Christmas at the Store

by Heather Blanton

Back in the 19^th Century, a mercantile was an essential store in more ways than you might think. Not only did it carry supplies as vital as coffee and bacon, it was often the social hub for smaller western towns. Christmas, then, was an exceedingly exciting and bustling time. The mercantile transformed into the best place to see neighbors and get “store bought” gifts.

Walk with me for a moment down the boardwalk to Boot & Co General Store. Christmas is just around the corner and the proprietor, Mr. Boot, is busy getting ready for the season!

You probably haven’t given it much thought, but most general stores are dirty, dark, and cluttered affairs. Customers track in mud ceaselessly. Stores often only have a few windows because they take up valuable shelf space. Patrons shop in gloom by the light of weak overhead lanterns or small, narrow windows. 

Christmas, then, is not only the excuse for purchasing more “frivolous” items, it allows the storekeepers to stock up on beautiful gifts that sparkle and shimmer, adding a festive air to the shelves.

Mr. Boot does keep a healthy supply of eggs, milk, butter, sugar, spices, and flour, the real essentials even for a remote mercantile like this one high in the Rockies. Christmas, though, means shimmer and shine, spit and polish. Decking the halls. Fa la la la la la la la.

Up ahead our dear proprietor is unloading a wagon of Christmas trees and leaning them up against his store front. The German tradition of dragging a tree into the parlor hit America around 1850 and now, 1877, is well-entrenched. Don’t you just love the smell of pine floating in the air?

What’s that sparkling in his display window? Let’s walk over.

Ah, Mr. Boot, ever the entrepreneur, has made sure to provide items with which to decorate the trees. He has traded out a used saddle and worn pair of jeans for a small Christmas tree bedecked with ornaments. Some hang from the window frame as well, from silk ribbons. Let’s step inside and take a closer look.

Ornaments on the tree are made of wax, cloth, ceramic, tin—why, Mr. Boot even ordered a few glass ones from Germany! Look at this one, a shimmering red ball, deeply fluted and reflecting warm oranges and yellows! And, oh, my!! A little wax angel with spun-glass wings. Around her, a dozen little ornaments cut from tin also adorn the tree. Shiny crosses, snowflakes, and puppies.

I step back and survey the display. Quite impressive. I know I’ll be leaving with a few new items for my tree.

Then you spy the bright pile of Oranges! We rush over and pick up the glowing, fragrant spheres. Mr. Boot doesn’t have many—only a dozen or so—and they will go quickly, but they smell heavenly. Oranges have become quite the popular Christmas gift during the Victorian era. Citrus fruits of any kind are expensive, and not widely available. I think I’ll buy one! Just one.

Next to them in a tin bread box, we see the Victorian sugar plums! Oh, I haven’t had any of these since I was a child back in Tennessee. Little confections made out of dried fruit balled-up and rolled in sugar—though they are more brown than purple. 

I turn to the store and am amazed at the work Mr. Boot has done in here. He’s added extra lanterns and lit more candles. He’s swept the floor. Along the far wall hangs a new saddle, keenly oiled and glistening in the flickering light. Beside it, all the Remington rifles glimmer, too, polished to perfection.

In the corner, two miners lean against the canned goods, discussing the latest news in town. Ginny and Dan will be moving on. Did you hear a bakery will be opening up soon? They nod at us, and motion for us to join the conversation.

You go, but I want to look at those ornaments again. Clutching my orange, I head back to the window, eager to pick out a few trinkets for my own little tree.

And to you, Gentle Reader, I wish a Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A Kiss under the Mistletoe

www.laurirobinson.blogspot.com

For my blog post today, I’d like to share a mistletoe kiss that will forever be one of my favorite Christmas memories. This is Hayley, our seven year old granddaughter, who, like most children her age, loves everything about Christmas. 

Shortly after Hayley arrived at our house last Friday evening, she asked me if Papa liked where the mistletoe was hanging. (She had offered her suggestions of where I should hang it several weeks before I’d even thought about putting out Christmas decorations, and was glad to see I’d put it where she’d suggested.) 

I had to be honest and tell her I didn’t think he’d noticed it. If I’d been thinking, I’d have grabbed my phone and recorded what happened next. 

She went over to Papa who was in a conversation with our son and had no idea of what was about to happen. With nothing more than the curl of a finger, she asked him to follow her. Without questioning, he followed her across the room. When she stopped and once again curled her finger for him to kneel  down, he did. 

She then kissed his cheek, but it was the sparkle in her eyes that made the moment so special when she then pointed up to the mistletoe hanging overhead and giggled.

My wish for all of you is that someone very special will lead you beneath the mistletoe this year.

Merry Christmas.

