Albert was born only 3 months after Victoria on 26^th August 1819 in Schloss Rosenau, in today’s northern Bavaria, Germany. Victoria and Albert were first cousins: his wayward father Ernest was the brother of the German Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Queen Victoria’s mother. Albert and Victoria were even delivered by the same German midwife, Charlotte Heidensick von Siebold.

Albert never really knew his mother Alice, who was sent away when he was 5 years old because of an extramarital affair. They were never allowed to see each other again. He was raised and educated to be a “good and useful man” and to hopefully marry the Queen of England one day.

Shortly before Victoria proposed to Albert in October 1839 she wrote in her diary:

“My heart is quite going. He was excessively handsome with beautiful blue eyes an exquisite nose and such a pretty mouth with delicate moustachios.” 

But don’t forget that she had also been particularly attracted to Albert’s sense of humour, his cheerfulness, his laughter and merriment as well as his looks!

Albert was very ambitious, highly intelligent, cultured and well-educated. His role should have been solely to support the Queen but he had his desk moved next to Victoria’s and became her confidante and advisor. He was often criticised for meddling in politics, manipulating Victoria and being King in all but name, but on the positive side he definitely had very calming and positive influence on Victoria, who was emotional and impressionable, flew into rages and was by no means a good judge of people.

He had high standards for everyone, especially his own nine children. He was a hands-on Dad, something quite unusual for his time and was very close to all of them, especially to the firstborn, Victoria. But he may have presaged his early death.

A few weeks before, Albert remarked to Victoria:

“I do not cling to life. You do; but I set no store by it. I am sure if I had a severe illness I should give up at once. I should not struggle for life. I have no tenacity of life.”

Albert died on 14 December 1861 at 22:50 in the Blue Room in Windsor Castle. It’s unclear whether he really died of Typhoid fever as stated on his death certificate or Crohn’s Disease, abdominal cancer or renal failure. Victoria never stopped mourning Albert and she wanted to make sure that he would never be forgotten: She had the Albert Memorial, sometimes called The Taj Mahal of England, erected in Kensington Gardens. She spontaneously named the impressive newly built Music Hall, The Royal Albert Hall. If you have a chance to go inside of it, have a look at the balustrade. The decorations feture 100s of As.

In addition to being the Queen’s husband and advisor and father to the future King, he also accomplished many things in Great Britain in his own right:

• The popularisation of the Christmas tree in Great Britain.
• The saving of Cleopatra’s Needle and its placement on the Thames Embankment.
• The spectacular revival of Cambridge University from its medieval slumber to world eminence which it has never surrendered since.
• The foundation of Imperial College London and the museums in South Kensington
• The commissioning of the carved lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
• The extension to the National Gallery and its glorious early Renaissance paintings whose purchase he inspired and of which 22 are his personal gift.
• The inspiration behind the Royal Balcony on the façade of Buckingham Palace.
• The creation of the Victoria Cross as the highest award for gallantry in battle to be awarded regardless of rank.
• The commissioning of the great frescoes in the Royal Gallery in the Palace of Westminster.
• Contributing to the abolition of duelling and the final defeat of slavery.
• Designing Balmoral and Osborne House.

So when you are in London or Cambridge and you are looking for Albert’s influence “Si monumentum requires, circumspice”.

It all started with St Nicholas. He was from a wealthy family, became a Bishop in the 4^th Century and lived in Myra – today’s Turkey. He loved helping the poor. St Nicholas adventures began when he helped a man with three daughters who could not afford dowries in order to marry. One-night St Nicholas climbed up the roof of the man’s home and threw a sack filled with gold through his chimney. It landed in a stocking that was put there to dry.

This wonderful provision happened again when it came time for the second daughter to marry. Now the father wanted to know who was doing this and he set out to catch his benefactor. When it came time for his third daughter to marry, he caught St Nicholas in the act and the secret was out. From now on every secret gift was from St Nikolaus and he became the patron saint and later for sailors.  He died in exile on the 6^th of December 345 or 352.

In many countries throughout Europe children still celebrate St Nicholas by placing a boot outside their door or by the chimney on the eve of the 5^th December. In the morning they wake to find it filled with small presents nuts and oranges the next morning.

During the Reformation in the 16^th Century, St Nicholas like other saints became unpopular. But who shall bring the presents now?

In England they decided to use Father Christmas or Old Man Christmas, a figure based from the mystery plays of the middle ages.

In France it was Père Noel. In Germany and Austria it was the Christ child with blond curls and wings, and the Americanised pronunciation of this led to Kris Kringle in the 1840s.

So, what about Santa Claus then? Who is he? When the Dutch colonized much of New York before the American Revolution they brought their traditions with them, one of them was the idea of Sinterklaas, the Dutch word for St Nicholas. Again, the American pronunciation turned it into Santa Claus.

That brings us to the modern Santa Claus, the creation of which is contributed to two New Yorkers in the 19^th Century. In 1822 Clement Clarke Moore, a minister, wrote the now famous poem “Twas the night before Christmas.” In his poem, Santa flew through the sky in a sleigh with eight reindeer and brought gifts through the chimney.

But at that time he didn’t look like today’s Santa Claus. That happened a few years after the poem was published, when a German born cartoonist working for Harper’s Weekly, gave Santa Claus his grandfatherly looks with a big belly and white beard.

And no – the red and white costume has nothing to do with the influence of Coca-Cola, as many believe, but from the traditional clothing for Bishops which is red and white: So we come full circle to Bishop St Nicholas.