I used to belittle my aunt mercilessly about her ‘quaint Victorian Christmas’ crap

I started dreading going over there for Christmas sometime around April or May.

Families are horrible things. Luckily for all of us, I managed to shed what remained of mine after my mother died.

Anyhow (keeping in mind “it ain’t nostalgia if you weren’t there”) meet my soul(less) mate:

During the recent Christmas season I saw references everywhere to “Victorian” Christmas celebrations — house tours, store windows, magazine advertisements, etc. I can understand people pining for a simpler time, provided we overlook such details as child labor, Jim Crow laws, and women not having the right to vote.

What I wonder is whether people in Victorian times waxed nostalgic about prior eras. Did they have “Federalist” Christmases idealizing the late 1700s? For that matter, did the Federalists have “colonial” Christmases idealizing the late 1600s? Or did prior generations have enough sense to appreciate their own time?