I grew up in a city - Minneapolis - an only child living in an apartment with my folks. I remember trudging along snowy aisles between rows of Christmas trees at the lot down the street, my toes and fingers freezing in temps that sometimes dropped to minus 10 or 20 degrees. We never chose a very big tree because we didn't have much room in our living room. Later, when I was in my teens, the folks bought a shiny aluminum tree. Remember those? They placed it on my mom's cedar chest and set an electric wheel thingy nearby that turned, casting bright colors on the tree. I thought it was pretty cool back then. But so fake!
Now, compare that to what a Christmas tree looked like in a settler's cabin, if they had one. Remember, trees were scarce on the prairies. In those regions, a few leafy boughs might have to suffice. But if the settler dad did manage to find and cut down a tree, and drag it into his family's small, crowded shelter, it would probably be decorated with bits of ribbon, yarn, berries, popcorn or paper chains. There might also be homemade decorations such as figures made of straw or yarn, cookie dough ornaments or gingerbread men.
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| Old-fashioned Christmas; wikipedia, public domain |
Underneath the tree you’d see
homemade gifts like corn husk dolls, sachets, carved wooden toys, pillows,
footstools, and embroidered hankies. Members of the family might have worked on some
of these gifts for months ahead of Christmas. Others knitted scarves, hats,
mittens and socks. If the year had been good, the children might find
candies, small gifts, cookies, fruit or shiny new coins in their stockings.
Christmas Eve would generally find
most families singing carols around the tree or fireplace. Children undoubtedly went to bed dreaming of what gifts they would find under the tree come morning. Did they believe in Santa Claus? Perhaps. Santa was part of holiday traditions in the eastern U.S. by then, but whether he'd made it into Christmas lore on the western frontier is debatable.
On Christmas Day, if there was a
church within a reasonable distance, the family would attend services. Then
they’d return home for the Christmas meal, which might feature venison stew, deer chili, and canned homegrown veggies. For those who could afford it, they might have beef or ham.
Some possible desserts were molasses cookies, vinegar pie or dried apple pie.
In pioneer days, Christmas was a
lonely time for many a mountain man, explorer, or lone cowboy. This was often
true for settlers as well, cut off from family and friends “back home.” No
different, really, from this year when many of us will forego traditional family
gatherings for fear of catching the covid virus. Let's hope and pray that 2021 will be a much kinder year.
