The Family Tree for You Xmas 2009

8/9/2019 The Family Tree for You Xmas 2009

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The Family Tree For YouGroup

Christmas Edition

Hi AllAnother year has flown past again my goodness doesnt timego quick this newsletter we are going to make it a VictorianChristmas one for you plus a variety of things

MERRY CHRISTMASTO ALL ON THE

GROUPAND SEE YOU NEXT


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A Victorian Christmas

For thousands of years people around the world have enjoyed

midwinter festivals. With the arrival of Christianity, pagan festivals

became mixed with Christmas celebrations. One of the leftovers from

these pagan days is the custom of bedecking houses and churcheswith evergreen plants like mistletoe, holly and ivy. Apparently, as

well as their magical connection in protecting us from evil spirits,

they also encourage the return of spring.

No era in history however, has influenced the way in which we

celebrate Christmas, quite as much as the Victorians.

Before Victoria s reign started in 1837 nobody in Britain had heard

of Santa Claus or Christmas Crackers. No Christmas cards were sent

and most people did not have holidays from work. The wealth and


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technologies generated by the industrial revolution of the Victorian

era changed the face of Christmas forever. Sentimental do-gooders

like Charles Dickens wrote books like "Christmas Carol", published

in 1843, which actually encouraged rich Victorians to redistribute

their wealth by giving money and gifts to the poor - Humbug! Theseradical middle class ideals eventually spread to the not-quite-so-poor

as well.

The holidays - The wealth generated by the new factories and

industries of the Victorian age allowed middle class families in

England and Wales to take time off work and celebrate over two

days, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Boxing Day, December 26th,

earned its name as the day servants and working people opened the

boxes in which they had collected gifts of money from the "rich folk".

Those new fangled inventions, the railways allowed the country folk

who had moved into the towns and cities in search of work to return

home for a family Christmas.

The Scots have always preferred to postpone the celebrations for a

few days to welcome in the New Year, in the style that is Hogmanay.

Christmas Day itself did not become a holiday in Scotland until many

years after Victoria's reign and it has only been within the last 20-30

years that this has been extended to include Boxing Day.

The Gifts - At the start of Victoria's reign, children's toys tended to

be handmade and hence expensive, generally restricting availability

to those "rich folk" again. With factories however came mass

production, which brought with it games, dolls, books and clockwork

toys all at a more affordable price. Affordable that is a to middle

class child. In a "poor child's" Christmas stocking, which first

became popular from around 1870, only an apple, orange and a few

nuts could be found.

Father Christmas / Santa Claus - Normally associated with the

bringer of the above gifts, is Father Christmas or Santa Claus. The

two are in fact two entirely separate stories. Father Christmas was

originally part of an old English midwinter festival, normally dressed

in green, a sign of the returning spring. The stories of St. Nicholas

(Sinter Klaus in Holland) came via Dutch settlers to America in the

17th Century. From the 1870's Sinter Klass became known in Britain

as Santa Claus and with him came his unique gift and toy

distribution system - reindeer and sleigh.


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Turkey Time - Turkeys had been brought to

Britain from America hundreds of years before

Victorian times. When Victoria first came

to the throne however, both chicken and turkey were too expensive

for most people to enjoy. In northern England roast beef was the

traditional fare for Christmas dinner while in London and the south,goose was favourite. Many poor people made do with rabbit. On the

other hand, the Christmas Day menu for Queen Victoria and family

in 1840 included both beef and of course a royal roast swan or two.

By the end of the century most people feasted on turkey for their

Christmas dinner. The great journey to London started for the

turkey sometime in October. Feet clad in fashionable but

hardwearing leather the unsuspecting birds would have set out on

the 80-mile hike from the Norfolk farms. Arriving obviously a little

tired and on the scrawny side they must have thought Londonhospitality unbeatable as they feasted and fattened on the last few

weeks before Christmas!

Christmas Cards - The "Penny Post" was first introduced in Britain

in 1840 by Rowland Hill. The idea was simple, a penny stamp paid

for the postage of a letter or card to anywhere in Britain. This simple

idea paved the way for the sending of the first Christmas cards. Sir

Henry Cole tested the water in 1843 by printing a thousand cards forsale in his art shop in London at one shilling each. The popularity of

sending cards was helped along when in 1870 a halfpenny postage

rate was introduced as a result of the efficiencies brought about by

those new fangledrailways.


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The Tree - Queen Victoria's German husband Prince Albert helped

to make the Christmas tree as popular in Britain as they where in his

native Germany, when he brought one to Windsor Castle in the

1840's.

The Crackers - Invented by Tom Smith, a London sweet maker in1846. The original idea was to wrap his sweets in a twist of fancy

coloured paper, but this developed and sold much better when he

added love notes (motto's), paper hats, small toys and made them go

off BANG!

Carol Singers - Carol Singers and Musicians "The Waits" visited

houses singing and playing the new popular carols;

1843 - O Come all ye Faithful

1848 - Once in Royal David's CityGeneral Historical Facts, Figures and Trivia

Historical Facts about Christmas

According to historical accounts, the first Christmas inthe Philippines was celebrated 200 years beforeFerdinand Magellan discovered the country for thewestern world, likely between the years 1280 and 1320AD.

According to legend, King Arthur made merry in York in521 surrounded by "minstrels, gleemen, harpers, pipe-players, jugglers, and dancers."

