Christmas Traditions in the 1700s

By Tiffany Amber Stockton

Last month, I shared about the history of the New York Symphony. If you missed that post, you can read it here: https://www.hhhistory.com/2018/11/new-york-symphony-debuts.html.

Now, let's go from the crafted instruments of music to holiday traditions.

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Christmas Traditions - 1700s

I wavered and pondered and struggled over the topic I'd select for today's post. With Christmas right around the corner, I didn't want anything to feel "contrived." On the other hand, the theme seemed perfect.

So, today, I'm going to cover Christmas traditions in the 1700's.

Christmas wasn't always celebrated the way it is today. In fact, the Puritans of Massachusetts banned any observance of Christmas, and anyone caught observing the holiday had to pay a fine. Connecticut had a law forbidding the celebration of Christmas and the baking of mincemeat pies! A few of the earliest settlers did celebrate Christmas, but it was far from a common holiday in the colonial era.

The first record of Christmas trees in America was for children in the German Moravian Church's settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Christmas 1747. Actual trees were not decorated, but wooden pyramids covered with evergreen branches were decorated with candles.

The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the United States during the War of Independence by Hessian troops. Decorations included lace, ribbon, tin, food items and lit candles. Most other early accounts in the United States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania. Just as the first trees introduced into Britain did not immediately take off, the early trees introduced into America by the Hessian soldiers were not recorded in any particular quantity. Even so, it is known that the Pennsylvanian German settlements had community trees as early as 1747.

Decorations were still of a 'home-made' variety. Young Ladies spent hours at Christmas Crafts, quilling snowflakes and stars, sewing little pouches for secret gifts and paper baskets with sugared almonds in them. Small bead decorations, fine drawn out silver tinsel came from Germany together with beautiful Angels to sit at the top of the tree. Candles were often placed into wooden hoops for safety.

One of the primary reasons Christmas wasn't celebrated is due to its pagan association. Puritans and Protestants alike frowned upon any connection to this celebration. Any observance was made primarly by German and Dutch colonists in the Middle Colonies. German gifts such as nuts and apples were given to needy children by St. Martin and St. Nicholas know to be the forefathers of Santa Claus as we know him today. Kris Kringle evolved from the German name for the Christ Child (Christkindlein). Dutch settlers coming to America changed St. Nicholas to Sintr Claes who became the gift giver.

However, as the dawning of a new century approached, we begin to see a greater occurrence of the traditions so many celebrate and enjoy today.

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NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Do you have any German or Dutch ancestry/roots that have influenced what you do today?

* What traditions are special in your home?

* What traditions did you have a child that you continued with your own family?

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those childhood skills to become an author and speaker who also works as a force for literacy as an educational consultant with Usborne Books. On the side, she dabbles in the health & wellness and personal development industry, helping others become their best from the inside out.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and two dogs: Nova, a Shiba-Inu/Besenji mix and Nugget a Corgi/Chihuahua mix, in Colorado. She has sold twenty (21) books so far and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, and LinkedIn.

Early Pennsylvania German Homes

Henry Antes House (1736)

During the 1700s large numbers of Germans migrated to the British colonies. Many settled in Pennsylvania, among them my Hochstetler ancestors, who came to this country in 1738. Naturally the first necessity for any settler was shelter, so today we’re going to take a look at the typical homes of these German immigrants.

Bertolet-Schneider House (1737)

Most of the earliest Pennsylvania German homes were constructed of straight-hewn logs with finely dovetailed joints, but German settlers were also noted for their sturdily built stone houses. Many homes, whether log or stone, were constructed in a distinctively medieval form that featured steep roofs sometimes covered with red clay tiles, thick walls, and small, irregularly spaced windows. A central fireplace was most common, in contrast to the British style of construction that featured a fireplace on each end of the building.

Swiss-style House

Traditional floor plans had 1 to 3 rooms with a corner stairway that led up to a loft or second floor. The 3 room layout included a large Küche (kitchen) on one side of the central chimney and two smaller rooms, the Stube (parlor) and Kammer (bedroom) on the other side, both entered from the kitchen. The two room layout had only a kitchen (also called a hall) and a parlor, which were on opposite sides of the central chimney. The second story contained additional bedrooms and separate space for storage. An attic provided additional storage and space for food preservation.

Five Plate Stove

The outside entrance into the house was traditionally through the kitchen. Generally a long narrow room on the northwest side of the house, this space included the great, open fireplace, used for cooking and heating, a large worktable, and the dining table with benches or chairs. The main room was the parlor, heated by a closed five-plate stove, also called a close stove or jamb stove, that was a cast-iron, porcelain, or earthenware box, either plain or ornately decorated. The back side of this kind of stove was open and mortared into the brick or stones of the chimney. The rear of the kitchen fireplace, then, had an opening called the stove hole or offenloch, through which either wood for burning or hot air could be fed into the stove.

