Except for Victorian Christmases

Saint John: Nothing Happened Here

In this last episode of 2024, we explore how Christmas was celebrated in Saint John in during the Victorian era (1837-1901). In this episode, we are honoured to include a discussion with Saint John’s “Mr. Christmas,” local author David Goss, who has published more than twenty books on Saint John and New Brunswick history.

As residents of a British colony, Saint Johners avidly followed trends from the ‘Mother county’, but because of their Loyalist roots and economic, social and cultural connections with the United States, celebrations in the city were also influenced by trends south of the border. Printed material- books, magazines and newspapers- shaped a transatlantic culture of Christmas in the early to mid-Victorian era that emphasized December 25, Christmas Day, as a day for giving gifts and feasting. In the pre-Victorian era, some people exchanged presents as early as December 6; the days after Christmas was for donating to charity or servants and a final party often was held on January 6, the Twelfth Night.

The new approach to Christmas also emphasized domesticity- the family together at home- and was increasingly child centred. Although many people attended religious services on Christmas Day, popular culture, notably the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas (Twas the Night before Christmas) by American Clement Clarke Moore in 1823 and Charles Dicken’s instant class A Christmas Carol (1842), stressed secular themes of childhood innocence, merrymaking, and benevolence. In terms of decorations and rituals, fashion also played a role with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert helping to popularize Christmas trees in the home as early as the late 1840s. Middle-class people on both sides of the Atlantic also adopted or fine tuned other seasonal activities: sending Christmas cards, playing sometimes dangerous parlour games, feasting and in some cases imbibing alcohol to excess, singing Christmas carols (many of which were composed during the 19th century) and taking part in outdoor activities.

Our guest David Goss recalls how Santa Claus was more for children and parents until a department store in the 1880s featured him in its window, causing a sensation. Christmas trees, decorated with burning candles, which could lead to house fires, caught on gradually in Saint John, but commercialization of Christmas was evident early on as merchants realized that there was a market for children’s toys. Unlike more recent times when many Canadians get into the Christmas spirit in early December or even in November, people in Saint John in the 19th century tended to wait until close to December 25 to decorate their houses, shop for presents and special foods and put up Christmas trees. Although there was social pressure to celebrate Christmas in style, many families in a city marked by poverty struggled to match the Victorian middle-class ideal. Despite this, the holiday was no doubt valued by the community.
Show Notes: https://www.nothinghappenedhere.ca/post/except-for-victorian-christmases