The 25 Strangest days of Christmas Day 4 - “Season’s Grievings: When Christmas Cards Showed Dead Birds”

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Strange History Podcast and

0:03 Speaker 1: day four of our Victorian Christmas countdown the twenty five

0:06 Speaker 1: Strangest Days of Christmas. Today, we explored the Victorian custom

0:11 Speaker 1: of decorating Christmas trees with candy, pastries, and fruit, all

0:14 Speaker 1: of which children were encouraged to eat directly from the branches.

0:18 Speaker 1: Before glass bobbles, trees were hung with sugar, cookies, candied oranges, marzipan,

0:25 Speaker 1: and strings of popcorn and berries. Children understandably treated the

0:30 Speaker 1: tree like a vertical snack dispenser. A Victorian mother writes

0:35 Speaker 1: that her child bit into a gingerbread star singed by

0:38 Speaker 1: the candle flame, yet eaten with great joy and little complaint,

0:43 Speaker 1: which is Victorian four. He burned his face, and we

0:47 Speaker 1: pretended it was festive.

0:49 Speaker 2: Sponsored by tree Snack's edible holiday garlands, now flame resistant,

0:54 Speaker 2: choose from seasonal flavors like sugarplum, twist, cinnamon, fireplace not

0:59 Speaker 2: actual fireplace, and the ghost of fruitcake passed tree Snacks

1:04 Speaker 2: now with seventy percent less danger.

1:07 Speaker 1: The Victorian household was equal parts cozy and chaotic. Tomorrow

1:13 Speaker 1: we moved to the dinner table, where the holiday entertainment

1:16 Speaker 1: exploded