The Invention of the English Christmas
The Invention of the English Christmas
This chapter takes the reader back to the 1840s, presenting a critical exploration of ‘The Invention of the English Christmas’ by the Victorian urban middle classes. Christmas was intended as both a celebration of the prosperity made possible by the achievements of the Industrial Revolution, and a recognition of the need to share that prosperity with those for whom industrialisation and urbanisation had not been an unqualified success. Father Christmas/Santa Claus does not feature in the key ideological text of the new invention, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The enormous popularity of the story of Scrooge's social redemption, not just as a novel but in theatre productions and public readings, made this the central text in the invention of Christmas. The promise of Christmas is a middle-class utopia in which exploitation and oppression can exist in harmony with deference and ‘goodwill to all men’.
Keywords: English Christmas, Industrial Revolution, Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, Scrooge, industrialisation, urbanisation
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