Lauri

Christmas on the Prairie

Every year at this time, my thoughts turn to the Christmas' portrayed in Little House On The Prairie.  Stores were miles away, and families took pride in handmade gifts.  I can picture Laura's face pressed against the foggy glass window of their shanty, looking out at the rapidly following snow.

In the corner of the house, always sat a small tree decorated with homemade objects like red berries and popcorn.  Imagine the time spent stringing those things.

Of course, stockings...real ones, not the fancy ones we use these days, were hung and that's usually where handmade scarves, hats, apples, oranges, or other treasures were placed.  There were no gayly decorated wrapping papers, so things to big to fit in the stocking, like a new shirt for pa, were wrapped in plain brown paper.  The real treats were the fancy supper fixins'.  

As you celebrate the holiday, think about how good you have it, and when you're buried in piles of colorful wrapping, think of Pa, Ma, Laura, Mary and Baby Grace.

Christmas Traditions

So many of the traditions we enjoy and embrace during the Christmas season come to us from the Victorians: kissing beneath the mistletoe, Santa, exchanging gifts, caroling, and giving to charity.  The Nativity has been celebrated since the 4th century.  In the beginning of our history as a nation, the Colonies were slow to embrace the idea of Christmas, because the celebration of a Father Christmas in his long fur trimmed robes was seen as a heathenish notion. However, by the Victorian Era, Father Christmas was widely embraced by the Americans.

The Victorian Christmas is a joyous occasion.  First and foremost, it is a religious holiday, but giving and family were important themes.  The Victorians began planning their presents many months ahead as most gifts were handmade.  Mufflers, embroidered handkerchiefs, bookmarks, pen wipers, and other useful gifts were lovingly stitched, glued, and colored for family members and friends through the fall and winter months.  Wrappings of colored paper, tissue, and cloth were chosen with ribbons to compliment.  The exchange of presents, of ancient origin, symbolized the good luck, prosperity, and happiness wished for friends. People exchanged remembrances with family and friends.  Children made their gifts as well. 

 

At Christmas time in the Victorian era the air is filled with the smells and sounds of the approaching holiday.  The scent of roasted chestnuts from street vendors wafts through the air, the sharp scent of evergreens draped around some doors, wreaths give a festive look to doors and windows.  Not all, but some Victorians (and even today) cling to the superstition that says you must not put up greens until Christmas eve.  On street corners, street musicians are singing traditional melodies.  Carolers stroll along, stopping to sing for people and selling a sheet of music. 

The Christmas tree has been a German tradition since as early as the 17th century, but many ancient civilizations held evergreens to be a symbol of life during the long winter months and decorated trees as a symbol of eternal life.  In 1841 Prince Albert, German husband of Queen Victoria, introduced the charming custom to the royal family.  In 1850 a tinted etching of a decorated tree at Windsor Castle was published and the Tannenbaum became a necessity for every fashionable Victorian home.  It was a tradition quickly embraced by Victorian England.  Live trees were set up for the Christmas season decorated with lighted candles, draped with tinsel, ribbon, paper chains, cookies and candies.  (I’m just shuddering with the thought of lit candles on a live tree.  I wonder how many fires started in just that manner.)

On Christmas Eve the last of the relatives arrive for the holidays.  Not only the immediate family, but aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, it was a holiday devoted to one of the most important aspects of Victorian times, the family.  In the afternoon, a long awaited event, the doors of the parlor open and the children finally get to see the glorious Christmas tree with its candles, tinsel, beautiful ornaments made of colorful scrap art, ribbons, baskets of candies hung from branches.  Ropes of popcorn and cranberries ring the tree.  Hung from branches are small wrapped gifts, and under the tree the larger ones.  Christmas Eve is the time for gift exchanges and everyone has a gift.  After the grand unwrapping, the children play with their toys, thoughtful handmade gifts are admired and the best gift of all is used, Papa’s gift to the family was sometimes a phonograph, a game, a sterioscope, or maybe one of the new magic lanterns with amazing pictures that enthralled the whole family.  Next came the program.  Everyone has a part.  Shy children mumble recitations and poems while older children and adults perform short plays and scenes from history.  Musical performances and group singing fills the house.  After, sleepy children are sent to bed as well as tired adults. 

Christmas day starts with a Christmas Mass or church service.  After a quick trip by some to the bakers to pick up the Christmas goose or other meat, a flurry of cooking takes place.  The Christmas dinner is resplendent with all manner of foods.  The meat being served depends on the area you live in.  Many rural houses have beef.  Chicken and goose is popular.  Turkey is popular in America, but not usually used for Christmas in England until in the late 19th century.  The Christmas pudding was mixed on Stir-up Sunday, the Sunday before Advent.  A Christmas pudding is made of beef, raisins, prunes and sugar all packed into a pudding cloth and dropped in the pot to cook, often with other food.  It is served, with great ceremony, with a coating of brandy set alite and a sprig of holly in the top.

