) ( ) Good Morning Family! .-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . . \\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . . \| |// ...and we even have decaf, | |/ tea, and hot chocolate! \ / ------ Today's topics include: 1. Welcome to new cousins 2. 19th Century Christmases in America: 1840-1900 3. Christmas potpourri If you've been with the family for at least three weeks, you'll probably want to skip the following paragraph… TO OUR NEWEST COUSINS ~~ On behalf of the entire family, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome to those cousins who came into the family fold this past week. We are very glad to have you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of our online family. As soon as you're comfortable with us and the list, please send in your Bower[s]/Bauer or Baur lines so we can all see how we're related to you. We do not have a fancy format for sending in records or queries to the list. Post as many as you wish! If the data has anything to do with Bower[s]/Bauer or Baur ancestors or any of the 81+ variant spellings we research that might help someone, please feel free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated. If you haven't visited the homesite of this list yet, you are encouraged to do so. Our home is Bower Community, located at <http://bowercommunity.com>. There, we currently have two sites: The Bower Family Homestead [a.k.a., the Homestead] is our primary homesite and the gathering place for much of our information. It waits to join us all in welcoming you into the family at <http://bowercommunity.com/homestead>. Smaller and just opened this year, our sister site, the Bower Cottage, houses most of our projects including an online GEDCOM fed by quite a few cousins from our lists. The Cottage is still small as far as material goes, however give us time and we'll have it filled really soon. The Cottage is at <http://bowercommunity.com/cottage>. 19th CENTURY CHRISTMASES IN AMERICA: 1840-1900 We all try to put "flesh" to our ancestors. Adding touches to the holidays during their lives is certainly no exception. Following are a few facts about Christmas, decade by decade, from from 1840 to 1900. **1840** Christmas in America during these middle years of the 19th century was a religious holiday that was celebrated privately and with little merriment. The tradition of a Christmas tree began quietly in America. A few German families in Pennsylvania are known to have decorated trees as early as 1820, but decorating evergreens was an unusual custom in this country well into the 19th century. The custom of tree decorating quickly caught on thanks to England's new queen, Victoria, who authorized the publication of an engraving of her Christmas tree in Godey's Lady's Book, a popular magazine of the day. Most Americans then did not have their own trees in the 1840s, but enjoyed trees decorated by and for the community. Trees of this time period were adorned with apples, gilded and natural fruits and nuts, cookies, strings of popcorn popcorn and cranberries, as well as homemade paper items, candles, cornucopias, and presents. It was during this decade that the first commercially produced Christmas decorations appeared. In 1848, the first glass ornament, a kugel, appeared in Germany. The kugel was a large hollow ball ranging in size from 1 inch to 18 inches. Smaller ones were used for tree decorations. The blown, molded, figural glass ornaments that we are familiar with today evolved from the tradition of blowing kugels. These ornaments were not sold in America until 1880. **1850** Slavery divided the nation and there was little peace north or south in the 1850s. During the 1850s Christmas first began to emerge as a national holiday of religious and cultural celebration. Businesses closed to observe the day and decorated Christmas trees became a fashionable trend. The commercial Christmas tree trade supposedly began in December, 1851 when a woodsman living in New York cut down evergreens around his home and took them by sled into the city to sell. The trees sold quickly and he was amazed at the amount of money he made selling them. In the 1850s the most common decorations were edible: gilded fruits and nuts, strings of popcorn and cranberries and molded pastry confections. Marzipan ornaments were a popular almond paste confection molded into the shapes of fruits, vegetables, and animals and then hung on trees. These edible decorations were fastened to the tree with ribbons and people could then sample delicacies from the tree, thus ensuring there were considerably less ornaments when it was time to take it down than when it was first erected. Candles lit the trees, but they were very difficult to wire to the branches. The candle had to be carefully placed so as not to come into contact with branches or ornaments. No tree was without a bucket or water by its side and lit trees were never left unattended. At this time wax was very expensive, so often times lamps were fashioned from nut shell halves filled with oil and a wick. The more elegant lamps were hanging glass in many colors. **1860** The nation was torn