Alabama was the first state to recognize Christmas as anofficial holiday. This tradition began in 1836.


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American billionaire Ross Perot tried to airlift 28 tons ofmedicine and Christmas gifts to American POW's inNorth Vietnam in 1969.

An evergreen, the Paradise tree, was decorated with

apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve held onDecember 24th during the middle ages.

Austria issued the first Christmas stamp in 1937. Boxing day - The day after Christmas Day was

traditionally when churches opened their collectionboxes to distribute the cash to the poor.

Charles II revived the Christmas festival, but it wasn'tuntil Victorian times that people became interested insinging carols again. Around 1822 onwards carols were

taught in churches in England and gradually spreadelsewhere in the United Kingdom. The tradition hascontinued ever since. It is also customary to give moneyto carollers who wander the streets singing outsidepeople's homes.

Christmas cards - The first Christmas card was sent in1840, in Britain.

Christmas was once a moveable feast celebrated atmany different times during the year. The choice of

December 25, was made by Pope Julius I, in the 4thcentury A.D., because this coincided with the pagan rituals of WinterSolstice, or Return of the Sun. The intent was to replace thepagan celebration with the Christian one.

During the ancient 12-day Christmas celebration, the logburned was called the "Yule log." Sometimes a piece of theYule log would be kept to kindle the fire the following winter,to ensure that the good luck carried on from year to year.The Yule log custom was handed down from the Druids.

Every year since 1947, the people of Oslo, Norway havegiven a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster, England.The gift is an expression of good will and gratitude forBritain's help to Norway during World War II.

Franklin Pierce was the first United States' president todecorate an official White House Christmas tree .

George Washington spent Christmas night 1776 crossing theDelaware River in dreadful conditions. Christmas 1777 faredlittle better - at Valley Forge, Washington and his men had amiserable Christmas dinner of Fowl cooked in a broth ofTurnips, cabbage and potatoes.


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Having fun - Anyone caught having fun at Christmasbetween 1647 and 1660 was in trouble. Celebrating theholiday had been banned by the rather strict Puritans whowere in power at the time.

Historians have traced some of the current traditionssurrounding Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, back toancient Celtic roots. Father Christmas's elves are themodernization of the "Nature folk" of the Pagan religions; hisreindeer are associated with the "Horned God," which wasone of the Pagan deities.

Holly - The Romans started using holly in winter - they gaveit to each other as a seasonal gift.

In 1551, playing sport on Christmas Day was made illegal.

This law was later ignored. In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made

Christmas illegal. Festivities were banned by Puritan leader,Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry, onwhat was supposed to be a holy day, to be immoral. The banwas lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1660.

In 1752, 11 days were dropped from the year when theswitch from the Julian calendar to the Gregoriancalendar was made. The December 25, date was

effectively moved 11 days backwards. Some Christianchurch sects, called old calendarists, still celebrateChristmas on January 7 (previously December 25 of theJulian calendar).

In 1834, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, wascredited with bringing the first Christmas tree toWindsor Castle for the Royal Family. Some historiansstate that in actuality Queen Charlotte, Victoria'sgrandmother, recalled that a Christmas tree was in the

Queen's lodge at Windsor on Christmas Day in 1800. In 1907, Oklahoma became the last US state to declare

Christmas a legal holiday. In the 1800s, when Queen Victoria was on the throne,

Boxing Day was also the day that some rich peoplewould hand over boxes of gifts to the poor.

In the 19th century people still received Christmas cardsthrough the post on Christmas morning

In the Ammerschweier in Alsace there was an ordinancethat stated no person "shall have for Christmas morethan one bush of more than eight shoe lengths."


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Mark Carr brought trees from the Catskills to the streetsof New York in 1851, and opened the first retailChristmas tree lot in the United States.

Other types of trees such as cherry and hawthorns were

used as Christmas trees in the past. Postmen in Victorian England were popularly called

'robins'. This was because their uniforms were red.Victorian Christmas cards often showed a robindelivering Christmas mail.

Sixteenth century folklore credited Martin Luther asbeing the first to decorate an indoor tree. After a walkthrough a forest of evergreens with shining starsoverhead, Luther tried to describe the experience to his

amily and showed them by bringing a tree into theirhome and decorating it with candles. Some historiansstate that the first evidence of a lighted tree appearedmore than a century after Martin Luther's death in 1546.

The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in theUnited States during the War of Independence byHessian troops. An early account tells of a Christmastree set up by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn,Illinois, the site of Chicago, in 1804. Most other early

accounts in the United States were among the Germansettlers in eastern Pennsylvania.

The decorated Christmas tree can be traced back to theancient Romans who during their winter festivaldecorated trees with small pieces of metal duringSaturnalia, a winter festival in honor of Saturnus, thegod of agriculture.

The first Christmas card was designed by a man namedJohn Calcott Horsely for Sir Henry Cole, the friend who

had given him the idea. A thousand copies of the cardwere printed and sold for one shilling. This is reportedlythe first Christmas card to be produced and sold to thepublic. Now, the average person in Britain sends 50Christmas cards each year.

The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in1510.

The first printed reference to Christmas trees appearedin Germany in 1531.

The first record of Christmas trees in America was forchildren in the German Moravian Church's settlement in


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Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Christmas 1747. Actual treeswere not decorated, but wooden pyramids covered withevergreen branches were decorated with candles.

