Christmas Traditions and Gift Ideas

The best Christmas I ever spent started like this: When I emptied my stocking, I had breakfast and began to think what I should do for the day. First of all we thought we would go and skate (for it was a lovely day, crisp and sunshiny) but when we got down to the lake it was lumpy so we could not skate. We came in after a good game of snowball and we had dinner. We had duck and turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes, turnips, mince pie and plum pudding, followed by candies, oranges and nuts, etc.

Then we thought we would spend the afternoon by going to visit a poor family where the mother was ill. We packed a basket with all kinds of food and we put some candies and toys and some fire-crackers in it for the little boys and girls; all of them were small. About one o’clock when everything was packed, dinner over, we put on our hats and coats and the team stood there in the double-seated sleigh and away we went taking with us our skates and the dogs running behind. I thought we might have some skating if the ice was good down there for it was a five mile drive and we thought they might not have had the same kind of a wind to make the ice lumpy, nor had any snow to freeze into it.

It was a beautiful drive and we were not a bit cold with robes to cover us and the bottom all covered with straw to keep our feet warm. We got there about half past two. When we went into the house there was a big fire but they had nothing to eat but a loaf of bread, because none of them were able to go to town and nobody passed that way. They brought the basket in and mother unpacked it. The mother was in a very poor condition and she had not had any food since morning. Mother gave her some of everything we had brought and we had a dandy time till supper playing games.

Before supper one of the boys went out to see the ice and said it was almost as clear as glass. After supper they hunted out their old skates and found enough for three and that was all that could go. There were six of us and three of them, so we made quite a crowd.

We went down there, and it was beautiful. We skated for about an hour in the moonlight and then went back to the house and on the way we sang a Christmas carol. We went to the house and warmed ourselves and then the boys got the team in the sleigh and we drove home and we never spent a jollier Christmas.

The year was 1918 when two young men hauled three loads of wheat into Brooks and then went shopping to purchase their Christmas supplies. At that time Brooks had a population of about 200 and two stores, both of which sold only practical merchandise. The farm population between Brooks and the Bow River, 30 miles south, consisted of only eight people.One of the young men had a wife and three children at home so he went looking for a Christmas tree. Since he and his family came from Minnesota, where there was a surplus of these trees, he was perplexed and upset when he could not find one. Eventually, he went to the CPR office to complain about the difficulty he was having trying to find a Christmas tree on the barren prairie, and to point out that he could not celebrate Christmas properly without one. In short, he accused the CPR of not looking after its settlers properly.The next morning the two men got up at 4:30, fed and harnessed their horses, ate a cold breakfast and started off for home without the coveted tree. Since it was a very cold morning, they walked beside their wagon to keep warm.About half way home, the man who had been looking for the tree jumped up on his wagon; then jumped off again just as quickly, shouting to his friend, “Why did you do it? Why did you do it?” The friend, not knowing what had happened, looked into the wagon and there on the bottom laid a beautiful four-foot green spruce.Proudly the father took the tree home to his family. But the reception the tree received from his wife and children was disconcerting, to say the least.

Here in the North-West, whose fertile leagues roll up even to the foot of the distant mountains that look down upon the western sea, will this Christmas - the first too many in the new land - be greeted with pathos, where sadness sifts in with hope? The look back to the dear old homes of rest so far away; the cherished and familiar firesides begirt for generations by forms twined in with fond remembrance, the household rites pertaining to the time; the holly and the mistletoe; the gathering of friends beneath the festal roof; the warmth, where kindred and neighbor ties found glad assurance. Hope should replume and gird herself anew, standing before memory clad in thoughts like these.

Yet as the land is goodly, so the men are strong. The sunshine of the day must wrap them in, however scattered, and to them, the stout forerunners of a future strength, goes out many a kindly thought upon this day when kindly thoughts abound. Here in our undoubted city, where the fated turkey trussed and ready for the spit is deaf alike to peal of bells or hum and hurry of the day; here where the destruction of all forms of toys goes on with tireless ardor by the over-caked and candy-ridden bands of boys, that quail not before uncounted pie, and rally freshly until astounded nature refuses to be rallied more; here at the “Gateway of the Plains” is food for all of fellowship high carnival, that would fain make tame the quaint and ruddy wish of old - to which we turn, extending to all - both far and near - a cordial Merry Christmas.

We venture to say that in no part of the Dominion, except in the extreme west was it possible to play cricket on Xmas Eve. And yet Major Cotton and others did play on that day, and all unite in saying that it was the most perfect cricketing weather.

Think of this, ye ice-bound people of Ontario and Quebec. Look out of your windows at the snow and ice piled up around you; just gaze on your solid rivers; wrap yourselves up warmly lest you freeze - and then rivet your attention on the land over which the Rocky Mountains look. Just picture to yourselves clear sunshiny days with the thermometer up in the fifties; no ice and snow to make one shiver and shake; the rivers running as if it were August; men wearing their summer clothes. Think of all this and weep. Lift up your voices and lament that you cannot live in God’s country, where the greatest stretch of winter weather is six weeks or two months, and sometimes there is none at all; where a cold day is seldom followed by another, and the farmers can plough in January and February. Frigid, arctic Ontario! Tropical North-West! What a contrast, and what an utter falling-to-pieces of the old time fallacy that the North-West was as near the North Pole as it was possible to get.

