GIFTS, TREES & FEASTING

We take a journey through the photo archives to reveal how Christmas and its many traditions have been celebrated over the years - and around the world

- DANNY BIRD

YULE FUEL, 1941

A group of Santa Clauses eat a well-earned lunch in Chicago.

Part of the Volunteers of America's fundraising effort for low-income people, the Sidewalk Santa scheme was launched in 1900, with volunteers famously standing alongside model chimneys while seeking donations.

FESTIVE GRIT, 1936 

The aftershocks of the Great Depression affected families throughout the United States for much of the 1930s. Rather than a festive feast of turkey and treats, these children, near Smithfield, lowa, are eating a dinner of potatoes, cabbage and pie.

YULETIDE SPRUCE, c1895 

First introduced to Britain by Queen Charlotte, the German wife of George III, Victoria's husband Prince Albert further popularised the tradition of decorating a tree at Christmas. This doughty reveller returning home with her tree shows how ubiquitous the custom had become by the late Victorian era.

SEASON OF THE SOLE, 1931 

Christmas has always brought out the generosity of spirit in people. In this bizarre scene, two bootmakers pose with a giant shoe bound for the children's ward at the London Hospital in Whitechapel, where it was later filled with toys.

DID YOU KNOW?

LUNAR CHRISTMAS

During Christmas 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first humans to mark the holiday outside the Earth’s atmosphere. While orbiting the Moon, they recited Genesis to an audience of millions tuning in.

O LITTLE TOWN..., 1898