Radio Script #518

Little Talks on Common Things

December 24, 1961

In keeping with the custom observed on this program since it started fourteen years ago, tonight’s broadcast is devoted to the subject of Christmas. More than once I have told you that a hundred year.s ago Christmas was not observed as it is today.

In fact, 125 years ago in New England it was not observed at all, not even as a religious festival. I decided to examine old newspaper files in an attempt to discover when Christmas began to be not~d here in Waterville. I knew that in the 1850’s the stores were all open on Christmas Day, and all business from blacksmithing to wool carding was conducted as usual. The diary of William Bryant of Fairfield tells about several trips to Waterville for business on December 25 in various years, and he makes no mention of any Christmas celebration or Christmas gifts.

The diary of George Flood, founder of the Flood Fuel Company, was begun in 1860, when Flood was a senior at Colby. He continued it without a break until shortly before his death in 1892. Not until 1868 does that diary make any mention of Christmas, and not until 1870 does he tell about exchange of gifts in the Flood family.

I began to suspect that Christmas observance in Waterville was not common until after the Civil War. The Waterville Mail in its December issues of 1860 and 1861 carry many ads, but not one of them says a word about Christmas. But in the issue of December 27, 1861, when the Civil War had been going for eight months, I did encounter an interesting item. Here is what it said: “The tree at the Baptist Church on Christmas eve Was fruitful, not merely of a rich harvest of presents, but also affording a pleasant social and moral review for the whole audience. In the matter of ornamentation there was evidence of nice taste and much labor. Mr. Pepper, the pastor, introduced the festival with a few words of welcome, after Prof. Lyford made some pleasant and profitable remarks upon the origin and character of Christmas. There ·was good music by the choir and by a class of little girls, trained by Mrs. Pepper. The distribution of presents closed the good time — the first of the kind in this society. The audience was large, notwithstanding the neglect of Old Santa Claus to arouse his friend Morrell to clear the walks of snow. The snow plow was one of the Christmas things much missed on this occasion.”

Now that account contains one highly significant phrase. It calls the occasion “the first of the kind in this society”.

It was therefore the first Christmas tree party ever conducted at the Waterville Baptist Church. Was such a party put on in any year earlier than 1861 by any other Waterville church — Universalist, Congregationalist or Methodist? The Unitarians and others had not yet organized.in Waterville. If any of those churches did have a Christmas tree earlier than 1861, the Waterville Mail in 1860 and earlier was silent about it.

By 1869 Christmas had become accepted, but exchange of gifts had not yet become common enough to warrant any Christmas ads in the Waterville Mail. Its issues during December, 1869 contain more than a page of ads by thirty different advertisers, but not a single ad mentions Christmas. But in its issue of December 31, 1869 the Mail did give editorial attention to the day. It said: “If Christianity only kept up with Christmas in the race for public favor, what a hopeful condition the world would be approaching. A few years ago Christmas was hardly known beyond the large cities. Now it has reached the smallest school districts. Occasionally there is in some locality a step backward and observance of the day seems to have gone out of fashion. That is what happened in Waterville this year. Christmas does not need nor deserve to be celebrated with noise. But when the observance kindles love in the family and among friends, it lights a flame that may never go out.”

On December 29, 1871 the Mail devoted only two sentences to Christmas: “Christmas was a charming day — mild and pleasant, with fair sleighing, and was enjoyed by all. The entertainments in our village came off according to program and will doubtless be remembered with pleasure.”

That is all. Not a word about where or what those entertainments were.

Scant as was the news attention to Christmas in 1871, that year was notable as the first to see Christmas ads in a Waterville paper. Ira H. Low and Company, apothecaries, announced: “We have fancy goods suitable for holiday presents, consisting of mirrors, hair brushes, shaving brushes, buffalo horn combs, perfumeries and colognes, French oils, powders and toilet soaps. We also have a full line of thermometers.”

Another 1871 ad said: “Go to Hendrickson’s for holiday presents. Brilliantly illuminated books. A big assortment of juvenile books. An endless variety of children’s toys, including beautiful dolls. We have lots of knickknacks and notions. One door north of the post office.”

