Christmas as we know it today is in many ways a Victorian invention. The 19th century transformed the festive season, introducing many beloved Christmas traditions, including Christmas trees, mistletoe and Christmas pudding.
A Victorian Christmas
Jewellery played a central role in Victorian celebrations. Exchanged beside the tree or worn at winter gatherings, it allowed Victorians to express both emotional sentiment and personal style. From the Romantic period’s nature-inspired lockets and turquoise tokens, to the Grand period’s jet and onyx mourning jewels, and finally the Aesthetic period’s whimsical designs, taste was constantly changing as the century unfolded. Underlying all these shifts was a growing passion for sentiment. Victorians read their jewellery symbolically, with ivy for fidelity, holly for protection, turquoise for love, seed pearls for purity, and diamonds for hope or renewal. Jewellery became a language in its own right, and a way to express feelings over the festive period.
These garnet earrings are perfect for a Victorian Christmas, with their rich, deep red tones invoking festive colours. Garnets were popular in Victorian jewellery as large quantities of the gemstone were imported into Britain from Bohemia (Czech Republic). They were more affordable than diamonds with great lustre.
Each earring is set with an oval mixed-cut almandine garnet in a foiled back to intensify the colour. This choice of setting speaks to the Victorian appetite for historical revival, echoing 18th-century designs. The handmade gallery showcases the craftsmanship, and the earrings' lightness makes them comfortable to wear throughout festive activities.
At the same time, Christmas itself was becoming the most important celebration of the Victorian calendar. Industrialisation brought greater prosperity and leisure, while the expanding middle class embraced family-centred holidays filled with gifts and shared traditions. Dickens’s A Christmas Carol framed Christmas as a time of generosity and love. And, crucially, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert modelled an ideal of domestic festivity, decorating trees, exchanging gifts and gathering their children around the hearth. Together, this created a uniquely Victorian Christmas, from which many of our most beloved traditions come today.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert played a central role in shaping the traditional Victorian Christmas. Victoria had grown up with the German custom of decorating a Christmas tree, introduced to Britain by her Hanoverian ancestors, but it was Albert who brought the tradition firmly into Victorian domestic life. Through illustrated newspapers and public fascination with the royal family, the Christmas tree quickly became a national symbol of festive celebration.
This sapphire and diamond swallow brooch would have been a very sentimental gift. Swallows were a popular motif in Victorian jewellery, given to loved ones setting out on a journey, symbolising protection and the hope of a safe return, and the two swallows introduce the idea of partnership and fidelity. They are joined by trace chains and a heart surmounted by a bow, symbolising love and emotional attachment, with the bow representing the binding of two lives.
Such a piece would have been carefully selected, perhaps after browsing department store displays or Christmas catalogues. It was a keepsake, intended to be worn repeatedly and remembered long after the season had passed.
Families gathered in their decorated parlours, exchanging gifts and enjoying games and music around the tree. Seasonal foods such as gingerbread and mince pies were shared, and Christmas pudding was cooked with miniature treasures tucked inside. These treasures included coins, a ring or a thimble, each carrying its own symbolic meaning of wealth, future marriage or a lack of it for the finder. Christmas came to be seen as a moment for generosity and compassion, a counterbalance to the social and industrial pressures of the age.
Industrialisation allowed the holiday to grow. Greater prosperity brought increased leisure and financial freedom, while the rise of mass-produced goods meant that more people than ever could participate in festive gifting. The first commercial Christmas card was printed in 1843, quickly becoming a seasonal favourite and an early expression of the Victorian love of sentiment.
Delicate brooches such as this one would have also been a popular gift at Christmas. Decorated with symbolic motifs, they marked a moment of looking ahead to the new year.
The shamrock motif on this sapphire and diamond brooch would have been understood by contemporaries as a symbol of luck and good fortune, while the sapphires and pearls were associated with wisdom and purity. It was an appropriate gift at Christmas, when wishes of prosperity and happiness were traditionally exchanged. It could have been purchased from one of the new department stores or possibly ordered via catalogue. It may have been exchanged between loved ones as an expression of hope for the year ahead.
The Culture of Gift Giving
As Christmas grew to be one of the most important events in the Victorian calendar, the culture of gift giving became central to the celebrations. Earlier in the century, presents were traditionally exchanged on New Year’s Day, but this shifted to the 25th December. Families took great pleasure in choosing meaningful Christmas gifts, many of which included jewellery.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert famously exchanged sentimental jewellery throughout their marriage, setting the trend. Albert gifted Victoria an enamelled bracelet set with miniature portraits of their children, while she gave him lockets, brooches and pieces infused with personal symbolism. Their example reinforced the idea of jewellery as a token of love - the perfect Christmas gesture.
These pear-shaped diamond floral drop earrings would have been an exceptional gift, perfectly suited to evening wear during the social Christmas season, when dinners, balls and formal gatherings filled the calendar. The articulated drops allow the diamonds to move freely, a design choice that enhances their brilliance in low light and brings the earrings to life with even the slightest movement.
Originally intended for balls and dinner parties illuminated by candles and gaslight, the earrings retain their drama and beauty today. While the lighting has changed, the effect remains similar, highlighting the skill and craftsmanship of Victorian jewellers.
The Victorian appetite for novelty also shaped the holiday. The invention of the Christmas cracker by Tom Smith in the 1840s introduced an element of surprise and delight to the festive table. Early crackers contained small trinkets, toys and even miniature charms. This love of tiny treasures directly fed into the popularity of novelty jewellery.
The rise of commercially available goods such as gold lockets and delicate rings meant that jewellery became more accessible to households than ever before. Shops and department stores capitalised on this trend, advertising jewels as the perfect Christmas gift.
Christmas Markets, Fairs & Department Stores
By the mid-19th century, the emergence of the Victorian department store transformed Victorian spending habits. London saw the rise of grand retail spaces such as Harrods and Liberty & Co. These stores transformed the Christmas shopping experience, with gaslight and elaborately decorated Christmas windows that sparkled and drew crowds from the street.
In this moment, browsing became an experience in its own right. For the first time, shoppers could wander through departments, comparing gifts and imagining the recipient. Jewellery could be examined and tried on, and the whole shopping experience became more emotionally charged and personal.
Lockets were another very popular Christmas gift. They were designed to hold an image of a loved one and to be worn close to the heart.
This locket has a yellow and rose gold overlay detail to the front, depicting morning glory blossoms and ivy leaves. The language of flowers was important in the Victorian culture of gift giving. The morning glories symbolise the fleeting nature of life, and the ivy leaves symbolise everlasting affection, overall symbolising devotion and remembrance. It would have made a very special Christmas gift.
Victorian Festive Dress
Christmas offered everyone an occasion to showcase their finest jewels. The festive season was filled with balls and dinners, each requiring elegant outfits. Rich velvets, silks, and winter tartans provided a perfect backdrop for beautiful jewellery, with necklines framed with necklaces and rivières, bodices set with brooches, and hair adorned with ornaments that glittered in candlelight. Jewellery was a key accessory in this glamorous society that loved occasions to dress up and show off their beautiful pieces.
Jewellery was at the heart of the Victorian Christmas, exchanged beneath the tree and worn to festive gatherings. From garnets glowing in candlelight to swallow brooches carrying messages of love and protection, Victorian jewels formed part of a visual and emotional language through which love and affection were expressed at Christmas.
Many treasured traditions of today, such as sentimental gift giving, the culture of browsing in beautifully displayed shops and dressing up for festive occasions, originated in Victorian society. Christmas has long been a moment to sparkle and celebrate, and to mark the season with jewellery chosen to be worn and treasured.
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