kate"
"symbolic of Scrooge's change of heart. The revival of the Christmas Carol began with William Sandys's ""Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern"" (1833), with the first appearance in print of ""The First Noel"", ""I Saw Three Ships"", ""Hark the Herald Angels Sing"" and ""God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"". In 1843 the first commercial Christmas card was produced by Henry Cole, leading to the exchange of festive greeting cards among the public. The movement coincided with the appearance of the Oxford Movement and the growth of Anglo-Catholicism, which led a revival in traditional rituals and religious observances. In the UK, the Christmas"
"from the tale, ""Merry Christmas"", was popularized following the appearance of the story. The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, with ""Bah! Humbug!"" dismissive of the festive spirit. The revival of the Christmas Carol began with William Sandys's ""Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern"" (1833), with the first appearance in print of ""The First Noel"", ""I Saw Three Ships"", ""Hark the Herald Angels Sing"" and ""God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"". In 1843 the first commercial Christmas card was produced by Henry Cole leading to the exchange of festive greeting cards among the public. A blue plaque, the oldest historical marker"
"plentiful food and drink, started to appear regularly in illustrated magazines of the 1840s. He was dressed in a variety of costumes and usually had holly on his head, as in these illustrations from the ""Illustrated London News"": Charles Dickens's 1843 novel ""A Christmas Carol"" was highly influential, and has been credited both with reviving interest in Christmas in England and with shaping the themes attached to it. A famous image from the novel is John Leech's illustration of the 'Ghost of Christmas Present'. Although not explicitly named Father Christmas, the character wears a holly wreath, is shown sitting among"
"grandmother in 1843, sold at auction for £22,500. Henry Cole Sir Henry Cole (15 July 1808 – 18 April 1882) was a British civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending greetings cards at Christmas time, introducing the world's first commercial Christmas card in 1843. Henry Cole was born in Bath the son of Captain Henry Robert Cole, then of the 1st Dragoon Guards, and his wife Lætitia Dormer. He was sent in 1817 to"
"of contemporary Christmas lights. However, Christmas tree lights were still experimental throughout the 1880s. Miniature Christmas lights were first developed in 1895 by Ralph E. Morris, an employee of the New England Telephone Company. Morris’ idea for miniature Christmas lights occurred as he was looking at the tiny bulbs on telephone switchboards. However, many Americans still distrusted the safety of electric lights throughout the early 1900s and candles were still used to illuminate trees. The early Christmas tree lights were simply night-lights strung together to form light strings. When General Electric commercially introduced Christmas lights, they quickly became popular.<ref name=""History.com/video""></ref>"
"Hans Christian Andersen in 1865. He had published a fairy-tale called ""The Fir-Tree"" in 1844, recounting the fate of a fir-tree being used as a Christmas tree. Although the tradition of decorating churches and homes with evergreens at Christmas was long established, the custom of decorating an entire small tree was unknown in Britain until some two centuries ago. At the time of the personal union with Hanover, George III's German-born wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, introduced a Christmas tree at a party she gave for children in 1800. The custom did not at first spread much beyond the royal family."
"the angel of the Victorian era remained the preferred motif. Glass spire ornaments were also popular as toppers. The first decorated water reservoir tree stands appeared on the American market in the 1940s. Tin Christmas tree stands decorated with lithographed holiday icons manufactured by National Outfit Manufacturers Association were produced in the 1950s and have become collectibles of the era. Bubble lights, a type of incandescent novelty light, were invented by Carl Otis in 1935, who then sold the patents to the NOMA (National Outfit Manufacturer's Association) Electric Corporation. NOMA launched the novelty lights on the Christmas market in 1946"
"the Christmas decoration industry ranks second to gifts in seasonal sales. Many silver companies, such as Gorham, Wallace, Towle, Lunt and Reed & Barton, began manufacturing silver Christmas ornaments in 1970 and 1971. In 1973, Hallmark Cards started manufacturing Christmas ornaments. The first collection included 18 ornaments, including six glass ball ornaments. The Hallmark Keepsake Ornament collection is dated and available for just one year. By 1998, 11 million American households collected Hallmark ornaments, and 250,000 people were member of the Keepsake Ornament Collector's Club. There were as many as 400 local Keepsake Ornament Collector's Club chapters in the US."