about by civil war, but the customs of Christmas during the 1860s focused on family togetherness and brotherly love. The tradition of homes having a Christmas tree flourished during this decade. The full-sized decorated tree became something of a status symbol. In 1860, Godey's Lady's Book described the best trees as being decorated with strings of red holly berries, candles attached with wires, small bouquets of paper flowers, strings of beads, tiny flags of gay ribbons, stars and shields of gilt paper, lace bags filled with colored candies, and presents. Housewives were encouraged to keep the spirit of Christmas alive and decorate a tree. Decorations began to change. By the end of the decade, thin glass figurals such as birds, pine cones, and icicles appeared. The new candle holder, called a counterbalance candle holder, had a weight attached to the bottom that kept the candle standing upright. Yet even with these improvements, Christmas trees were fire hazards and it was still necessary to keep a bucket of water by the tree and a person to keep watch over the possible fire. **1870** By 1870, rigid puritanical attitudes towards Christmas had softened, and Americans embraced the holiday as a permanent cultural tradition in this country. On June 26, 1870, for the first time in its history, the United States Congress declared Christmas a federal holiday. As early as 1870, American businesses began to import large quantities of tree ornaments from Europe and sold them on street corners, in toy stores, and variety stores. Tin ornaments, wax angels, cornucopias, tinsel, glass beads and balls were all popular decorations for the tree. Tinsel was first used on trees in the 1870s and combined with glass ornaments, reflected light in a time when there were no electric lights. Tinsel was made in strips from a combination of wire and foil, which was then snipped to produce crinkled strands and used as garland. In 1871 the first American-made glass ornaments were produced. Glass balls, strings of glass beads, and glass fruit ornaments were very popular and produced in large quantities. However, the average tree was still decorated with ornaments made of paper, metal, wax, and wood decorations. Magazines began carrying patterns for making ornaments from scraps - extremely popular until World War I. In 1876, the first patented metal tree stand was manufactured in the United States. Prior to the 1870s, trees had been placed in crocks, wooden boxes and crates, and as a result, many trees fell over. Though still highly flammable, at least now they were stable. **1880** The 1880s was the "gilded age." Americans embellished their Christmas celebrations with additional customs and traditions. Tree decorating, gift giving, caroling, and baking became prominent activities for what had become an American national holiday. Invention of the electric light added a new dimension to the American Christmas during the decade. In 1882, an inventor working for Thomas Edison devised a way of wrapping small electric lights in red, white, and blue crepe paper. These colored lights were strung on a Christmas tree giving us the earliest version of contemporary Christmas lights. Tree lights were experimental throughout the 1880s. President Grover Cleveland used electric lights on the White House Christmas tree, but these special light bulbs were much too expensive for the average American. Germany produced the very popular and now rare Dresden ornaments. They were handmade, double-sided, embossed and die cut ornaments, usually in gold or silver metallic paper whose shape was varied and sometimes three dimensional. The flocked tree became the rage in 1883. The method for "frosting" a tree was as follows: "Sprinkle the tree all over with water, shake off the excess water, and then dredge the tree with flour. If there remains too much water on the branches, the flour will cake." In previous decades, many American families had either a Christmas tree or Christmas stockings, but not both. By the 1880s, both customs were eagerly embraced as two parts of the same celebration. Lithographed stockings, including do it yourself ones, were popular. **1890** The 1890s were a decade full of excess and even the celebration of Christmas was extravagant. Ornaments on Christmas trees were oversized, lavish, and bright. Glass ornaments soared in popularity during this decade. In 1890, F.W. Woolworth imported $25 worth of glass ornaments and sold them for five and ten cents at his store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The supply was depleted in just a few days. The next year he placed a much larger order and sold out in a short period of time. Store records indicate that over the next several years Woolworth sold over 25 million dollars worth of these ornaments, all for nickels and dimes! Scrap ornaments were at the height of their popularity. Cardboard ornaments from mail order companies sold for 36 cents a dozen. Cotton ornaments fashioned into fruits, vegetables, human figures, and animals also were popular. These ornaments were a favorite because they were unbreakable. The cotton was wrapped