By Kristy McCaffrey
A Christmas filled with cowboys inevitably evokes images of
the Old West. Back then, the holidays were celebrated much as they are today,
with holiday decorations, Santa Claus, presents, and a Christmas feast. I
thought I would share some historical recollections directly from the pioneers
themselves.
In 1884, Mrs. George C. Wolffarth of Estacado, Texas, reflected,
“Christmas day was warm and beautiful and we had a watermelon feast on the
church house lawn. Isiah Cox … had stored the melons in his cellar and they
were in fine condition for the Christmas feast.”
“Now, you really must hear about my Christmas dinner!” began
Evelyn Hertslet of Lake County, California, in 1885. Her holiday meal was
filled with items from her native England. “The plum-pudding and mince-pies
were all that could be desired, and we had also tipsy cake, Victoria
sandwiches, meringues, and dessert ….”
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| Plum pudding |
In 1849, Catherine Haun wrote, “Although very tired of tent
life many of us spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in our canvas houses. I do not
remember ever having had happier holiday times. For Christmas we had grizzly
bear steak for which we paid $2.50, one cabbage for $1.00 and oh horrors, some
more dried apples! And for a Christmas present the Sacramento River rose very
high and flooded the whole town!”
Elizabeth Le Breton Gunn, who was living in Sonora,
California, in 1851, wrote this letter:
“Yesterday was Christmas Day …. We filled the stockings on
Christmas Eve …. The children filled theirs. They put in wafers, pens,
toothbrushes, potatoes, and gingerbread, and a little medicine …. They received
cake and candies, nuts and raisins, a few pieces of gold and a little money,
and, instead of books, some letters. Their father and I each wrote them
letters, and better than all and quite unexpected, they found yours, and were
delighted. In my stocking were a toothbrush and a nailbrush (the latter I
wanted very much) and some cakes and a letter from Lewis …. We had a nice roast
of pork, and I made a plum pudding. Mr. Christman gave the children some very
nice presents; each of the boys a pearl handled knife with three blades, Sarah
a very pretty box, and Lizzie a pair of scissors, and each a paper of
macaroons.”
Englishman William Redmond Kelly visited California in
1849-50. He celebrated Christmas at a mining camp near Middle Creek. “Our
dinner-table was quite a spectacle in its way in the diggings … its bear meat,
venison, and bacon, its apple-pies pleasingly distributed, its Gothic columns
of plain and fancy breads … the plum-pudding alone being reserved for [a]
second course …”
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| Vinegar pie |
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote of the preparations for Christmas
on the Kansas Prairie: “Ma was busy all day long, cooking good things for
Christmas. She baked salt-rising bread and r’n’Injun bread, and Swedish
crackers, and huge pan of baked beans, with salt pork and molasses. She baked
vinegar pies and dried-apple pies, and filled a big jar with cookies, and she
let Laura and Mary lick the cake spoon.” That Christmas, Laura received a shiny
new tin cup, a peppermint candy, a heart-shaped cake, and a brand new penny in
her stocking.
Wishing you and your family a blessed holiday season.
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Upon reading the joy of these families over meals that, to them, were filled with splendor and delicious goodness even in their simplicity, I realized how spoiled we've become in these modern times. Children once so happy with a pair of scissors or a pocket knife in their stockings would be agog at the overload of expensive presents we give our children and the extravagant meals we serve at the Christmas dinner today.
ReplyDeleteAn eye-opening post, Kristy. Thank you!
True. But it's about the spirit of Christmas and I think much of that is still alive today.
DeleteIt's remarkable how people celebrated in the same spirit we do today. Such variety too from grizzly steaks to pork roast and despite living conditions, there was still an effort made to celebrate! I can't imagination doing all that baking and cooking without modern conveniences. Thanks for sharing these passages.
ReplyDeleteIt makes you realize how important traditions are to people.
DeleteMy mom and I were just talking about what we got in our Christmas stockings as children. She received very much the same as what she *ahem* Santa, put in my stocking - hard candy, one each of pear, orange, and apple, small trinkets such as a new brush and comb, hand mirror, nuts in shells, orange slice candy, salted peanuts in shells,chocolates, new pocket knife, ammunition for our rifles/shotguns, leather gloves and so forth. By the time Santa filled my children's stockings, the nuts and fruit weren't included and other items, such as concert tickets to New Kids on the Block (ugh!), Bon Jovie, etc replaced them. Vinegar pie is one of my favorites. ;-)
ReplyDeleteTimes have changed lol. I've never had vingegar pie. What does it taste like?
DeleteThese memories are so special. I'm thrilled you found and shared them. We sometimes forget how it was the little things that made the day special for our ancestors. Thank you. Doris
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays, Doris.
DeleteThanks for posting this. It's great to see how people celebrated and turned out impressive meals even in tents and cabins so much is still very familiar to us today. Not sure I fancy a grizzly steak though!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! So interesting . . . .
ReplyDelete