The first United States President, Franklin Pierce, was

the first in 1856 to decorate a Christmas tree in the WhiteHouse.

The modern Christmas custom of displaying a wreath onthe front door of one's house, is borrowed from ancientRome's New Year's celebrations. Romans wished eachother "good health" by exchanging branches ofevergreens. They called these gifts strenae after Strenia,the goddess of health. It became the custom to bendthese branches into a ring and display them on

doorways. The use of evergreen trees to celebrate the winter

season occurred before the birth of Christ. Using small candles to light a Christmas tree dates back

to the middle of the 17th century.

This is a about what we had to eat in

the 1940s

How did food get rationed?

On 8 January 1940 a system was introduced to alloweverybody to get his or her fair share. This wascalled rationing. Everyone was allocated the same

amount - ration - by coupons in a book. And everyman, woman and child had to have a book. Thesecoupons were then exchanged for groceries.

As there were no such things as supermarkets inthe 1940s, people had to go to the same shop eachtime. The shopkeeper would stamp the ration book

to show they had received all that they wereallowed.


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A Victorian Christmas

(Celebrating Christmas in the early 1900s)

At first, Christmas trees were small

and stood on a table. The father

carefully picked out the best tree

chopped it down and took it home.

Setting up the tree was called

"planting" it and decorating the tree

was called "dressing it".It was a happy time for children. The Christmas

tree was decorated with small toys, candies,

cookies, fruit and nuts, paper cut-outs, popcorn

strings and candles. Before electricity, trees had

candles. Lighting the candles was an adult's job

and a bucket of water was always kept close by.

Candles were probably lit only once or twice.

The fireplace hanged stockings. Children could

hardly wait to see what Santa had left in their

stockings on Christmas morning

Christmas was a time for families to get together. OnChristmas day, the head of the house would usually

handed out the gifts. Many of the gifts were home

made. Children would make gifts for father (scarf,socks), mother (embroidered handkerchief, pincushion),


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brothers (top, mittens), sisters (bookmarks) and

grandparents (fudge).

A popular gift for both boys and girls. May be a

hobbyhorse

One of the presents would likely be a handmade

sled. Children would anxiously wait for the chance

to test out their new sled.

Dads often spent many hours carving toys for his

children.

Girls would be given dolls, homemade cradles, and

hand sewn blankets and doll clothes. Furniture,

such as a rocker, was also homemade.

Later when more stores opened, people would buy

gifts like dolls, also dolls houses, tea sets and

sewing kits for the girls. For the boys. They would

buy farm sets train sets, rocking horse toy guns

and toy soldiers.

CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE

Celebrating Christmas in Francereminds everyone of the very first

Christmas. It is usually a holiday for

the children, while New Year's

celebrations are for the adults.


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About a week before Christmas, the family sets up

the crche (manger scene). In the crche, they

place Mary, Joseph, shepherds, angels, and the

farm animals. Baby Jesus is left out of the crche

until the family returns from the Christmas Eve

midnight mass. The Three Wise Men are added to

the crche on Jan. 6th, the Epiphany.

On Christmas Eve, candles are lit around the

crche. A Yule log (soaked in wine) is lit and carols

are sung. The children place their shoes in front of

the fireplace, so that Pere Noel can fill them with

gifts. After midnight mass on Christmas Eve, the

family returns home and has a feast of oysters,

sausages and wine.

Stuffed goose and a special French dessert

(shaped like a Yule log) are served for the

Christmas dinner.

CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY

In Germany, the Christmas season begins withAdvent. A wreath of evergreens with four red

candles is hung in the home. One candle is lit on

each Sunday before Christmas.

Decorating the tree is an important part of the

Christmas celebration. Besides using ornaments,

lights, and tinsel, the German people also hang

cookies (shaped like people, animals, hearts, orstars) on the branches.


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St. Nicholas visits the children on Dec.6th and

leaves candy and other sweets. Children leavenotes with St. Nicholas, telling him what they

want. Children believe gifts are brought by the

Christ Child (called Christkindl). The gifts are

opened on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve families go to church, then feast

on a large dinner of roast goose or duck (stuffed

with apples), "stollen" (Christmas bread) and

marzipan candy. After dinner, the children are

allowed to eat the candies and the cookies that

are hung on the tree. Some families also have a

gingerbread house covered with candies, cookies

and tiny decorations.


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A Christmas game, from Germany

A hat, scarf, gloves, knife and fork are

needed to play this game. You also need adice and a wrapped chocolate bar.

Players take turns throwing the dice. When

one gets a double, he quickly puts on the

hat, scarf and gloves and tries to open the

bar, using only the knife and fork. He eats

as much as he can, still using only the

knife and the fork.Meanwhile, the other players keep throwing

the dice. If another player throws a

double, then it is their turn to take the

hat, scarf, mittens and put them on to

take his turn at the bar. This game

goes on until the bar has been eaten.Christmas activities for home or

classroom

1. Each child draws a pair of

shoes. Then find or draw pictures

of cookies, candies, and smalltoys to glue onto the shoes.


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2. Each child makes an Advent

calendar by cutting 25 paper

strips out of construction paper.

Make a paper chain, and on the

25th loop draw a big gold star to

represent Christmas day. Hang up

the paper chains (at home or at

school) and remove one loop each

day. When the last loop (with thestar) is left, it is Christmas.

