Dan Morris: Forget about Scrooge - look what the Victorians did for us

Don't worry, this isn't the start of some sarcastic Monty Python-esque tribute to past peoples to whom we owe our everything (though, indeed, ‘everything’ is very much what we do owe the Romans).

No, this is a brief but genuine and humble nod to a segment of our history that has given us so much joy in the present.

Surprisingly, perhaps, I'm not talking about the many wonders birthed during the Industrial Revolution – despite our region's leading role in the magnificence that was.

No. Far more appropriately to the season that is, I'm actually talking about Christmas. 

A historian and bona fide expert recently informed me of just how significant the Victorian period was to the Yuletide we know and love today. We're all familiar with Dickens and his most famous tale of a miser-come-good via the spirits of Christmas. In A Christmas Carol, a rich picture of 'the big family Christmas' is painted; the shared feast, the liberal exchanging of gifts, the singing, gratitude and general good cheer. Yet I hadn't realised that it was only in Dickens' time that Christmas had truly begun to take this form.

Over hundreds of years, the celebration of Christmas has had highs and lows. Thanks largely to the English Civil War and the Puritans, the festive season of the 17th century, for example, wasn't particularly festive, with Christmas being a much more watered-down affair than it would become.

With the Victorian era, and writers like Dickens, the spark of the opulent, sociable and indulgent affair we know today was ignited, and bolstered by royal fashion.

It is of course Prince Albert who is credited with popularising the Christmas tree in Great Britain, with these now-iconic symbols of the season having been much more of a Germanic tradition.

Christmas trees did exist in Britain before the good Prince brought one to Buckingham Palace, yet it was when the Victorian royal family was photographed decorating their tree for the Illustrated London News that the rest of the population really bought into the idea (and extreme safety hazard) of having a candle-adorned fir in the living room.

Christmas cards were also, apparently, a Victorian invention. The story goes that a particularly disgruntled gentleman by the name of Henry Cole had grown tired of hand-writing full letters of seasonal greetings to everyone he knew – as was the tradition of the time. 

In a move that would have impressed Homer Simpson and every other proud pioneer of laziness in the land, Cole approached a printer with the hope of streamlining this arduous task by having generic cards printed that he could simply sign. Makes you proud to be British and, of course, a bloke.

Understandably, the idea took off, and 40 years later five million Christmas cards were being sent through the Royal Mail. I'm sure Daniel Křetínský would have ants in his pants at the thought of such a sky-rocketing trend today. Yes, indeed, while the Grinch may have stolen Christmas, it was the Victorians who saved it, and visiting a regional attraction that has been celebrating 19th century Yuletide in all of its glory last weekend, I'm sold on the Dickensian vision like never before.

A pleasant chill (far milder than that which chaperoned Storm Darragh) was in the air, the smell of roasting food lingered on the wind and the sound of a brass band playing carols rang all around. Magnificent shire horse-drawn carriages delighted the young and the old alike, families toasted their good health with a warming bevvy, and children eagerly lined up to make their pleas to Santa.

Admittedly, equine-based transport isn't part of everybody's typical crimbo these days, but much of the rest was heart-warmingly similar to all of the things we love today, and the spirit was identical.

So, thanks Queen Vicky, thanks Prince A (always knew you were more than just a piercing), and thanks to the millions of hard-working Victorians who not only made us an industrial powerhouse to be reckoned with, but also gave us the Christmas we all deserve.

There is one tradition though that the Victorians didn't pick up that the chicken shop champ in me feels we are missing. In Japan, they love a KFC for Christmas dinner. Surely the western world can make room for two happy chappies with white beards bringing the joy? Make room Saint Nick – Colonel Sanders is bringing the feast this year, and it's going to be finger lickin' good. Merry Christmas, folks!