Beyond the Book: Oh Christmas Tree

 

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beyond the Book.  I’m Violet Emerson, Elaine’s heroine in A New Dream.  Did you put up your Christmas tree yet?  Matt and I always put ours up on the day after Thanksgiving.  This year we went all out with our decorating.  I have a Christmas village, nativity set, two trees, and various other little things here and there.  I thought I’d show you a picture of one of my trees.  The picture quality isn’t great, but the tree is super pretty in person.  It sparkles in the sunshine, and when you turn the white lights on it’s spectacular. 





 

Matt and I got married a couple of days before Christmas, but our wedding was challenging to say the least.  Would you like to read a short excerpt about the wedding?  This isn't in A New Dream.  Elaine wrote a short story titled It All Started With Cinders Malone's Dress to tell everyone about the ceremony.  If you leave a comment and an email address, Elaine might let you read it.

Chapter 1

“I’m home.”

Violet Emerson and her sister Jessie raced down the stairs to meet their father. From the kitchen Beth Emerson, the girls’ mother, called, “I’m coming!”

“Did you get it?” Violet demanded as she joined her father in the small foyer of the Emerson home. She clapped her hands together and literally jumped up and down, her dark curls swirling around her face.

Fred scowled at her. “Of course I did. Do I usually walk in the door carrying huge garment bags?”

Violet giggled. “Daddy, I’m getting married tomorrow. Lighten up.”

Fred’s mouth turned down into a sour grimace. “Don’t remind me.”

Beth who’d arrived in time to hear the exchange laughed with her daughters. “Now, Fred, Matt’s going to be your son-in-law. You’ve got to be nice.”

Fred’s lip poked out, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Everyone knew he was having a hard time giving Violet up.

“Let’s look at your dress,” Jessie cried.

Everyone trooped to the living room to look at the wedding dress. Violet’s hands almost shook in her eagerness to remove the garment bag. The bag hit the floor with a small noise that was obscured by Violet’s quick gasp. “This isn’t my dress!”

“Oh my goodness,” Beth exclaimed.

Everyone stared at the dress. Violet had picked a tailored dress with a form fitting bodice and skirt that showed off her curves to perfection. There were no sequins and lace to detract from her unusual violet-blue eyes. Matt her fiancé loved her eyes.

Violet clutched her throat. “It’s…it’s poufy!”

The dress had short sleeves and a fitted bodice studded with seed pearls on every available inch. The neckline plunged into a sharp v shape that went almost to the waist. A thin piece of net joined the two sides and kept them together. The skirt consisted of layer upon layer of fluffy white tulle that spread out like a cloud from the pearl bodice.

Fred’s eyes bulged as he stared at the plunging neckline. “That’s a disgrace,” he snapped.


And readers, that was just the beginning. 

The Victorian Christmas Tree

When we think of Christmas during the Victorian Era, most of us picture a Charles Dickens Christmas complete with a goose or turkey and a Christmas tree, but the English haven’t always had Christmas trees. They were introduced into England in 1841 when Queen Victoria was on the throne. Her husband Prince Albert decorated the first Christmas tree. Albert was from Germany, a place where they’d long used Christmas trees. He decorated a tree for Windsor Castle using candles, candies, and paper chains. The custom spread, and before long all of the English had Christmas trees. So did the Americans.

As time passed, people started to use more elaborate decorations on their trees, including gingerbread men, marzipan candies, hard candies, cookies, fruit, cotton-batting Santas, paper fans, tin soldiers, whistles, wind-up toys, pine cones, dried fruits, nuts, berries, and trinkets of all kinds. They also enjoyed hanging cornucopias filled with sweets, fruit, nuts and popcorn on their trees. Small homemade gifts, such as tiny hand-stitched dolls or children's mittens were also popular. Beautiful angels were the tree toppers of choice, and some families set up a Nativity scene under the tree using moss for grass and mirrors for ponds.

Eventually, people started to use German store bought ornaments which first appeared during the 1860’s. Glass icicles came first followed by hand blown glass globes called kugels. People also liked Dresdens, embossed silver and gold cardboard ornaments in many shapes.

Decorating a Victorian tree today would be pretty simple without investing a great deal of money. Here are a few things I’d do.

1.String popcorn and cranberries to make a garland. The kids should have a great time helping.

2.Shape small paper doilies into cornucopias. Fill with candies of your choice.

3.Recycle old Christmas cards. Cut out shapes you like and attach them to the tree with ribbons to make mock Dresdens.

4.Make or buy small cookies to hang on the tree. You can decorate them with glitter if you like. Hairspray works great as a preservative.

5.Fill small mesh bags with colorful candy and tie them with ribbon.

6.Spray nuts in the shell with gold paint and glue a slender cord to them so they'll hang on the tree.

7.I don’t recommend lighting the candles if you use real ones, but you can buy strings of electric lights in the shape of candles. That sounds a lot safer to me.

8.Don’t forget to fill the tree with small toys. Personally, I’d add some cherubs, another Victorian favorite.

9.Decorative tassels would look beautiful on your tree.

10.Buy some pretty ribbon-Victorians preferred velvet-and shape it into pretty bows or swirls.

11.Fold wrapping paper in the shape of fans and put them on the tree. We used to love making fans when we were kids.

If any of you decide to do a Victorian tree, email me a picture at elainecsc@aol.com and I’ll post it on the blog for others to see.

Oh, and the picture that accompanies this post is from an 1841 engraving showing Victoria and Albert and their children.