"Religiously themed toys were also popular, including a model Noah's Ark with miniature animals and objects from other Bible scenes. With growing prosperity among the middle class, children had more leisure time on their hands, which led to the application of industrial methods to the manufacture of toys. More complex mechanical and optics-based toys were also invented. Carpenter and Westley began to mass-produce the kaleidoscope, invented by Sir David Brewster in 1817, and had sold over 200,000 items within three months in London and Paris. The company was also able to mass-produce magic lanterns for use in phantasmagoria and galanty"
"Danish Christmas plates Danish Christmas plates are collectibles which are issued annually by porcelain manufacturers in Denmark. The first annual Christmas plate was produced by Bing & Grøndahl in 1895, with Royal Copenhagen following suit in 1908. Blue and white in color, and bearing the year of issuance, the mold is discontinued after Christmas Eve. The first Christmas plate was issued by Bing & Grøndahl in 1895. Harland Bing came up with the idea, hoping to develop a series with Danish scenes. Designed by Frans August Hallin (1865–1947), the first plate is titled ""Bag den Frosne Rude"" (Behind the Frosted"
"to 1854, with most of the entries dating from before his marriage to Jane, in October 1844, and the birth of their five children: four boys and a girl. In September 2008 a new edition was published with additional journal entries from 1845 to 1854. A notable diary entry of 26 December 1842 relates one of the earliest English examples of Father Christmas acting as gift-giver: ""the venerable effigies of Father Christmas with scarlet coat & cocked hat, stuck all over with presents for the guests, by his side the old year, a most dismal & haggard old beldame in"
"by importing the German glass ornaments to the United States. The first American-made glass ornaments were created by William DeMuth in New York in 1870. In 1880, Woolworth's began selling Lauscha glass ornaments. Other stores began selling Christmas ornaments by the late 19th century and by 1910, Woolworth's had gone national with over 1000 stores bringing Christmas ornaments across America. New suppliers popped up everywhere including Dresden die-cut fiberboard ornaments which were popular among families with small children. By the 20th century, Woolworth's had imported 200,000 ornaments and topped $25 million in sales from Christmas decorations alone. As of 2009,"
"and began producing them in a wide range of designs. Soon, the whole of Germany began buying Christmas glassware from Lauscha. On Christmas Eve 1832, a young Victoria wrote about her delight at having a tree, hung with lights, ornaments, and presents placed round it. In the 1840s, after a picture of Victoria's Christmas tree was shown in a London newspaper decorated with glass ornaments and baubles from her husband Prince Albert's native Germany, Lauscha began exporting its products throughout Europe. In the 1880s, American F. W. Woolworth discovered Lauscha's baubles during a visit to Germany. He made a fortune"
"choices. Lucretia P. Hale's story ""The Peterkins' Christmas-Tree"" offers a short catalog of the sorts of ornaments used in the 1870s: The modern-day mold-blown colored glass Christmas ornament was invented in the small German town of Lauscha in the mid-16th century. The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany, by Hans Greiner (1550–1609), who produced garlands of glass beads and tin figures that could be hung on trees. The popularity of these decorations grew into the production of glass"
"and games. He had no particular connection with children, nor with the giving of presents. But as Victorian Christmases developed into family festivals centred mainly on children, Father Christmas started to be associated with the giving of gifts. The Cornish Quaker diarist Barclay Fox relates a family party given on 26 December 1842 that featured ""the venerable effigies of Father Christmas with scarlet coat & cocked hat, stuck all over with presents for the guests, by his side the old year, a most dismal & haggard old beldame in a night cap and spectacles, then 1843 [the new year], a"
"in the winter of 1781 by Hessian soldiers stationed in the Province of Québec (1763–1791) to garrison the colony against American attack. General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel and his wife, the Baroness von Riedesel, held a Christmas party for the officers at Sorel, delighting their guests with a fir tree decorated with candles and fruits. The Christmas tree became very common in the United States in the early nineteenth century. The first image of a Christmas tree was published in 1836 as the frontispiece to ""The Stranger's Gift"" by Hermann Bokum. The first mention of the Christmas tree in American literature"
