Schoolchildren step into a Victorian Christmas

Children made a pomander - a decorative Victorian Christmas tree cone fashioned from oranges and cloves - and wrote cards using quills

Hundreds of pupils in Jersey have gone back in time to see how schoolchildren of the Victorian era celebrated Christmas.

The project, which involved 10 schools and 500 children, was organised by Jersey Museum's education team.

Children made a pomander - a decorative Victorian Christmas tree cone fashioned from oranges and cloves - and wrote cards using quills.

The pupils were also told about the festive habits of their Victorian ancestors and about key traditions, organisers said.

'Loving the smells'

Alice Honey, educational officer at Jersey Heritage, said: "We're looking at traditions we have nowadays that really date back to Victorian times - traditions like the Christmas tree, Christmas crackers and things like that.

"We've had lots of positive feedback.

"Lots of the children are loving the smells of the oranges and cloves... we're loving seeing how creative they are.

"As they are doing the tour of the house we've been in character a little bit and getting them to picture how different live might have been in Jersey all those years ago."