After Christmas dinner, cleanup, and afternoon naps, the festivities continue with visits to friends.  Most shops are open.  It is unusual for any of the trades to take a day off.  Charity is an important part of the Christmas season: sharing with your fellow man.  The streets are filled people wassailing (going from house to house at Christmas time, singing carols and greeting people), the less fortunate going from door to door hoping for donations of food, drink, or money as they invite others to share a drink from their wooden bowls.  Families also walk door to door caroling to entertain their neighbors.

The custom of caroling is a purely English tradition which was quickly taken up by America.  In cities, the approaching holiday season was marked by strolling carolers, usually in groups of three, one caroler to play violin, one to sing, and one to sell sheet music.  Holiday shoppers would pause to purchase music, joining in the trio for a few stanzas, before hurrying homeward.  Carolers would stop at houses to sing, hoping to

be invited in for a warm drink.

  

Christmas decorations began appearing well before the holiday for many.  The favorite plants were the berried evergreens, mistletoe, holly and ivy.  During the Roman Solstice Ceremony known as “Saturnalia” holly was exchanged as it was believed the red berries would ward off lightning and evil spirits.  It had to be carried in the house by a male, as the berries are only on the male plant.  Ivy was twined in the holly as a symbol of the two halves of divinity.  Mistletoe was not allowed in churches because of its pagan origins.  In ancient times, Druid priests harvested it from sacred oaks on the fifth day after the new moon following the winter solstice.  Norse warriors who met under the mistletoe declared a truce for that day.  The Victorians used mistletoe suspended from the ceiling.  Those who met under it could claim a kiss.  The number of kisses allowed under each plant depended on the number of berries.  Each time a kiss was given, a berry was taken off.  No more berries, no more kisses!   

Although the Victorian idea of Christmas was not commercial, having more to do with food, and the exchange of handmade gifts, New York soon saw the commercial advantages of a holiday full of the exchange of gifts.  By the 1880s Macy’s department store’s windows were filled with wonderful dolls and toys from Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland.  Another window boasted scenes with steam driven moveable parts.  Homemade cornucopias of paper filled with fruit, nuts, candy, and popcorn were hung from branches of trees in America and England.  Beautiful shaped cookies were hung for treats on Christmas day.  Often the gifts were also wrapped and hung from branches.

With the growing popularity of Christmas trees manufacturers began producing ornaments around 1870.  Also popular were molded wax figures of angels and children.  Many ornaments were made of cotton-wool wrapped around an armature of metal or wood and trimmed with embossed paper faces, buttons, gold paper wings and “diamond dust”, actually powdered glass.

The first Christmas card, designed by J.C. Horsley, was sent by Henry Cole, who decided to send his many acquaintances something different from his usual Christmas letter.  They sold for one shilling each, and only one thousand copies were lithographed.  It depicted the charities of clothing and feeding the poor, with the middle section depicting a well-to-do family toasting to Christmas and the year ahead.  It proved to be a very popular idea.

Santa is a mixture of many different figures from many different cultures.  The Dutch St. Nick, England’s Father Christmas, and the German Kris Kringle.  In ancient times Norse and German people told stories of The Yule Elf who brought gifts during Solstice to those who left out offerings of porridge.  When Clemment Moore’s poem “The Night Before Christmas” became enormously popular, the “Jolly old elf” was adopted as the ideal Santa.  Years later Thomas Nast illustrated him as a round-bellied whiskered figure in tight red leggings and coat.  Coca-Cola’s popular advertising changed the concept of Santa to a cheerful full bearded man with the now popular red suit, black boots and wide belt.

Our Christmas celebrations owe much to the Victorians.  What’s your favorite Christmas tradition?   

The Spirit of Christmas

The Spirit of Christmas

by Kathleen Ball

I've been disheartened as of late by all the sad posts on Facebook. A few said their Christmas joy had been striped from them. My heart hurts for them. 

Christmas is a time of year we are told is the happiest time of the year. It's a bad time for those who struggle financially, emotionally and feel as though their wold is upside down. I wish I had words of wisdom to help. 

Being kind to one another is a start. Smile at someone you don't know. I'm always surprised by how many smile back. Open the door for someone, or wave to your neighbor when you see them. There are many ways to be kind without spending a penny. 

I'm not sure why kindness isn't a natural thing for many. An act of kindness can make someone's day. I was taught to be kind, helpful and understanding. My mother was all these things. My dad always helped others. 

Social media has highlighted for me just how mean people can be. I don't understand why? I never feel better being mean. I always feel awful- but that's me.

