My family received hardly any Christmas cards compared to previous years, and many people I know say the same. That’s such a shame. Christmas is often the only time we hear from old friends or family far away. It’s a festive tradition that’s delivered joy for generations. Costs appear to be crushing this annual gesture of goodwill. Much play was made with the burdens of majesty heaped on the small shoulders of an inexperienced, unprotected girl. David Wilkie's painting The First Council of Queen Victoria, painted in 1837, contrasts the white-clad Victoria with the sombrely dressed, bewhiskered, elderly members of her government. The picture was inaccurate in several respects— Victoria was actually dressed in mourning for her uncle at the council on the first day of her reign—but the contrast between the masculine world of politics and the femininity of the queen was valid. It was not, however, Victoria's inexperience and fragility that impressed those present so much as her presence of mind, dignity, and courage. Fulford, Roger, ed. (1964), Dearest Child: Letters Between Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal, 1858–1861, London: Evans Brothers Potts, D. M.; Potts, W. T. W. (1995), Queen Victoria's Gene: Haemophilia and the Royal Family, Stroud: Alan Sutton, ISBN 0-7509-1199-9 By 1836, Victoria's maternal uncle Leopold, who had been King of the Belgians since 1831, hoped to marry her to Prince Albert, [23] the son of his brother Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Leopold arranged for Victoria's mother to invite her Coburg relatives to visit her in May 1836, with the purpose of introducing Victoria to Albert. [24] William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, second son of the Prince of Orange. [25] Victoria was aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes. [26] According to her diary, she enjoyed Albert's company from the beginning. After the visit she wrote, "[Albert] is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful." [27] Alexander, on the other hand, she described as "very plain". [28]

Benson, A. C.; Esher, Viscount, eds. (1907), The Letters of Queen Victoria: A Selection of Her Majesty's Correspondence Between the Years 1837 and 1861, London: John Murray Bolitho, Hector, ed. (1938), Letters of Queen Victoria from the Archives of the House of Brandenburg-Prussia, London: Thornton Butterworth Hibbert, Christopher (2000), Queen Victoria: A Personal History, London: HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-638843-4 At the end of her reign, the Queen's full style was: "Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India". [235] Honours British honours

Example from a letter written by lady-in-waiting Marie Mallet née Adeane, quoted in Hibbert, p. 471 Homans, Margaret; Munich, Adrienne, eds. (1997), Remaking Queen Victoria, Cambridge University Press

Harrison, Shane (15 April 2003), "Famine Queen row in Irish port", BBC News, archived from the original on 19 September 2019 , retrieved 29 March 2013 From the producers of Poldark and Endeavour, ITV’s Victoria follows the early years of the young Queen’s reign, based closely on Victoria’s own letters and journals. Now explore this extensive collection in greater depth, and discover who Victoria really was behind her upright public persona. Chris Kirkham, associate director of Hansons London, where the letterbox will be offered at auction, has said: Melbourne's support in the House of Commons weakened through the early years of Victoria's reign, and in the 1841 general election the Whigs were defeated. Peel became prime minister, and the ladies of the bedchamber most associated with the Whigs were replaced. [75] Earliest known photograph of the Queen, here with her eldest daughter, Princess Victoria, c. 1845 [76] Worsley, Lucy (2018), Queen Victoria – Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow, London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, ISBN 978-1-4736-5138-8For people who may write to each other almost daily for years or months at a time dates were important to keep everything straight. Signed, Sealed, Delivered Queen Victoria’s Royal post box with a festive card inside – which she used at Osborne House in East Cowes – has been found and is now being auctioned. An example of the Queen’s huge correspondence is that conducted with her eldest daughter, Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia, later German Empress, which is bound in no less than sixty volumes alone, selections of which were published by Sir Roger Fulford. The Queen wrote to Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia on average of about twice a week, but sometimes several times daily, for over forty years. This was in addition to a vigorous private correspondence (her letters to her uncle, Leopold I, King of the Belgians are a case in point) as well official communiques with her ministers, attending to her State Papers and of course, writing her journal.