<\/p>\n
When we note the great attention given to Christmas in 1965, and enormous sums of money expended for gifts, the almost complete secularization of what was once a sacred day, it is difficult for us to believe that little note was made of Christmas in Central Maine a hundred years ago; and 125 years ago it was not observed at all in this locality.<\/p>\n
If you will examine old files of the Waterville Mail for the month of December in 1860 and 1861, you will find many ads inserted by local merchants, but not one of those ads makes any reference to Christmas. We do know, however, that gifts, especially to children, had taken some hold in the Maine communities as early as the opening year of the Civil War. In its issue of December 31, 1861 the Mail carried an account of a party at Waterville’s First Baptist Church on Christmas Eve. At that time the pastor was a young man in his first pastorate, who would later be President of Colby College, George Dana Boardman Pepper. In a few months he would take leave from his pastorate to serve as a chaplain in the Union Army, but on that Christmas Eve in 1861 he was entering into the spirit of the holiday. The newspaper account said: “Mr. Pepper, the pastor, introduced the festival with a few words of welcome, after which 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.”<\/p>\n
That last phrase reveals the novelty of church parties at Christmas time. That occasion in 1861 was the first social observance of Christmas at Waterville’s First Baptist Church. If any similar observance was made earlier in the other Waterville churches — Universalist, Congregationalist or Methodist — the Waterville Mail failed to mention it.<\/p>\n
By the end of the decade in 1869, nearly five years after the Civil War was over, observance of Christmas had become pretty well accepted, but business and industry had not yet made any attempt to commercialize the day. In its issues that came off the press during December, 1869 the Waterville Mail contained ads by more than thirty different merchants, but not a single ad mentioned Christmas.<\/p>\n
In its final issue of the year, however, a week after Christmas Day, the Mail did give editorial recognition to the festival. It said: “If Christianity only kept up with Christmas in the race for public favor, what a wonderful 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. Christmas does not need to be celebrated with noise. Like Christianity, Christmas is not less fruitful when it is not noisy. But when the observance kindles love in the family and among friends, it lights a flame that may never go out.”<\/p>\n
The first Christmas ads I was able to find in any Waterville newspaper appeared in 1871. Ira H. Low, the druggist, 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, soap. We also have a full line of thermometers.” C. A. Hendrickson, who sold books and stationery in his Main Street store, advertised: “Go to Hendrickson’s for holiday presents. Brilliantly illuminated books. A big assortment of children’s toys, including beautiful dolls. We have lots of knickknacks and notions. One door north of the post office.”<\/p>\n
There is a date we can pin down. It was the Christmas season of 1871 — 94 years ago — when dolls were first advertised as Christmas gifts for little girls in Waterville.<\/p>\n
For that 1871 Christmas nearly every Waterville merchant was getting into the act. A prominent local jewelry store was then operated by Alden Brothers. Their ad said: “Christmas is coming. We have the best watches, silverware, gold pens and pencils.”<\/p>\n
Charles Redington had by that time become well known for his house furnishings. He too advertised for the Christmas trade in 1871 a variety of items: chandeliers, fancy lamps, vases, mustache cups, fruit dishes, hat trees, whatnots and children’s sleds.<\/p>\n
Why was festive recognition of Christmas so long coming to Central Maine? It was because it took a long time for it to get a hold anywhere in New England. The Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth and the Puritans who founded Boston were alike dissenters from the established Church of England. They differed in how far they should depart from the state church, separate completely or only reform it, but they equally detested the gay, festive occasions which the church sanctioned. One of the gayest of those occasions was Christmas, with its decorations of greenery and its halls of ivy, its Yule log and its flowing punch bowl, its lighted tree, and its carol singers. The Puritans would have no truck with such festivity. Christmas should be observed only in church, and only as the culminating event in the sacred season of Advent.<\/p>\n
In early New England Christmas was therefore not merely frowned upon; its festive observance was forbidden by law, just as was the maypole at Merry Mount. Life to the Puritan was sober business. One’s span on earth was too short for laughter and gaiety.<\/p>\n
