10 Strange Things You Never Knew About Christmas

By Andy Scott /

4. It Took a Prince Albert to Get People Interested in Christmas Trees

In Britain, at least. The earliest attested tree in North America came along nearly a century earlier whilst looking for a little Christmas cheer in a Canadian garrison. But it wasn€™t until those bountiful, bonking Victorians got together, however, that the idea of decorating a large lump of foliage in front rooms tickled the fancy of the British proletariat. Before then it€™d predominantly been something only the royals did but, for some reason, it caught on with the Victorians. That and consumption. A drawing of the royal couple enjoying their tree indoors was plastered into the Illustrated London Evening News in 1848 and then republished in a magazine in Philadelphia ... but the Queen€™s crown and Prince Albert€™s ... moustache, were removed! Stop thinking that you wicked child!