(extra -you can hang up the chain

from a big bow )

3. Make a fake gingerbread house

from a small box or a small

milk/cream carton Cover thecarton with graham wafers, and

use candies and pretzels to

decorate your house. Make white

icing to use as snow on the roof

and around the windows and doors

of the house.4. Learn the German song - O

Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)

5. German words - Guten Tag

(hello), Auf Wiedersehen (good-

bye), Danke (thank you)


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6. German food - Pretzels,

frankfurters, gingerbread cookies,

stollen (a Christmas bread with

fruits and nuts)

CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS

in ITALY

Christmas is a very religious time in Italy.

A manger scene (presipio) is set up in each home.

The Christmas season is filled with much

singing and music. The streets, shops and

homes are decorated. Fruit shapeddecorations are seen everywhere.

For twenty-four hours before Christmas people

fast (do not eat). This is followed by Christmas

Eve dinner called a Cennone. This feast includes

fish (no meat), pasta, vegetables, fresh fruits and

special sweets and cakes.


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Special prayers and church services called "novena"

last for nine days prior to Christmas. Mass is

celebrated on Christmas morning.

In certain parts of Italy the children hang theirstockings near the head of the bed. An old lady is

supposed to visit each child and leave sweetmeats

or coal in the stocking (depending whether the

child has been good or bad.)

The Epiphany (Feast of the Three Kings), on

January 6th, is the last day of Christmas

celebrations.

The Legend of La Befana

A woman was busily sweeping her house when theThree Wise Men came to her door. They said they

were seeking the new King who was born in

Bethlehem. When they asked her to show them the

way, she replied that she was much too busy.

Later, she felt sorry that she had not helped the

Wise Men, so she set out after them. She

searched and searched, but she never found them.

Because La Befana felt so bad, she continues totravel throughout the country at Christmas time,

searching for the Christ Child.

Italian children believe they get a visit from La

Befana a kind but ugly witch. She is dressed in a

long black coat with a black scarf tied around her

head. She brings gifts to each child on January

6th, which is the Epiphany (feast of the Wise


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Men). They believe that La Befana flies from

house to house on a broomstick, slides down the

chimney and fills the stockings of the good children

with gifts, but leaves a lump of coal for the bad

children.

Preparing for Christmas in a workingclass London family in the early 1900s

In the early 1900s, Christmas was a big event. Sopreparations began some weeks beforehand. A lothad to be done. There were no ready-meals in theshops. So families had to make their own Christmasspecialities.There was so much hubbub and bustle around! The

shops would be open as late as 11 o'clock to handlelast minute purchases, and the butchers, inparticular, would shout out about the reducedprices of their poultry. There were no fridges, sobutchers were understandably anxious to sell theirmeat off before it got high and started smelling.Children hung up there stockings at the end of the

bed and I, for one, really believed that FatherChristmas himself would come to put things into it.

When we woke up on Christmas Day it wastraditional for us children to find an orange, anapple and nuts in our stockings. Sometimes we alsofound toys in a pillowcase, but that depended onwhat our parents had been able to afford or acquirefrom some source or other.For Christmas dinner [lunch] our family was unusualin that we had a leg of pork rather poultry. Thatwas probably because butchers normally sold theirbirds with their feathers and heads on and theirinnards inside, and it was a thoroughly unpleasant


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job to prepare them for cooking: it was invariablydone in the garden so as to keep the house cleanand fresh-smelling; the tiny feathers got up noses;and the garden was really cold at that time of year.

The job normally fell to the man of the house, andmy father probably objected. However, our leg ofpork with applesauce was a real treat as the onlymeat we usually had was beef, and the crackling onthe pork was superb. After the main course, one ofthe Christmas puddings was set alight with brandy.Christmas supper would be the cold salt beef andbrawn that my mother had made, served with herpickles and during the evening there would be

coconut Turkish delight made by my father andmuscatels (a type of dried grape), which alwaysseemed to be paired with almonds.

Drinks would be port wine for adultsand Stones ginger wine for children.

Cooking on an open fire inlabourers' cottages in the

early 1900s and beforeThe Victorian-style terraced houseswhere my mother grew up were stateof the art at the time with their'kitcheners' kitchen ranges but manyworking class families in olderproperties lacked such modernconveniences. My mother wrote thatone of her grandmothers lived in little

more than a hovel and cooked on an open fire andhad to use a candle at night to see if the water wasboiling. I wanted to know how this sort of cookingworked.Fortunately there are still a few old village-styleworkers' cottages open to the public, which allowsome understanding of the lives on the people whoused to live there.The process is best explained through the followingpictures.


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The photo on the left shows a cast iron contraptionfor heating cooking pots and a kettle over an openfire. The height above the fire - and hence thecooking temperature - could be adjusted by the

altering the lengths of the suspension chains. Thecontraption could be swung round: over the fire forcooking and away from the fire for loading andunloading. The photo on the right shows thecontraption mounted on the fireplace and swungaway from the fire.