"is his joking invention. In 1821, the book ""A New-year's present, to the little ones from five to twelve"" was published in New York. It contained ""Old Santeclaus with Much Delight"", an anonymous poem describing Santeclaus on a reindeer sleigh, bringing presents to children. Some modern ideas of Santa Claus seemingly became canon after the anonymous publication of the poem ""A Visit From St. Nicholas"" (better known today as ""The Night Before Christmas"") in the Troy, New York, ""Sentinel"" on 23 December 1823; Clement Clarke Moore later claimed authorship, though some scholars argue that Henry Livingston, Jr. (who died nine"
"Chocolates Ltd was formed. The same year, Hoadley produced his first chocolate assortment and packed them in a purple box decorated with violets. The packaging was in tribute to his wife's favorite colour (purple) and favorite flower (violets). Within the box assortment was a piece of honeycomb that became so popular that Hoadley decided to produce an individual honeycomb bar. This proved trickier than first thought, because as the pieces of honeycomb cooled, they absorbed moisture and started sticking together. This hygroscopic nature of honeycomb led Hoadley to eventually dip his bars in chocolate, to keep the honeycomb dry and"
"had more than a hundred multicolored lights. The first commercially produced Christmas tree lamps were manufactured in strings of nine sockets by the Edison General Electric Company of Harrison, New Jersey and advertised in the December 1901 issue of the ""Ladies' Home Journal"". Each socket took a miniature two-candela carbon-filament lamp. Edward Hibberd Johnson Edward Hibberd Johnson (January 4, 1846 – September 9, 1917) was an inventor and business associate of American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He was involved in many of Edison's projects, and was a partner in an early organization which evolved into the General Electric Company. When"
"the size of walnuts, on December 22, 1882 at his home on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Local newspapers ignored the story, seeing it as a publicity stunt. However, it was published by a Detroit newspaper reporter, and Johnson has become widely regarded as the Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights. By 1900, businesses started stringing up Christmas lights behind their windows. Christmas lights were too expensive for the average person; as such, electric Christmas lights did not become the majority replacement for candles until 1930. In 1895, U.S. President Grover Cleveland proudly sponsored the first electrically lit Christmas"
"to the firm's ecclesiastical work. He designed the altar screen in St Paul's Cathedral and several sepulchral monuments, including those of the Bishops of Ely, Lincoln, Winchester and Chichester, and that of Henry Parry Liddon. In 1889 he designed the decorated gothic case for the organ at Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon. Despite Bodley's distaste for business and trade, he and Garner also set up a fabric company with Gilbert Scott the younger in 1874, to provide embroidered and textile goods, wallpaper and stained glass. The firm was called Watts & Co, trading initially from Baker Street in London,"
"with food and clothing being given to the poor. Allegedly the image of the family drinking wine together proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd: Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. Two batches totaling 2,050 cards were printed and sold that year for a shilling each. Early British cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations and materials. At Christmas 1873, the lithograph firm"
"triangular shape, which he said was symbolic of the Trinity. However, the English-language phrase ""Christmas tree"" is first recorded in 1835 and represents an importation from the German language. From Germany the custom was introduced to England, first via Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, and then more successfully by Prince Albert during the early reign of Queen Victoria. The influential 1840s image of the Queen's decorated evergreen was republished in the U.S, and as the first widely circulated picture of a decorated Christmas tree in America, the custom there spread. Christmas trees may be decorated with lights and ornaments."
