Have you ever considered what a wide and varied pantheon of Christmas characters we have today? Look around your neighborhood and you'll see inflatables depicting Santa Claus, the Grinch, Charlie Brown, Nutcrackers, Elf on the Shelf, Scrooge, Rudolph, participants in the Nativity. Our customs have expanded, too, from Christmas trees to Advent calendars to snow globes to Christmas cards and another turkey dinner. Many of these traditions are newer than you might think, and many of them came about in the 19th century because of one person.
For example, many people are under the impression that Queen Victoria erected the first Christmas tree in England and started the custom. Christmas trees were a thing long before in Germany, and it was actually a different queen who brought it to England. Queen Charlotte, previously the German princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz before she married King George III, who put up the first Christmas tree in Buckingham Palace in 1800. However, such a tree was only seen by the British aristocracy until Victoria made it all the rage when engravings of the family's 1848 Christmas tree were published.
Read about nine people who single-handedly brought us new Christmas customs that have become traditions at Mental Floss.
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