Jersey Schoolchildren Experience Victorian Christmas Traditions

Hundreds of schoolchildren in Jersey recently participated in an immersive experience to discover how children celebrated Christmas during the Victorian era. This initiative, which engaged 500 children from 10 schools, was orchestrated by the education team at Jersey Museum. As part of the activities, the children created pomanders—decorative Victorian Christmas tree cones crafted from oranges and cloves—and composed cards utilizing quills. Organisers reported that the pupils were also educated about the festive customs of their Victorian ancestors and important traditions. Alice Honey, educational officer at Jersey Heritage, stated: “We’re looking at traditions we have nowadays that really date back to Victorian times – traditions like the Christmas tree, Christmas crackers and things like that.” She added, “We’ve had lots of positive feedback.” Honey further remarked, “Lots of the children are loving the smells of the oranges and cloves… we’re loving seeing how creative they are.” Concluding, she said, “As they are doing the tour of the house we’ve been in character a little bit and getting them to picture how different live might have been in Jersey all those years ago.”