They might not exactly be rockin’ around it but when a drawing, similar to this one, of royal trendsetters Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, appeared in The Illustrated London News in December 1948, it not only promoted the idea of decorated Christmas trees, but of Christmas as a time for gifting and family celebrations.
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Though Victoria’s beloved Albert is often credited with bringing the tree tradition to the UK and even imported spruce firs from his native Germany in 1840, it was his compatriot Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, who first put up a richly decorated Christmas tree for a party at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, nearly half a century previously. In doing so she embellished the German custom of bringing a single yew branch indoors, using a whole tree. Fashionable aristocrats were quick to copy her idea and once Queen Victoria and her family were pictured admiring their own tree, the custom spread beyond the aristocracy.