A Moment in Time

"Snapshots of Christmas"

December 1996
By Pat Michaelis

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

Diaries and letters written at the time and reminiscences written about earlier experiences offer us a glimpse of Christmas as it was celebrated in years past. Many letters and diaries mention the holidays only sparingly, perhaps reflecting life on the frontier where dealing with life's basic necessities may have overshadowed the frills of a festive Christmas. However, most families, even those whose circumstances were meager, usually managed somehow to save, buy, or do something special to celebrate the holiday.

Julia Hand, who with her husband Burton were among the first settlers in Salt Creek Township of Reno County, wrote in her diary on December 25, 1872: "A lonely Christmas to us[.] No Santa Claus comes here. I pop some corn and boil some molasses candy for the babies." The following year, however, the family's condition had improved, as on Christmas Day, 1873, Mrs. Hand commented: "A Christmas without snow. Santa Claus gives me a set of dominoes and the boys find some candies[,] raisins and cookies in their socks. We go over to Mrs. Thompson[']s and take dinner."

Elam Bartholomew, an early Rooks County farmer who became internationally known for his research on fungi, records in his diary the social aspects of the holidays. Bartholomew wrote in 1877: "With wife and baby went up to neighbor J. A. Bailey's where we had a Christmas dinner and spent the time in social visiting and returned home at 5:30 P.M. Still later we attended the Rockport literary society and came home at midnight."

In the eastern part of the state, which was more established in the 1870s, a more traditional commemoration occurred. Harriet E. Adams, a physician in the 1920s, wrote of her Christmas as a seven-year-old in Marysville in the mid 1870s:

The Christmas which made the first lasting impression upon my mind, I think must have been the one following my seventh birthday. . . . [A]fter dark I would peep out of the window, or out of the door to consider anxiously whether all conditions were favorable . . . enough to support that wondrous reindeer drawn sleigh. . . . There was no chimney down which he [Santa] could slide safely . . . My concern on this matter finally reached such a pitch that I took it up with Mother. I told her my fears, and she said he would most certainly be able to leave his gifts, for when no large chimney was provided, the parents would leave the door open a crack at least, so he could push his way in with no difficulty whatever. . . . In children the sense of comparative values is largely undeveloped, and I doubt very much if children of the present day, with the profusion of toys now attainable, derive any more joy from their expensive array than did we, with the less expensive and simpler ones which Santa Claus gave us.

In 1936, Jennie Small Owen, a journalist and member of the Kansas Historical Society's staff, contacted acquaintances and noted Kansans about their Christmas traditions and those of ethnic groups in their communities. She was apparently hoping to gather sufficient information to write a newspaper article on ethnic Christmas traditions in Kansas, but the responses she received indicated that many of the foreign traditions had already been integrated into a more universal, American celebration. Some of the letters she received describe in detail Kansans' celebrations of Christmas in 1936.

Ruth Gagliardo, Lawrence, an authority on children's books, described her family's ritual:

What would you miss most about Christmas?

[From son David, almost 9]: ``I'd hate for us (the children) not to have our breakfast & stockings in bed Xmas morning. I'd be sad not to find a tangerine in my stocking. I'd hate for us not to dress all together in the bathroom and go tumbling and bumping down the stairs. I'd hate not to have someone run ahead to see if Santa's really gone and I wouldn't like for us not to leave the coffee and toast for Santa. And I like to find one thing I want very much under the tree.''

[From Bettina, age five:] "I like best the tree, and the presents--and mummy."

David's answer really covers the high spots. Breakfast in bed for the kinder while the house warms and turkey is being put in oven etc. so that helper and everyone can share the fun around the tree. . . . We've never let Xmas become a kind of orgy of getting at our house. We have tried to keep it simple.

The children don't get loads of things but they do have a happy time. Three of four weeks before Xmas, they begin making simple gifts--calendars, blotters, book marks (last year's cards!) pen wipers, needle books. This year, David is doing Indian beadwork. They make their own lists and their own decisions pretty largely with some little guidance of course. The two older ones have an allowance and David knows pretty well how to select and plan and what "he can afford." After all, a spool thought of and bought alone by a 5-year old is pretty nice. Our creche is put in the window in its background of pine a week before Christmas. To the usual figures, Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Wise Men & shepherds, the children have added other figures, each one of which means something to them--one of them a tiny Japanese kitten given me in 1900! The day the creche is put in place, the red candles go up in the 1st floor living rooms. Each evening after supper, we have a "candle lighting" and then always a carol singing. The favorite is still "Lorjie" (named by Bettina at 3 from "the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head!")

Our Christmas decorations each year are California greens sent us by a friend and these are put up Xmas eve by the godmother while the Daddy always trims the tree and the mother fills the stockings. The children are allowed to vote each year on whether they will help trim the tree of "be surprised." They always choose to be surprised. . . . No candy in stockings and very little after meals. That may sound awful but they're really happier. But you'd better not include this last. It would shock most people.

Christmas in Kansas has always been a time of sharing each other's gifts, hopes, and delights with family and friends, no matter what our individual circumstances. Some of these experiences are preserved in the collections of the Kansas Historical Society. For more information call the Library and Archives research room at 785-272-8681, ext. 117. The Kansas Historical Society is located at 6425 SW Sixth Avenue, Topeka, KS 66615; 785-272-8681; TTY 785-272-8683.