King Frederik King Frederik also helped create paper decorations, as was the fashion in the 70s, reminding him of sweet moments from his childhood.
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King Frederik X immersed in the Christmas atmosphere when he was six years old
Since the first Sunday of Advent, Queen Mary has set out to discover traditions linked to Christmas. The Queen of Denmark, for example, learned the legends around the nisses, these farm elves who play an important role in Christmas stories in the rural world. She also met confirmands, who during their religious learning experience important moments in the run-up to Christmas.
Read also: King Frederik
Between Christmas concerts, Christmas market inaugurations and public engagements linked to charity and mutual aid, such as a visit to a solidarity kitchen, the members of the Danish royal family have had a busy schedule in recent days, suitable for festivities. This Sunday, King Frederik X has just completed this sequence by making a special visit, on the occasion of the fourth Sunday of Advent.
King Frederik visited Den Gamle By, an open-air museum which recreates Danish houses, typical of each era. The houses can be visited like real homes, allowing the public to immerse themselves in the world of the 1920s to the 1970s. King Frederik chose to take a leap back in time, visiting the house which recreates life during the year 1974.
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King Frederik makes paper Christmas decorations typical of the 70s
Frederik from Denmark was born in 1968 and the visit to this typical house from the 70s reminded him of his youth, decorated with objects that had fallen into oblivion. In the center of the living room of this house was the Christmas tree that Frederik decorated, with the help of Anna Wowk Vestergaard, curator of the park's exhibitions, currently in charge of transforming the open-air museum for the Christmas period. The houses are also decorated for Christmas in accordance with the decade they represent.
On December 25, 1974, Frederik was 6 and a half years old and his brother, Prince Joachim, was 5 and a half years old. The two boys were helping their parents decorate the Christmas tree, while their mother, who had just ascended to the Danish throne two years previously, was putting the finishing touches to her New Year's speech. At the time, the fashionable decorations were paper ornaments. Frederik learned this Sunday to cut and fold paper to create an ornament representing a heart.
King Frederik also took the opportunity to learn more about the history of Christmas tree decorations. The tradition of Christmas trees dates back to the Middle Ages, in Germanic countries. In the past, conifers, always green and alive in winter, were erected in the center of villages. Little by little, the idea came to bring smaller ones into homes, but this was more reserved for wealthy people; families were usually content with a few branches that they took home. It was from the middle of the 19th century that fir trees became more popular and entered the homes of families of all classes in Germanic countries. In Denmark, the first decorated Christmas tree of which there is a written record was that of the Holsteinsborg estate. He was decorated in 1808.
As we know, this tradition spread throughout the world thanks to the British royal family, who themselves brought this tradition back from their country of origin in the early 1840s. Prince Albert, husband and first cousin of Queen Victoria, brought back the tradition of decorating fir trees from her country of origin, the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg. Albert and Victoria shared the same grandfather, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. The British aristocracy gradually imitated the customs imported by the royal family, and the British Empire helped spread these traditions throughout the world.
Royal families were the first to decorate their Christmas trees. In Denmark, geographically close to the origins of the Christmas tree tradition, it was in 1866 that the royal family decorated their first tree. That year, King Christian IX and Queen Louise decorated their first tree at Fredensborg Castle. King Christian IX, great-great-great-grandfather of King Frederik X, comes from a younger branch of the royal family, having succeeded his cousin who died without descendants. This younger branch of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg lived in the Duchy of Schleswig, the part bordering modern-day Germany.
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