Alden Brothers said: “Christmas is coming. We have the best watches, silverware, gold pens and pencils.1t Another ad called attention to holiday gifts at Redington’s. Chandeliers, fancy lamps, vases, mustache cups, fruit dishes, hat trees, whatnots, and a line of children’ s sleds. Ten years later, in 1881, the ads were no longer a few inches of conventional type, much like the classified ads of today. For the Christmas season they burst into display, with large type headings and insertions, and some of them filled a quarter of a page in the Waterville Mail. In his store opposite the post office, E. L. Veazie announced a Christmas sale, saying he had the largest stock of staple and fancy cloth goods in town. He had shawls at all prices and blankets as cheap as §1.85. He declared: “Great inducements are offered in imported garments and black silks through the holiday.” C. A. Hendrickson announced the largest selection of holiday books ever brought to Waterville — more than 2,500 volumes. He also had fancy stationery, oil paintings and steel engravings.

It was that Hendrickson ad of 1881 that first mentioned Christmas cards in Waterville. It said simply: “Holiday cards in great variety.”

What were the goods especially suggested as Christmas presents in 1881? They were celluloid combs, metallic hair brushes, fancy cut glass bottles, puffs and boxes, pocket books and wallets, lung protectors and feather dusters.

A year earlier, in 1880, the Mail gave a clue as to how long Christmas had been observed at all in Waterville. It said: “Christmas eve was generally observed this year by the different religious societies. Special entertainments were held by the Congregationalist; Methodist, Unitarian and Baptist Sunday Schools, at their church vestries, where trees laden with presents for the children were displayed. Many presents were exchanged in families this year, more than at any time since the custom was established here about twenty years ago.” That statement would set the year 1860 as approximately the time when Waterville people began to observe Christmas.

That gifts at Christmas in New England were first restricted to children is shown by the first mention of Christmas that appeared in the pages of Zion’s Advocate, the Baptist religious weekly that was published in Maine for nearly a hundred years.

My examination of that paper from 1840 through 1858 reveals not a single mention of Christmas. But on December 23, 1859, just a year before Christmas first received attention in the Waterville Mail, the Advocate published the following editorial: “Each year our people are giving more attention to festivals and celebrations which in Europe are attendant upon Christmas and New Year. Let the little folks have a merry Christmas. Let the bonds of family affection be strengthened. We would, after the English fashion, have Christmas associated with pleasant memories of childhood. We need to introduce a lighter shade into the anxious, solemn texture of American character. But we must not lose sight of the religious aspect of Christmas, the gratitude we owe to God for His greatest gift to men. With gratitude for the past and hope for the future, let parents and children welcome the coming of Christmas.”

In December, 1860 the Waterville Mail had a paragraph headed “Firemen’s Christmas”. The use of that heading shows that attention to the day and the season was not unexpected in Waterville a year before the Civil War broke out. But the contents of the paragraph show that the event was the kind of gathering that could be held at any time of the year and had no specific relation to the Christmas season. Here is what the paragraph said: “Contrary to the common fashion among firemen, there is always a good time when the two fire companies of our village meet in a social way. So it was on the evening of December 20, when the two Waterville companies assembled in the hall of Ticonic No.1, on invitation of Mr. Blumenthal, for a special supper. Mr. Blumenthal was the occupant of the house partially burnt a few weeks ago on Silver Street. To manifest his gratitude to the firemen for their excellent work in saving part of the building, Mr. Blumenthal decided to give them an oyster supper. He found himself the host of 70 good-natured and hungry guests. After most of them had consumed three full bowls of stew apiece, speeches were made by leaders of the fire companies, and Mr. Blumenthal made fitting response. A more pleasant evening has never been enjoyed by Waterville firemen.”

One of the commonest of Christmas songs that is not a carol is:Jingle Bells” .2S many times as you have sung it, did you ever stop to consider its phrase tlone hor se open sleigh”? HOh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh”. I suspect not many of you ever saw a sleigh that was not an open sleigh. But closed sleighs did exist. A few doctors had them, with the enclosure constructed much like a top buggy. Some had curtain wind-breaks in front, with small isinglass windows and tiny holes for the reins, but most drivers preferred to brave the wind with no curtain, in order to have better visibility.

How many of you remember what was called the set-over sleigh? Most country roads, packed down with ~now by the old snow rollers, soon developed two parallel horse tracks made by the many double teams hauling logs and cord wood. When a single horse sleigh came along, the runners, of course, followed the same tracks as the big, two-horse sleds, but the horse had to make his way rig.ht between the two tracks pounded down by the sled-hauling pairs. So someone invented the set-over sleigh by which the whiffle-tree and shafts were set over to one side far enough to let the horse follow the right hand track made by the double teams, while the sleigh kept to the common track for all teams.

Used as we are to modern comforts of travel, I venture there are many of us older folk who would like again this Christmas to do as we did long ago — take a brisk ride behind a fast trotter, snugly tucked behind a buffalo robe in a one-horse open sleigh.

Year: 1961