Content. Introduction

The Emergence of New Christmas TraditionsDickens certainly introduced a new understanding of the meaning of Christmas. His Christmas stories also gave rise to holiday traditions that now feel like they've always been part of our celebrations.

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  Christmas trees: Prince Albert brought Christmas trees (a German tradition) to England, but Dickens popularized it. In the first Household Words Christmas story, Dickens uses the Christmas tree as the central symbol. In subsequent stories, the Christmas tree would figure prominently in protagonists' homes.
  
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  Exchanging gifts: Again, Prince Albert imported this practice from Germany; the British traditionally exchanged gifts on New Year's Day. But in A Christmas Carol, the father giving his children gifts was presented as a significant aspect of the holiday. Again, Dickens reinforced this idea in his other Christmas tales.
  
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  Christmas caroling: Sandy's Carols Ancient and Modern played on the Victorians' revived interest in exploring and updating music. Dickens played on this with the title of A Christmas Carol and caroling plays a role in the narrative itself.
  
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  “White Christmas”: The romantic notion of a placid, snow-covered Christmas landscape is straight out of a Dickens story. Ironically, it rarely snows at Christmas in England, but this shows the power of Dickens' works in shaping our notions of the holiday. It just happened to snow on Christmas for eight consecutive years when Dickens was a child, and he often called on his childhood memories of the holiday.
  

Why was Dickens so influential? His Christmas stories became a tradition unto themselves. From 1843 to 1847, Dickens wrote a Christmas novella each year. In 1848, he switched to including a Christmas story in Household Words (called All the Year Round from 1859 on). Each story reinforced the images, traditions, and ideals of a Dickensian Christmas. Eventually Dickens enlisted other writers like Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Gaskell to write installments as well. Thus, these ideas of Christmas became part of the collective conscience. They've endured for over a century, just as Dickens' books themselves have remained beloved classics of literature.