British Christmas Traditions #1

I don’t mean to frighten you or anything but there are only seven shopping days left until the big day, so you better get busy Little Elves! In the meantime I thought it would be fun to re-run some of my Christmas posts from last year. Besides, I’m feeling rather lazy (and yes, my shopping is finished.) If I start feeling energetic I might even add some new posts.

I’ve was inspired by Denise’s holiday teacup series at Uniquely Tea and decided to post my own series on British holiday traditions. I think you’ll find some to be uniquely British while others may be familiar to you yet surprising as you learn more about them. For instance, did you know the very first Christmas card was posted from England in 1840? The tradition was started after the “Penny Post” was introduced that year, making it affordable for Britons to spread Christmas cheer. Sir Henry Cole was one of the first people to mass produce Christmas cards which he sold in his London art shop for 1 shilling each. Today this holiday tradition still remains and is a multi-million pound business with over a billion Christmas cards being posted in the U.K. each year.