Twas the Night Before Christmas

By Patricia Michaelis, for Hers Kansas

As the holidays approach, family members often reminisce about their childhood memories of holidays. Those of us growing up in middle class homes in the 1950s and later often remember hectic schedules, long wish lists, and holiday travels to visit grandparents. However, holiday celebrations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Kansas were often simple but some Christmas traditions-trees, Santa Claus, and "The Night Before Christmas"-endure. These accounts from diaries and reminiscences provide a view of holiday celebrations from the past.

Nellie Thomas Goss provided this remembrance of Christmas for the Lilla Day Monroe Collection of Pioneer Women Stories. Her family settled in Morris County, Kansas, in 1871.

Christmas was a glad time for us, we were happy when it came and sorry when gone. In the late fall would come a barrel of canned fruits, preserves, jelly and the cans packed in dried apples, quinces, peaches, pears, and cling peaches dried with the pits in them, and the contents were kept from us children and on Xmas eve we would hang up our stockings and in them was placed some of each kind of the dried fruits.

In the barrel was also packed a pail of sorghum molasses for Mother to make Xmas taffy and gingersnaps. Grandma did some handwork out of pretty flannel scraps, that was tucked in the barrel, mad little flannel mittens and bound them with wool braid, ear muffs for the little boys, rug dolls, and little quilts, etc., that was real Xmas.

One of the bleakest accounts comes from the diary of Julia Hand. She moved to Kansas from northeast Missouri in 1872 with her husband Burton and small children. Her diary entries for the days before Christmas set the stage for December 25.

December 23, Mon. A cold windy blustering day. We can scarcely keep warm with our feet in the oven. Burt goes to town to get feed for Kate and Cain [horses] as we fear they will die too. I worry all day for fear he will freeze but he returns safe. I get one sack of chips [cow or buffalo for fuel], get very cold. I also wash a little.

Tues. 24 Fair Cold. We still hover near the fire. Burt gets chips and melts snow for the stock. Fred is down.

Wed. 25 Fair Cold. A lonely Christmas to us No Santa Clause comes here. I pop some corn and boil some molasses candy for the babies.

Harriet Adams reminisced about Christmas in the 1870s in her contribution to the Pioneer Women Stories collected by Mrs. Monroe in the 1920s. She wrote how her older sister Zu read to the younger children in the family and how one publication had "a fascinating picture of a jolly, white bearded old man with a sleigh and reindeer and oh! the undescribable delight of that little group as Zu read, T'was the night before Christmas, and all through house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Harriet continued that the description of the moon stuck in her mind and after dark, she would look out the window to see if weather conditions were favorable to support the sleigh. She described how she was worried that Santa Claus could not enter their house, as they had no chimney large enough. She finally voiced her fears to her mother and was assured that "the parents would leave the door open a crack" so Santa could enter safely.

She then described activities involved in getting the Christmas tree and the ritual of Christmas Day.

No Christmas is ever quite complete without a tree and candles, and we little folk saw all the preparation of the tree. We were living but a short distance from the Little Blue River, and on the bluff nearest our home, was a scattering growth of cedars. Father took us with him as he carried an axe and selected the tree, which he cut and big brother helped carry it home. Then Father set it up securely in the center of the living room, and found pieces of tin and made the candle holders, and fastened them to the tree. When that much was accomplished, it was time for the little folk to get to bed, for under no consideration would it be good form for any of the children to be awake when Santa should arrive.

Christmas morning we were awake early, but it was an inviolate rule that the tree could not be seen until after breakfast was eaten. So we hurried through a perfunctory meal, then lined up outside the living room door, the least child ready to lead the grand march, while Father and Mother went in to remove the sheet with which it had been necessary to cover the tree to protect it from prying eyes, and to light the candles. When the door was opened we marched in and clear around the tree, taking in the beauty of the lighted candles, and the tree festooned with strings of cranberries and popcorn and gay colored ribbons, while we looked for the gifts hidden in the branches and protruding from our stockings. Then there was the most delightful odor of scorching cedar, and Father would keep walking around and around the tree smothering every smoking stem and keeping the candles burning safely, while he and Mother distributed the gifts which Santa Clause had brought. I was blissfully happy. . . .

As the holidays approach, it is important to share memories of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas with younger family members and highlight those traditions that continue from generation to generation.