Letter : from Sir George Scharf to Mrs Stovin, 1854 Dec 31st
NAL
Special Collections 86.DD Box VI
MSL 1964/4431
While decorated fir trees were not new to the court (Queen Victoria's mother and aunt both came from a German background), it was Albert's enthusiasm for the practice that popularised it outside the royal family. Images of the royal tree of 1848, with five of the children along with their parents and grandparents were first published in the Illustrated London News and then in numerous periodicals in England and abroad.