1940 - 1941

British Army private and a womenfrom the Auxiliary Fire service drink a toast duringChristmas dinner This was the first real wartimeChristmas. In the previous year Western Europe had fallento Hitler's forces, and thousands of British servicemen hadbeen killed, wounded, or captured. In September the Blitzon London had started; in November the devastating raidon Coventry had taken place. December targets of theLuftwaffe had also included Birmingham, Southampton,Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield, Portsmouth, Gosport andLeicester. The nation had survived the Battle of Britain,and the expected German invasion of these islands had

not materialised, but Britain was still under siege. Therewas a break in the bombing over the Christmas holiday,but everyone was aware that this was only a brief respite.

This was also the first Christmas 'on the ration', with foodrationing having been a part of everyday life for almost ayear. By this time weekly rations were four ounces ofbacon and/or ham, six ounces of butter and/or margarine,two ounces of tea, eight ounces of sugar, two ounces of

cooking fats and meat to the value of 1/10d (9p),


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although in the week before Christmas, the tea ration wasdoubled and the sugar ration increased to twelve ounces.

The usual seasonal football matches took place that year,although many players were in the forces, and transportproblems meant long-distance fixtures were a problem. Sothe pre-war league was replaced by a regional structure,while scratch teams were the order of the day. Twofamous football players, Tommy Lawton and Ken Shackleton, both played for two different teams on Christmas Day1940 - Everton and Tran mere, and Bradford and BradfordCity respectively. Brighton and Hove Albion, away to

Norwich, could only muster five players, and Norwichreserves and supporters supplemented their team.Unsurprisingly Norwich won 18-0.

On Christmas Eve, children hang up stockings for FatherChristmas, the British version of Santa Claus, to fill withpresents. On the afternoon of Christmas Day, most Britishfamilies watch their monarch give a special Christmasmessage on television. In England, dinner on ChristmasDay features roast turkey and dessert of mince pie andplum pudding.

During the days before Christmas, children orgroups of adults go from house to house singingChristmas carols. Children ask for money forthemselves, but adults usually ask for money forcharity. This tradition began many years ago, whenvisitors sang carols in return for a drink from thewassail bowl. The bowl contained hot punch madefrom ale, apples, eggs, sugar, and spices. The wordwassail comes from Was haile, an old Saxon

greeting that means be healthy. Today, Englishpeople at large parties still drink punch, but it is


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usually made from wine and other alcoholicbeverages, fruit, and spices.

TURKEY TRIVIA

1. Turkeys have been around for 10 million years - there are

fossils to prove it!

2. Turkey was first brought over to the British Isles in 1526 by

Yorkshire man,

William Strickland, who acquired 6 birds from American

Indian Traders on

His travels and sold them for tuppence each in Bristol.

3. Turkey is a relative newcomer to the Yuletide table - it was a

luxury right up

Until the 1950's, when refrigeration and freezers became more

widely available.

4. Turkeys originate from Mexico, not Turkey.

5. The first meal eaten on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Buzz

Aldrin was cold,

Roast turkey.

6. The Guinness Book of Records greatest dressed turkey was

86lbs which was

Recorded at the last annual 'Heaviest Turkey Competition' in

London in 1989.

7. Only Tom turkeys make a 'gobble, gobble' sound, hen turkeys

make a clicking

Noise.

8. Turkey eggs are tan with brown specs and take 28 days to

hatch.


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THE EARLIEST ORNAMENTS - The 1800'sThe earliest in the early 1800s, as weve mentioned in passing,werefruit (particularly apples) and nuts. These, along with the evergreentrees themselves, represented the certainty that life would return in

the spring.Other fruits began to be added, along with paper streamers and bitsof shiny metal foil. Whether a tree was lighted or not, the idea ofreflecting the light in the room where the tree stood grew inpopularity.Another concept, too, began to take hold with the German familiesin whose homes the first popular trees resided. Food, oftengingerbread or other hard cookies would be baked in the shape offruits, stars, and hearts, angels and yes bells.As the idea of decorated Christmas trees spread, various countriesadded their own variations. Americans, for instance, would string

long strands of cranberries or popcorn to circle their trees. Smallgifts began to be used to decorate the tree, sometimes contained inlittle intricately woven baskets, sometimes nestled in the crook of abough, sometimes just hanging by a thread or piece of yarn. In theUK, creative ornaments of lace, paper or other materials showed thevariety of interests and talents of their makers. Small scraps cutout of newspaper or magazine illustrations also found their way tothe familys tree and after a few years it became harder and harderto actually see the tree beneath the ornaments.

German Class Ornaments In the mid -1800SUp to now trees had been decorated with the creative efforts of theloving hands of family and friends. In the latter part of theNineteenth century various German entrepreneurs began to makeornaments that were mass-produced and sold strictly as Christmasornaments.

The area around Lauscha, long known for its glass making, was thehub of the glass ornament trade in Germany. Firms, which had beenmaking glass barometers, canes, ointment bottles, goblets, bulls-eye glass windowpanes, eyes for stuffed animals and brilliantlycoloured marbles discovered that they could diversify into makingmoulded glass ornaments. Initially replicating fruits, nuts and otherfood items, they soon branched out and began to manufacturehearts, stars and other shapes that had been created out of cookiesbut now had the added dimension of a wide colour palette enhancedby the luminosity of the glass itself.


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Soon the glass blowers of Lauscha were creating moulds ofchildren, saints, famous people, animals and other forms anddiscovering that there was no apparent end to the market for thisnew type of Christmas ornament. Nearly everyone in the town wasinvolved in some way in the creation of Christmas ornaments withwhole families working either in a factory or in a home-basedfoundry.