To me the Spirit of Christmas is inside each of us if we can find it. It's the little things for me. Today the sun is shining and I'm grateful. My life isn't always full of sunshine and good times. I know what it's like to miss a loved one at the holidays. I know what it's like to count your pennies to see if you can afford a good gift.

I never used to understand the saying it's better to give than receive. I've had times where I have given and gotten nothing in return. I'm grateful I'm in a place this year where I truly understand why it's better to give than receive. It makes my heart sing. 

I wrote my Christmas book in August and at first it was hard to get into the Christmas feeling. When it's over 100 degrees outside it's a very difficult thing. Then I remembered where the spirit of Christmas could be found. To me it's the wonder and joy in a child's eyes when they are awed by the the little things in life. It's the same joy I remember as a child. I grabbed a hold of the joyous feeling and wrote. 

Be a giver not a taker and be kind!

Poor Boy's Christmas

Mail Order Brides of Texas

Plus

The Greatest Gift

ONLY 99 cents

Get your Copy!!

Poor Boy's Christmas
It’s Christmas in Asherville, Texas and Poor Boy finally comes home. He’s no longer the waif we grew to love; he is very much a man now. As the stage coach approaches his beloved town he spots Sheriff Shane O’Conner riding off after a pair of bank robbers. Poor Boy, the new deputy quickly finds a horse and races after them. One of the robbers is killed and to his surprise the other outlaw is a beautiful young woman. 

Molly McDonagh is heartbroken, the last of her family is dead. Now she’s in jail waiting to hang. Bounty hunters soon come to see if she is another wanted female outlaw and Shane decides Poor Boy needs to take his prisoner to a ranch where they can hide out as brother and sister.

How can something as sweet and wonderful as love be so very painful? Loving someone you know is going to swing from a rope is agony. Poor Boy knows Christmas is a time for miracles but he’s never experienced one before. Can he truly give away his heart to someone who has no future? Can living for the moment be uplifting or is it sheer heartbreak? 

The Greatest Gift
Upon hearing screams, handsome rancher, Foster O’Donnell races to his barn and finds a stranger giving birth. When he tells her his name, she screams he can’t be Foster O’Donnell. Foster O’Donnell is the father of her baby. Can Christmas change their mutual distrust? Will Foster and Ginger find The Greatest Gift?

 Available on amazon

Memories That Last Like Horehound Candy By Deborah Camp

Will the youngsters I know today have rich, heart-tugging memories of their Christmases past? I wonder.

Personally, the holiday memory clearest in my mind is when my parents illustrated that asking for a wristwatch at Christmas was a bit extravagant on my part. “Watches are expensive,” they told me, numerous times.

On Christmas I could hardly wait to open a long, rectangle box, knowing that it would be my very first wristwatch. Inside was a watch band. No watch. Just the band. Mother explained, “Maybe we can afford the watch next year. For now, we got you a band.”

Being a brave soldier, I held back tears, nodded, and told them I understood. Suddenly, Daddy said, “Okay, we’ve teased her enough.” Then he presented another wrapped gift. Inside this one was the watch that went with the band. I broke out in happy sobs. It was their way of teasing and teaching. They were making sure I treasured that watch because it was more money than they’d anticipated spending. I had that watch for years and years; lesson learned.

My parents told me of their treasured gifts as children, so vastly different from mine. An orange or apple along with a few pecans and a stick of horehound candy stuck into a sock – this was what delighted them and fueled their Christmas memories.

So, what memories will the youngsters I know have on which to reflect? Ski trips to luxury resorts where the room service was sub-standard? Only a dozen presents under the tree this year when last year they counted 15? When they had to spend the entire Christmas Day with their family instead of at the movies or mall with their friends?

A couple of years ago, I helped dish out turkey and dressing to the homeless on Thanksgiving Day and I had my eyes opened to how many children wander the streets with their moms and dads. Their Christmas memories align more closely with those of my parents. I saw their eyes light up when I mounded food onto their plates and I wondered if that same expression of wonder and gratitude could be witnessed on other children’s faces when they opened the tenth or eleventh gift on Christmas? I doubt it. Seriously, doubt it. Most of those gifts would be appreciated briefly and quickly forgotten.

Not like that stick of horehound candy received by my mother and father way back when. That stick cost a whole penny and it lasted for days – weeks! A penny well earned, well spent, and well appreciated. Plus, a memory to be passed down like a family heirloom that grows more valuable with time.

Deborah’s latest western romance is SOLITARY HORSEMAN, available on Amazon. You can find a complete list of her novels on her website, www.deborah-camp.com.

***Solitary Horseman is available for purchase at Amazon:

www.amazon.com/dp/B01HFCC2UQ