Victorian Christmas House

I realize Christmas is past, however 

would you like to live in the Victorian Era?

I know that I would at Christmastime.

It was Prince Albert who introduced his wife

Queen Victoria to his German Christmas traditions.

Christmas trees, feather tress,

 with ornaments and lit candles on these trees.

Bob and I drove up 2 towns to the North of us

to see how this Victorian home decorated

their outside for Christmas.

This was the same house which did 

the skeletons for Halloween. 

Wreaths would have been in the windows 

in the Victorian Era.

Believe it or not, so would have been 

the Nutcracker... except not this large.

The Victorian Era was 1837-1901.

The Nutcracker Ballet play was first introduced

in Russia on December 18, 1892.

This Victorian house also had this

huge reindeer pulling a wagonload of wood.

Bob could not get a pic of the wagon

as we were on the wrong side of the road.

The house sits on a hill and was built

higher up on another hill.

Now do you think Santa's reindeer

would also have been in the Victorian Era.

If you guessed yes, you would be correct.

In 1821 a poem was written which mentioned

Santa and his reindeer...with an illustration

of Santa and his un-named reindeer.

This poem was called 

Old Santeclaus With Much Delight.

This was the first mention of Santa's reindeer.

In 1823 the published version of

A Visit From St Nicholas named Santa's reindeer.

This was the name first given for the book

we now know as

Twas The Night Before Christmas.

This book gave the names of Santa's reindeer,

minus Rudolf.

The original names were

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen.

Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem.

I am lucky to own three feather trees.

Not huge ones and only one do I add 

antique German cotton spun fruit ornaments.

Not many ornaments but would some day

like this tree full of them.

I also have a few strands of antique garland

and silver ornaments.

Unfortunately prices continue to rise on

anything antique Christmas...so it is hard to

acquire nowadays.

In other news,

Lauren asked me if I use

 the sewing method to cross stitch.

I use the stab and poke method

with a very short needle. 

I don't like the longer needles 

which many prefer or even size 26.

I seem to lose them though quite often,

so that is why I started to use

the needle minders with every project.

Monday I left work early and as I approached 

this one small town I drive through, 

the emergency test siren went off.

These go off in our county every

first Monday of the month. 

Scared the bejabbers out of me though 

because I forgot about it 

at the time and was not expecting it.

Do you have test sirens in your area?

Took today off to take Bob to his

doctor appt. I still dont want him driving

out of our county with his left eye not

at 100% because of his stroke.

Am not sure if he will ever totally get his

peripheral vision back in that eye.

One can hope and pray though.

I also hope you have a wonderful day.

Past Christmas Blessings To All!

Janice