Exporting Ornaments to the world - Late 1800's

One of the first American mass merchandisers,F.W.Woolworth, began importing German glass ornaments into thiscountry in the 1880s and by 1890, according to one source; he wasselling $25 million worth of them. Need we remind you that the

name of his stores was Woolworths Five and Dime Stores? Thats alot of ornaments. Well find Mr.Woolworths name appearing again afew decades later.

The Pickle Ornament.For generations people have been hiding a glass ornament mostlikely from Lauscha in the shape of a green pickle (gherkin or dillnot specified). The rationale for the pickle is that German parents

started doing it to reward the most observant child in the family.The first one to spot the pickle got an extra present from St.Nicholas on Christmas morning.Its a lovely story. Except for some small details: St. Nicholastraditionally comes to visit German children on the Fifth or Sixth ofDecember, German children traditionally open their presents onChristmas Eve, and most Germans had never heard of the pickleornament.According to a recent highly reputable online review, the storygaining currency these days involves a Bavarian who came to

America and fought in the Civil War. Captured by the Confederatesand confined to the notorious Anderson Ville prison, the Bavarian,


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John Lower (Hans Lauer, perhaps), starving and near death,convinced a jailer to get him a pickle to eat. Buoyed both mentallyand physically by eating the pickle, Lower survived and began hisown tradition of hiding a small glass pickle ornament in the familyChristmas tree. Its finder on Christmas morning would benefit from

a year of good luck.Perhaps its just a coincidence that the main source of pickleornaments was Lauscha. It does make a good story in either case.

During the nearly seventy years of her reign, Queen Victoriapresided over a resurgence of the Christmas celebration. Theillustration of her family around their Christmas tree that appearedin Godleys Lady's Book in December, 1860, inspired Americans aswell as their British cousins to follow her example with a decoratedtree of their own. Many customs of Christmastime past had fadedduring the early part of the Nineteenth century, but her adoption ofthe season (if not the actual day of present-giving she continued

to follow an older tradition of giving gifts on January One)encouraged the rediscovery of Christmas carols, charitable giving atthe season, and, of course, hearty meals of roast beef, goose orturkey followed by plum pudding.

Many of the ornaments decorating the trees of Victorian householdswere of the handmade craft variety and instructions for theirconstruction were included in popular magazines. One exampleincludes an early light bulb, encased in a tatted net, with anobservers woven basket suspended from the bottom: a perfect hot-air balloon.

The ornaments that were commercially available tended to be a biton the gaudy, well, colourful, and side. They might include brightlyillustrated figures of cute angels, cute children, cute animals, andcute elves well, you can see the trend here. They would alsoinclude fanciful creations of airships and other imaginative craftcaptained by Father Christmas or even Santa Claus depending onwhich side of the Atlantic you resided.


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There was an abundance of lace, delicate curly wire decoration,beadwork, tinsel and other materials often on the same ornament.

The Increasing Popularity of Christmas

As the Twentieth century began, Christmas and itscelebration was, for most Europeans and Americans, a time to focuson the visible aspects of the season with an emphasis on thedelights of children. Gift giving to the younger members of thefamily was encouraged not only by the youngsters themselves, but

by enterprising merchants as well.The number, variety and complexity of glass ornaments coming outof Germany was now augmented by competitors in Czechoslovakiaand other countries. These ornaments, however, retained theirhandcrafted originality, even when produced in the vast numbersdemanded by an ever-growing consumer base. Because they wereall handmade, by people who often followed in the glassmakingtraditions of generations of their families before them, eachornament had a touch of individual craftsmanship.

Someones Child hood Memory

CAN you remember, when you were young at this time of the year?A different feeling seemed to be in the air an expectancy ofsomething going to happen that you had no control over at all.

At home, the air was filled with spicy smells as mother spread thetable with large and small basins, all kinds of dried fruit and halvesof oranges, lemons and limes, all encased in a frosted coat of sugar

that you hoped would crack and fall off so that you could eat thetasty morsels.

Sometimes, there would be chopped nuts, brown sugar, brandy or abottle of stout. Nutmeg and all sorts of wonderful things would bemixed in a huge bowl. We all had a turn at folding the mixture while,at the same time, making a wish.

Years ago, our wishes were for dolls, books, a toy train or somethingalong those lines. There were no computers or big bikes or anythingexpensive because most peop1e did not have a lot of money.


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In fact, a lot of fathers were unemployed because there was no workfor them to do. In those days, mothers stayed at home, looking afterthe family. She had all the housework to do and the shopping, andthe cooking.

All this work was unpaid; it was a labour of love. As Christmas Daydrew nearer, the air grew cold and frosty. The roofs wore tiles ofglistening white and every branch and twig on the trees had frostyjackets, their outlines making lovely patterns against the brilliantblue skies.

At school, we made paper chains out of strips of coloured paper. Weglued one end of the strip and curled the paper into a ring, thenthreaded the next piece of paper through the first ring before gluingthe end and so on until we had hundreds of rings all joinedtogether.

Then we would hang them all around the rooms magic! Holly wasdraped around the picture frames on the wall and a bunch ofmistletoe was pinned above each door entrance so that you couldcatch and kiss anyone you met in the doorway.