Fort Zeller

Some early stone houses were built over a spring to provide running water and a cool area for food storage in the basement. Others were built into a bank or hillside, partially underground for cold storage as well as for lower cost and efficiency, a style attributed to medieval Swiss tradition. Many banked houses were later expanded to become 2 or 3 stories with the ground floor then used only as a kitchen or for storage. On the Pennsylvania frontier many houses were fortified by adding extra thick walls and small windows as defense against Indian attack. Fort Zeller, built in 1745 near Newmanstown, Lebanon County, was actually a house built in this manner rather than a true fort. It is one of the few remaining examples of Germanic architecture in this country and is also Pennsylvania’s oldest existing fort. Pioneers who came to the Tulpehocken from the Schoharie valley built it in 1723 and rebuilt it in 1745. It was used as a place of refuge during Indian Wars.

I sometimes complain about all the household work I have to do even though I have at hand a multitude of labor-saving devices and technology to make my life easier. When I think about our pioneer ancestors, who had work to do almost every waking hour, most of it hand labor, I’m humbled and grateful. Next month I’m going to take a more detailed look at the housewife’s daily cores and the implements she had to accomplish her work. Believe me, all of us have things very easy today in comparison!

What do you appreciate the most among the comforts of your home?

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J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is also an author, editor, and publisher. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, releases April 1, 2017. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, won the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year Award.

Origins of the Amish in America and Giveaway!

I’m delighted to join the Heroes, Heroines, and History Blog this month, and I hope to contribute some interesting posts. My main project for the past several years has been a sprawling historical fiction series on the American Revolution, The American Patriot Series. In 2014, however, a distant cousin, multi-published author Bob Hostetler, and I released Northkill, Book 1 of our Northkill Amish Series, closely based on the inspiring true story of our Hochstetler ancestors. Book 2, The Return, which releases in November 2016, completes their story.

Amish romances have been popular for years, but Northkill recounts a different kind of Amish story, one very well known among the Amish and Mennonites. Jacob Hochstetler and his family arrived in Philadelphia on November 9, 1738, aboard the ship Charming Nancy at the beginning of a tidal wave of German immigration that stretched over the following century. With other members of their church, they sought sanctuary from religious persecution in Europe and the freedom to live and worship according to their Anabaptist beliefs, including the doctrine of nonresistance. They settled on the Pennsylvania frontier between the white settlements and Indian country and built a home along the Northkill Creek, for which their community was named.

Our story begins in 1752, when rumors of the building conflict between the French and the British over control of the continent reach the Northkill community. Over the next few years, this conflict boils over into war. Then early on the morning of September 20, 1757, the Hochstetlers’ peaceful way of life is brutally shattered when their farm is attacked by a party of Delaware and Shawnee warriors allied with the French. Their home is set ablaze, and when they fight their way out of the cellar where they took shelter, the Indians kill the mother and two children and carry Jacob and two sons away into captivity. After several months Jacob makes a harrowing escape, but it will be years later, after the war’s end, before he finally succeeds in bringing his boys home.

Many shorter works along and another fictional series have been based on this story over the years. Bob and I wanted to write an in-depth, detailed depiction of our ancestors’ lives on the Pennsylvania frontier, centered on the deeply rooted faith of the Northkill Amish community, which is generally thought to be the first Amish church established in America. Amazingly a great many facts about this attack are documented in contemporary publications and records preserved in the Pennsylvania State Archives and in private collections. And in the late 1800s family researchers began to collect oral accounts passed down through the family. More recently, members of the Jacob Hochstetler Family Association uncovered additional facts that were invaluable in writing our fictional portrayal.

My posts over the next few months will focus on the world of the Northkill Amish, the French and Indian War, and the Native American tribes that held three of my ancestors captive. Theirs is a deeply inspiring story of steadfast faith, courage in the midst of tragedy, and God’s unfailing love. I hope it will bless you as much as it has Bob and me.

Today I’m giving away a copy of Northkill to one lucky reader, either print or ebook edition. To be entered in the drawing, please leave a comment on this post and include your email addy and which edition you’d like to receive.

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J. M. Hochstetler is a descendant of Jacob Hochstetler’s oldest son, John. An author, editor, and publisher, she is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series, won ForeWord Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year. You will find her at http://www.jmhochstetler.com/.