around a wire form. When dry, it was then painted realistically if it were a fruit or vegetable, and if it was a person it was fully clothed. Christmas trees were still mainly lit with candles even though electricity was now available in many homes. Electrically lit trees had to be wired by hand with the help of an electrician. Crude and bare wire connections shorted out when coming in contact with the leaded icicles or roped tinsel, thus causing a fire. Candle light covers in the shapes of Father Christmas, Buster Brown and other popular period characters were available in this time period. They were then hung from the tree with a candle inside. **1900** By 1900, one in five families had a decorated Christmas tree in their home. Affluent Americans still enjoyed lavishly, over-decorated Victorian trees, but even the American workingman and his family celebrated around a decorated evergreen. However, not everyone was pleased with this trend. A conservationist at heart, President Theodore Roosevelt led a battle against cutting down live trees for Christmas decorations. Because of his efforts, the nation adopted better conservation policies for evergreens. To meet the demand for live trees, thousands of farmers planted evergreens as a cash crop. By 1909, nearly 4 million trees were harvested for Christmas. Beginning in 1900 and for the next several years, there was a movement away from the excesses of Victorian decorations. Magazines recommended against overloading trees with ornaments and suggested using only glittering cotton, angel hair, tinsel, pine cones, and icicles. This was called the "White Tree," and this decorating style was popular until World War I. CHRISTMAS POTPOURRI ** Santa Claus started out in Turkey as a 4th century bishop named Nicholas. ** Saint Nicholas was born sometime during the years 270-280 A.D. He was to become the most accurate and actual ancestor of Santa Claus. Nicholas was ordained Bishop while still a young man, and spent his life helping the poor and underpriviledged. He loved children and often went out at night disguised in a hooded cloak, to leave gifts of money, clothing or food at the windows of unfortunate families. Saint Nicholas died December 6th, around the year 343. ** The custom of hanging a stocking can be traced to a Saint Nicholas legend. It was said that in order to help an impoverished nobleman provide dowries for his daughters, the generous Saint Nicholas threw gold coins down the chimney. The coins magically landed in stockings hung by the fire to dry. Hence, hanging of a stocking over the fireplace. ** St. Nicholas first made the new in a 1773 issue of the New York Gazette which referred to him as "otherwise known as St. A. Claus." ** In 1931 Coca Cola began their major promotion using Santa Claus to promote their drink. Their artist, Haddon Sundblom created Santa in his own image! It is the Coca-Cola Santa which is now the traditional Santa! ** The early 19th century was a period of social class conflict and turmoil. During this time, unemployment was high and gang rioting by the disenchanted classes often occurred during the Christmas season. In 1828, the New York city council instituted the city's first police force in response to a Christmas riot. ** December 25th is not Jesus' actual birthday. No one actually knows what day Jesus was born. The first mention of December 25th as his birthday appeared on a Roman calendar in the year 336 - after the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. ** The carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," is actually a Catholic code. Catholicism was outlawed in England from 1558 to 1829, so Catholic parents developed a song to help their children secretly rehearse the points of their faith. "My true love" refers to God, the "me" symbolizes every baptized person, and the partridge is Jesus Christ. ** The Christmas card is a Victorian creation which began as a kind of stationery. The first card was produced by Sir Henry Cole who worked for the British Postal Service, and an artist he hired named John Horsley. This early card was a depiction of a Christmas scene framed in three panels. In the center panel was a homey scene: children, parents and grandparents seated at the table with some raising their glasses for a toast. On either side were panels depicting acts of Christmas charity: to the left, feeding the hungry; to the right, clothing the naked. Beneath the panels appears, "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You." Christmas cards were preceded by "Christmas Pieces" written by school boys in England as greetings to their parents and as proof of their progress in the art of writing. Family ... it's what we're all about. Understanding how and when our traditions began, we gain an even greater appreciation for our forebears, and for the faith that inspired them to create traditions that now, enrich our lives and teach our children. Thank you for allowing me to spend this time with you. I hope your upcoming week is filled with health, productivity, fun, and above all, filled with love. ) ( ) _.-~~-. (@\'--'/. Colleen ('``.__.'`) `..____.'