This became more fun as you got older. I can remember clearlybeing taken into Derby by my parents, with my brother, Syd, andlittle sister, Iris. She was only two. My dad carried her on hisshoulders all the way as we walked from Glossop Street, across the

railway bridge off Elton Road, into Princes Street, along Pear TreeRoad, which leads into Normanton Road, and then down BabingtonLane into St Peters Street.

By then, it was was getting dark and all the shop windows wereablaze with light a sight that we had never seen before as wenever went out when it was dark (at least, not until we were a lotolder to play Tally-ho).

The very air bristled with our excitement. We had been told that ifwe behaved ourselves that we would be taken to see Father

Christmas. Iris had saved him a white dolly mixture sweet, whichshe had held in her hand all the time.

I cant remember which shop doorway Father Christmas wasstanding in but it was almost opposite the old Marks and Spencer inthe Corn Market He was lovely and magical in his red and whiteoutfit.

Iris handed him the now very grubby sweet. Hethanked her kindly and popped it into his

mouth, eating it with relish. Then he led us intothe shop and disappeared. After a little


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while, we were taken into the mouth of a wondrous cave and, as wewalked slowly along the corridor, on both sides we could see lovelyChristmas scenes of reindeers, chimneys, sleighs and snow.

The walk seemed endless but, suddenly, we were in a room full of

sacks of presents and Father Christmas was sitting, waiting to talkto us. He asked us what we would like to find in our stocking onChristmas morning.

We told him and he said that he would do his very best to bring it tous. Then he gave each of us a little gift from his sack and we all leftthe room filled with the magic of Christmas, and a memory thatwould last for a lifetime.

THE GOOD OLD DAYSLife in the 1500's -----Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare.She married at the age of 26.

This is really unusual for the time. Most people marriedyoung, like atthe age of 11 or 12. Life was not as romantic as we may

picture it.Here are some examples:============================Anne Hathaway's home was a 3 bedroom house with a

small parlor, whichwas seldom used (only for company), kitchen, and no

bathroom.============================

Mother and Father shared a bedroom. Anne had a queen-sized bed, but didnot sleep alone. She also had 2 other sisters and they

shared the bedalso with 6 servant girls. (This is before she married) They

didn'tsleep like we do lengthwise but all laid on the bed

crosswise. Atleast they had a bed.

============================Her 6 brothers and 30 field workers shared the other

bedroom.They didn't have a bed. Everyone just wrapped up in their


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blanket andslept on the floor. They had no indoor heating so all the

extra bodieskept them warm.

============================

They were also small people, the men only grew to beabout 5'6" and thewomen were 4'8".============================SO in their house they had 27 people living. Most people

got married inJune.Why? They took their yearly bath in May, so they still smeltpretty good by June, although they were starting to smell,

so the brideswould carry a bouquet of flowers to hide their b.o.

============================Like I said, they took their yearly bath in May, but it was

just a bigtub that they would fill with hot water. The man of the

house would getthe privilege of the nice clean water.Then all the other sons and men, then the women and

finally thechildren.

============================Last of all the babies. By then the water was pretty thick.

Thus, thesaying, "don't throw the baby out with the bath water," it

was so dirtyyou could actually lose someone in it. I'll describe their

houses alittle.

============================You've heard of thatch roofs, well that's all they were. Thick

straw,piled high, with no wood underneath.

They were the only place for the little animals to get warm.So all thepets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs,

all lived inthe roof.When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the

animals would slipand fall off the roof. Thus the saying, "it's raining cats and

dogs,"Since there was nothing to stop things from falling into the

house they

would just try to clean up a lot.============================


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But this posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugsand otherdroppings from animals could really mess up your nice

clean bed, so theyfound if they would make beds with big posts and hang a

sheet over thetop it would prevent that problem. That's where those

beautiful big 4poster beds with canopies came from.

============================When you came into the house you would notice most

times that the floorwas dirt.Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, that's

where the saying"dirt poor" came from.

============================The wealthy would have slate floors. That was fine but in

the winterthey would get slippery when they got wet.So they started to spread thresh on the floor to help keep

theirfooting. As the winter wore on they would just keep adding

it and addingit until when you opened the door it would all start slipping

outside.SO they put a piece of wood at the entry way, a "thresh

hold".============================In the kitchen they would cook over the fire, they had a

fireplace inthe kitchen/parlor, that was seldom used and sometimes in

the masterbedroom.They had a big kettle that always hung over the fire and

every day theywould light the fire and start adding things to the pot.

Mostly they atevegetables, they didn't get much meat. They would eat thestew fordinner then leave the leftovers in the pot to get cold

overnight andthen start over the next day.=============================Sometimes the stew would have food init that had been in there for a month!Thus the rhyme: peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,

peas porridge in

the pot nine days old."=============================


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Sometimes they could get a hold on some pork. They reallyfelt specialwhen that happened and when company came over they

even had a rack inthe parlor where they would bring out some bacon and

hang it to show itoff.That was a sign of wealth and that a man "could really

bring home thebacon."They would cut off a little to share with guests and they

would all sitaround and "chew the fat."

=============================If you had money your plates were made out of pewter.

Sometimes some of

their food had a high acid content and some of the leadwould leach outinto the food. They really noticed it happened with

tomatoes. So theystopped eating tomatoes, for 400 years.=============================Most people didn't have pewter plates though, they all had

trenchers,that was a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like

a bowl.They never washed their boards and a lot of times worms

would get intothe wood. After eating off the trencher with worms they

would get"trench mouth."