In 1925, the Farm and Ranch ‘Review had a contest to find out which readers could best describe how to make their own Christmas gifts. One of the winners, identified only as m.w., explained how an early winter had prevented her family from finishing the harvest, so money was in short supply. She presented the following suggestions for making C9hnstmas gifts.

With preparations for Christmas now only a matter of weeks away, the busy housekeeper turns her mind to gifts, which, this year, must of necessity be inexpensive, with so much of the grain unthreshed.

For making dainty and useful gifts, nothing will come in handier than sacks. Flour, sugar, cereal and salt sacks can all be sterilized. In the first place, to wash out the lettering, use Naptha soap and cold water. Afterwards, wash and iron like ordinary linens, and you have material for a surprising number of gifts.

A beautiful tablecloth can be made from four squares, put together with strips of colored cotton. Have the joining sections double so that all seams are inside. Put a double fold of the same material around the outer edges and both sides of the cloth will be the same. Any desired shade may be used. Delft blue is very pretty and durable.

A breakfast or tea cloth can be made from one square, blanket stitched around in red, blue or black, with a small pattern on one or more corners. A more elaborate cloth can be made with crocheted edge and four or six serviettes with the same edge to match.

Perhaps no tea towel gives more worthwhile service than the one made from a flour sack. For gifts, they can be embroidered in simple stitch with such patterns as cup and saucer, knife and spoon, glass or pitcher.

Hot dish holders are always acceptable. Small squares interlined with clean, soft, worn cloth, and stitched from corner to corner, or in squares, make very pretty holders. Bind or blanket stitch the edges, and put a ring, loop or eyelet in one corner to hang them up by.

The large sized sugar sacks are best adapted for dusters, as they are so soft. Hemmed nicely and marked “Duster” with red or blue chain stitch, they find a ready welcome from many a friend.

For the children, the small salt sacks make pretty handkerchiefs.

Plain hem the edges and put an initial, a flower or a figure in one corner, or use a simple, easy crocheted edge. Slightly larger squares hemmed and marked “Noon House,” or “Good Eats,” make attractive cloths to place inside the school lunch basket, pail or kit.

A few other suggestions for useful articles would be children’s underwear (bloomers or slips), rompers, aprons, caps, kitchen curtains for the shorter windows, cushions, doilies, buffet or dresser covers. Any or all of these might be enhanced with facings of gingham or chambray, leftover from the summer dresses.

If the supply of sacks is limited, a few yards of unbleached cotton, at a very reasonable cost, may be used with the material on hand for these attractive, useful hand-made gifts.

A mother with four school-aged children, Mrs. Leta R. Porter, wrote a number of poems which they could use as recitations at school Christmas concerts. The following one was written for our chubby young son. He got it off well and created a big laugh. Because of its success, Mrs. Porter decided to share it with readers of the Farm and ‘Ranch ‘Review in 1930.

Christmas Recitations

I’ll tell you a tale of a very small boy with an appetite large in proportion:

When Christmas time came he ate all he could hold, even ate to the state of distortion.

On turkey and pie and cranberry sauce,

on pudding and cake and much candy, With oranges, apples, popcorn and nuts, he stuffed on whatever came handy.

Now flesh has a limit; most folk will agree, though the spirit be ever so willing; ‘Twas really surprising how one little boy could hold such a lot at one filling.

The night came at last; his endurance ebbed fast; the feasting and merriment ended.

Then came a suggestion of punishing pains in a tummy too tightly distended.

“Oh, Gee!” sighed the boy, “It’s a whole year again, I must wait for what Santa will send me, And Mother, I’m tired; so put me to bed.

But whatever you do, don’t BEND me!”

Cranberry Sauce

This recipe, attributed to a Mrs. McLaren, comes from the High River Cook Book, published by the Ladies Aid of Chalmer’s Church in 1907.

• 1 ½ quarts of cranberries pressed through a colander,
• 1 ½ quarts of chopped onions,
• 2 lb. of brown sugar,
• 1 ½ tablespoonfuls of salt,
• ¼ cup vinegar,
• 1 tablespoonful each of ginger, cloves, allspice and cinnamon.
• Boil until thick.

Christmas Fig Cake

Mrs. W H. Todd’s recipe for fig cake also appeared in the High River Cook Book.

1 cup of butter creamed,

1 ½ cups of sugar,

1 cup of milk,

3 cups of flour,

3 level teaspoonfuls of baking powder sifted with flour (sift flour three times),

4 egg whites

Bake in two layers.

Add to the remainder the yolks of two eggs, ½ cup each of raisins and currants, a sprinkle of sliced citron, one grated nutmeg, one-half teaspoonful each of cinnamon and cloves, two tablespoonfuls of molasses and one-quarter of a cup of flour. Bake in a tin the same size as other layers and put together with the following fig filling: Chop one pound of figs, add one-half cup of sugar and one cup of water, stew until soft and smooth. Spread between layers and ice the top with chocolate icing.