As the Waterville Mail pOinted out, at the time of the Civil War Christmas was hardly known outside the large cities. I can assure you that fact is borne out in the old diaries. I have several times mentioned on this program the complete lack of any reference to Christmas festivity in the diaries of the early 19th century.<\/p>\n
Some of those journals, like that of Hezekiah Prince of Thomaston, do mention the day. Often the diary entry will begin, “December 25 — Chri stmas Day”. Then will follow an account of what the writer did on that day, revealing that in our Maine towns Christmas was not a holiday, business went on as usual, schools were in session and even the churches gave the specific day, December 25, no special observance, though recognition of the Savior’s birth did playa part in the Advent season’s sermons on December Sundays.<\/p>\n
By 1870, as I have indicated, the change had come. Before me lies a diary written by Frank Stimpson of East Winthrop. Stimpson began the journal on his 19th birthday, in October, 1872. Although only two years from adulthood, he was, believe it or not, still going to the district school. I assure you, in the ‘1870’s that was not at all unusual. Many boys, from the time they were big enough to do substantial farm work, went to school only one term a year, in the winter. They were needed on the farm at other seasons of the year. The presence of older boys in the district schools in the winter term explains the frequent reference in the old district records to male schools, meaning schools taught by men teachers. Women were considered capable of controlling the little kids in the warmer terms, but the town fathers demanded that men be in charge when those 19 and 20 year olds were attending.<\/p>\n
On the day before Christmas in 1872 Frank Stimpson wrote in his diary: “Some mischievous boys had hung a bell under the schoolhouse so that it could be rung by a string coming up through the floor. The master tried in vain to discover the source of the disturbance. ”<\/p>\n
The next day was Christmas, and this is how Stimpson recorded it: “Very cold this morning, twenty below zero. Had a necktie for Christmas present. Father went to Augusta on the stage tonight. I gave Rilla a penknife. In the evening Virgil and Charlie Jackson, George Mace, Charles Vose and I went to Manchester, thinking there was a dance at the town hall there, but there was none. So we came back to Mr. Jackson’s and amused ourselves.”<\/p>\n
The next day, December 26, Stimpson tells us there was a Christmas tree in the schoolhouse, and at an evening gathering there, gifts were exchanged. As Stimpson put it: “I gave and received a few presents of candy, etc.”<\/p>\n
A year later in 1873 this ;s what Frank Stimpson wrote in his diary on Christmas Day: “Went up to Mr. Jackson’s this forenoon and stayed there all day and evening. Took dinner and supper there. Virgil Jackson and I played Seven Up against Sam Jackson and Everett Leavitt. They led us one game when we closed. After Everett went home, Virgil, Sam and I played Seven Up and pitched the trump each time.”<\/p>\n
Now notice what Stimpson had to say about Christmas presents: “I had a present of a lead pencil. It was hung on a tree at Mr. Jackson’s.”<\/p>\n
In an editorial printed in 1880 the Waterville Mail gave a clue as to how long Christmas had been observed in the community. It said: “Christmas 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 20 years ago. That statement would fix the year 1860 as approximately the time when Waterville people began to observe Christmas.<\/p>\n
Gifts at Christmas time were first restricted to children. That is shown by the first mention of Christmas in “Zion’s Advocate”, the Baptist weekly published in Maine for a hundred years. During the years 1840 to 1858 that paper contained not a single mention of Christmas. Then on December 23, 1859 the Advocate had this to say:<\/p>\n
“Each year our people are giving more attention to festivals and celebrations which in Europe are attendant upon Christmas. Let the little folks have a merry Yuletide. Let the bonds of family affection be strengthened at this time. We would, indeed, 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.”<\/p>\n
Not all of the songs of Christmastime are carols. One of the commonest that is not a carol is “Jingle Bells”. Think of the number of people now over 50 years old who never heard the sound of sleigh bells, who never had the thrill of riding behind a fast trotter over hard-packed snow.<\/p>\n
Of course our ancestors couldn’t drive down to Portland for Christmas dinner and be back in Waterville for Christmas supper, because they had never seen or heard of an automobile. But I must confess some of us old fogies have occasional pangs of nostalgia. Once again we should like to take a fast ride over snow-rolled roads, snugly tucked away in a buffalo robe, listening delightedly to the jingle bells of a one-horse open sleigh.<\/p>\n
Year: 1966<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #672, Broadcast on December 26, 1965<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[792,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}