==============================If you were going traveling and wanted to stay at an Inn

they usuallyprovided the bed but not the board.

==============================The bread was divided according to status. The workers

would get theburnt bottom of the loaf, the family would get the middleand guestswould get the top, or the "upper crust".

==============================They also had lead cups and when they would drink their

ale or whiskey.The combination would sometimes knock them out for a

couple of days.They would be walking along the road and here would be

someone knocked

out and they thought they were dead. So they would pickthem up and take


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them home and get them ready to bury. They realizedif they were tooslow about it, the person would wake up. Also, maybe not

all of thepeople they were burying were dead. So they would lay

them out on thekitchen table for a couple of days, the family would gather

around andeat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.

That's where thecustom of holding a "wake" came from.

==============================Since England is so old and small they started running out

of places tobury people. So they started digging up some coffins and

would take

their bones to a house and re-use the grave. They startedopening thesecoffins and found some had scratch marks on the inside.One out of 25 coffins were that way and they realized they

had stillbeen burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a

string ontheir wrist and lead it through the coffin and up through the

ground andtie it to a bell.Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night

to listenfor the bell. That is how the saying "graveyard shift" was

made.If the bell would ring they would know that someone was

"saved by thebell" or he was a "dead ringer".

*** WISH LIST ***

I want ancestors with names likeRudimentary Montagnard orMelchizenick vonSteubenhoffmannschild or SpetznatzGiafortoni, not William Brown or JohnHunter or Mary Abbott.


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I want ancestors who could readand write, had their children baptisedin recognised houses of worship, wentto school, purchased land, left

detailed wills (naming a hugeextended family as legatees), hadtheir photographs taken once a year -subsequently putting said pictures inelaborate isinglass frames annotatedwith calligraphic inscriptions, andcarved valuable and informativeinscriptions in their headstones. I want relatives who managed to

bury their ancestors in established,still-extant (and indexed) cemeteries. I want family members who wrotememoirs, who enlisted in the militaryas officers and who served instrategically important (and well-documented) skirmishes. I want relatives who served ascouncilmen, schoolteachers, county

clerks and town historians. I want relatives who "religiously"wrote in the family Bible, journalisingevery little event and detailing thefamilial relationship of every visitor. In the case of immigrantancestors, I want them to havearrived only in those years whereinpassenger lists were indexed by theNational Archives, and I want them tohave applied for citizenship, and tohave done so only in thosejurisdictions which have sinceestablished indices. I want relatives who werepatriotic and clubby, who joined everypatrimonial society they could find,who kept diaries, and listed all theiraddresses, which had paintings made


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of their houses, and who dated everypiece of paper they touched. I want ancestors who werewealthy enough to afford, and to keep

for generations, the familyhomestead, and who left all theaforementioned pictures and diariesand journals intact in the library But most of all: I want relatives Ican FIND!!!!!

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

Dear Santa:Don't bring me new dishes;

I don't need a new kind of game.Genealogists have peculiar wishes;

For Christmas I just want a surname!A new washing machine would be great,

But it isn't the desire of my life.I've just found an ancestor's birth date,

Now I need the name of his wi fe.My heart doesn't yearn for a ring

that would put a real diamond to shame.What I want is a much cheaper thing:Please give me Martha's last name!

To see my heart singing with joy,Don't bring me a red leather suitcase.

Bring me a genealogist's toy:A surname, with dates and a place!

It was the first day of census, and allthrough the land

Each pollster was ready ... a black book inhand.


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He mounted his horse for a long dustyride,

His book and some quills were tucked

close by his side.

A long winding ride down a road barelythere, toward the

Smell of fresh bread wafting, up throughthe air.

The woman was tired, with lines on herface

And wisps of brown hair she tucked backinto place.

She gave him some water as they sat atthe table,

And she answered his questions ... thebest she was able.

He asked her of children. Yes, she hadquite a few -

The oldest was twenty, the youngest nottwo.

She held up a toddler with cheeks roundand red;

His sister, she whispered, was napping inbed.

She noted each person who lived therewith pride,


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And she felt the faint stirrings of the weeone inside.

He noted the sex, the colour, and the

age...

The marks from the quill soon filled up thepage.

At the number of children, she nodded herhead

And saw her lips quiver for the three thatwere dead.

The places of birth she "never forgot" -

Was it Texas? Or Utah? Or Michigan ... ornot?

They came from Scotland, of that she wasclear,

but she wasn't quite sure just how longthey'd been here.

They spoke of employment, of schoolingand such,

They could read some ... and write some ...though really not much.

When the questions were answered, hisjob there was done

So he mounted his horse and he rodetoward the sun.

We can almost imagine his voice loud and

clear,


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"May God bless you all for another tenyears."

Now picture a time warp ... its now youand me

As we search for the people on our familytree.

We squint at the census and scroll down soslow

as we search for that entry from long, longago.

Could they only imagine on that long agoday

That the entries they made would affect usthis way?

If they knew, would they wonder at theyearning we feel

And the searching that makes them soincreasingly real.

We can hear if we listen the words theyimpart

Through their blood in our veins and theirvoices in our hearts.


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Documents

The Family Tree for You Xmas 2009