It's hard to imagine now, but at the beginning of the 19th century Christmas was hardly celebrated. Many businesses did not even consider it a holiday. However by the end of the century it had become the biggest annual celebration and took on the form that we recognise today.
虽然现在很难相信，但是在19世纪初，几乎没有人庆祝圣诞节。大部分商家也都没把圣诞节当做一个假日。然而，19世纪末圣诞节摇身一变变成了一年中最圣诞的庆祝活动。这一传统从那个时候被传承至今。
The transformation happened quickly, and came from all sectors of society.
转变之迅速，覆盖社会各界各行各业。
Victoria and Albert gathered around the Christmas tree with their children.
维多利亚和阿伯特以及他们的孩子围在圣诞树边。
Many attribute the change to Queen Victoria, and it was her marriage to the German-born Prince Albert that introduced some of the most prominent aspects of Christmas. In 1848 the Illustrated London News published a drawing of the royal family celebrating around a decorated Christmas tree, a tradition that was reminiscent of Prince Albert's childhood in Germany. Soon every home in Britain had a tree bedecked with candles, sweets, fruit, homemade decorations and small gifts.
这一转变很大程度上要归功于维多利亚女皇，以及她和德国出生的阿伯特王子的婚姻。阿伯特将圣诞节最重要的部分介绍给了她。在1848年，伦敦新闻画报刊登了一张绘有王室一家围着一颗装饰精致的圣诞树庆祝圣诞的画。这一活动是阿伯特王子用来怀念自己在德国度过的童年时光的。很快，大不列颠的每家每户都有了一棵装饰着蜡烛、糖果、水果、收工制作的装饰和小礼物的树。
Christmas Cards 圣诞贺卡
In 1843 Henry Cole commissioned an artist to design a card for Christmas. The illustration showed a group of people around a dinner table and a Christmas message. At one shilling each, these were pricey for ordinary Victorians and so were not immediately accessible. However the sentiment caught on and many children - Queen Victoria's included – were encouraged to make their own Christmas cards. In this age of industrialisation colour printing technology quickly became more advanced, causing the price of card production to drop significantly. Together with the introduction of the halfpenny postage rate, the Christmas card industry took off. By the 1880s the sending of cards had become hugely popular, creating a lucrative industry that produced 11.5 million cards in 1880 alone. The commercialisation of Christmas was well on its way.
1843年，一位叫亨利.科勒的艺术家受命设计一张圣诞卡。圣诞卡片上印有一群人围坐在饭桌前和一句圣诞祝福。卡片1先令一张，对于一个普通的维多利亚时期的人而言实在是太贵了。所以圣诞卡片并没有立刻流行起来。但是庆祝圣诞的情绪感染了许多人特别是孩子，包括维多利亚女皇的孩子在内的孩子们被鼓励自己动手制作圣诞卡片。工业化时代，彩色印刷技术突飞猛进，这一进步大大降低卡片印刷的成本。同时伴随着邮寄只需半便士的变化，圣诞卡片页得到了大发展。到19世纪80年代，邮寄圣诞卡片变成了一种风潮，同时也催生了当时最赚钱的行业，仅在1880年，圣诞卡片行业生产了1150万张贺卡。圣诞节商业化非常成功。
Traditional Victorian crackers 传统维多利亚爆竹
Another commercial Christmas industry was borne by Victorians in 1848 when a British confectioner, Tom Smith, invented a bold new way to sell sweets. Inspired by a trip to Paris where he saw bon bons – sugared almonds wrapped in twists of paper – he came up with the idea of the Christmas cracker: a simple package filled with sweets that snapped when pulled apart. The sweets were replaced by small gifts and paper hats in the late Victorian period, and remain in this form as an essential part of a modern Christmas.
另外一个在维多利亚时代诞生的商业化的圣诞节产业，是由一名英国糖果商汤姆.史密斯发明的一种新的贩售糖果的方式。他从一次巴黎的旅行中受到启发，当时他看到了一种糖果是用揉皱的纸包裹着的糖衣杏仁。他想出了圣诞爆竹这个创意：将糖果放在一个简单的包装中，打开包装时需要将包装拉开。当维多利亚时代末期，糖果被小礼物和纸帽子取代。这一传统同样被保留至今。