"a wick. More elegant lamps were made from different colours of glass. The new candle holder, called a counterbalance candle holder, had a weight attached to the bottom that kept the candle standing upright. However, even with these improvements, the trees still proved to be fire hazards. The invention of the electric light added a new dimension to Christmas trees. In 1882 an inventor named Edward Hibberd Johnson working for Thomas Edison devised a way of wrapping small electric lights in red, white, and blue crêpe paper. These coloured lights that were strung on a tree provided the earliest version"
"developed toys such as Merlin, ""Star Wars"" figures, Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears. The company was founded as Caselloid on Britannia Street in Leicester by Alfred Edward Pallett in 1919 to produce celluloid soap dishes for Woolworth. Other products followed such as babies rattles and other fancy goods. Their first toy which was the windmill was in 1920 which continued to be sold until 1964. The first doll was Diddums in 1925 which was based on the characters devised by illustrator Mabel Lucy Atwell. In 1930 Cascelloid was bought by Bakelite Xylonite Limited (BXL) and a new factory built"
"marketing director for Hershey, told ""the New York Times"" in 1994 they continued to run the advertisement because they ""don't wear out like normal commercials,"" as they are only shown seasonally. Christmas Bells (advertisement) ""Christmas Bells"" is an American television commercial produced by the Hershey Company promoting Hershey's Kisses. The advertisement, produced with stop-motion animation, features Hershey's Kisses, fashioned as a handbell choir, playing the Christmas carol ""We Wish You a Merry Christmas"". It debuted in 1989 and is shown in the United States each holiday season; as such, it is the longest-running television commercial for the Hershey brand. In"
"service and the inventor of the postage stamp (Penny Black) — with his solution of pre-payment facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters. Hill's colleague Sir Henry Cole introduced the world's first commercial Christmas card in 1843. In 1851 Sir George Airy established the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, as the location of the prime meridian where longitude is defined to be 0° (one of the two lines that divide the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres). George Boole authored ""The Laws of Thought"" which contains Boolean algebra. Forming the mathematical foundations of computing, Boolean logic laid the"
"Figural glass Christmas ornaments originated in the small town of Lauscha, Germany in the latter half of the 19th century. The town had long produced fine glassware. The production of Christmas ornaments became a family affair for many people. Some families invested 16 hours a day in production. For some, it was their sole source of income. Sometimes competitions were held. Prizes were awarded to the family producing the finest examples. Santa Clauses, angels, birds, animals, and other traditional Yuletide subjects were favorites. F.W. Woolworth discovered these glass ornaments on a toy and doll buying trip to Sonnenburg, Germany in"
"1765), in the form: Marking pastry or baked goods with an identifiable mark may stem from a time when households that did not own an oven of their own could have brought their items to a local baker or bake house, paying to have their items finished for a small fee. Marking the pastry would have been a way to ensure the return of the proper item. The earliest version set to music appears in 'A Christmas Box' by James Hook, published in 1796. The rhyme is often accompanied by hand-clapping between two people, a clapping game. It alternates between"
"in Stoke upon Trent. At first he produced ivory porcelain of such quality as to merit an award at the 1851 International Exhibition. His experiments led to marked improvements in jewelled porcelain and heraldic china. It was not until the 1880s, under the influence of his sons Adolphus, Victor and Huntley, were the famous small white-glazed vases and pots with heraldic arms for presentations being produced. These items made up a large portion of his production. These were soon joined by small items depicting interesting local scenery. In 1906, a ""League of Goss Collectors"" was founded, becoming the ""International League"""
"Christmas Bells (advertisement) ""Christmas Bells"" is an American television commercial produced by the Hershey Company promoting Hershey's Kisses. The advertisement, produced with stop-motion animation, features Hershey's Kisses, fashioned as a handbell choir, playing the Christmas carol ""We Wish You a Merry Christmas"". It debuted in 1989 and is shown in the United States each holiday season; as such, it is the longest-running television commercial for the Hershey brand. In 2012, the ad was redone with a new recording of the audio and the graphics being done entirely in CGI animation. Since then, that has been the version playing each year."