The History of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town"

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Merry Christmas, everyone! On this busy holiday, I thought I would keep my post short and sweet, with a quick history of one of the tried-and-true Christmas tunes we hear at this time of year: “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” The song was originally written by music composer and lyricist James Lamont “Haven” Gillespie.

 

James Lamont "Haven" Gillespie

Gillespie was born in 1888 in Covington, Kentucky, one of nine children. He dropped out of school in the fourth grade and moved to Chicago, Illinois, to work with his sister and brother-in-law in their printing business. In 1908 at the age of 21, he married his childhood sweetheart back in Kentucky, and afterward, worked as both a typesetter for a Cincinnati-based newspaper and as a “plug man”, writing and performing music for Vaudeville. During this time, he would earn 1 ½ cents per piece of sheet music sold on the music that he wrote. He wrote over 1,000 songs and had numerous hits, including “Drifting and Dreaming,” “The Sleepy Town Express,” and “Louisiana Fairy Tale” (which was popularly used in the opening of the show “This Old House” in its early seasons).

 

In 1934, Gillespie was asked to write an upbeat Christmas tune for Eddie Cantor’s radio program—but the timing felt off to him. Not only was he stressed because money was incredibly tight, but he’d also lost his brother only a short time before. He couldn’t imagine writing a rollicking tune when he was so filled with grief. Gillespie nearly turned the job down. However, as he rode on the subway, memories of Christmases past with his brother began to flood his mind. He recalled the joy and anticipation of the holiday, and how their mother would warn every year that Santa was watching their behavior. Inspired by the memories, he pulled an envelope from his belongings and began penning the now-famous lines. They were completed in a mere fifteen minutes.

 

The down-on-his-luck composer called in a friend, J. Fred Coots, to write the jolly music that would accompany the lyrics, and the pair passed the finished piece along to Eddie Cantor. Cantor, in turn, had the song performed on his radio program. It was an instant hit! Within the first day, over 500,000 copies of the sheet music flew off the shelves, and it just kept selling. Ultimately, Haven Gillespie became a millionaire from that one song alone.

Original sheet music, autographed by
Haven Gillespie

 

Since its initial performance, the song has been sung by more than 200 artists, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Neil Diamond, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Bublé, Justin Bieber, Dolly Parton, and the Jackson 5. In addition, in 1970, a much-loved, animated movie was made, based on the song, narrated by none other than Fred Astaire, helping it weave itself into the fabric of Christmas traditions everywhere. The song continues to endure, even today, as a holiday classic.

Still shot from "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" movie.

Thank you all for joining me! I know I speak for all the HHH Bloggers when I say that we wish you a beautiful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered western novels at twelve when she swiped the only “horse” book from her brother’s bookshelf. Across the next decade, she devoured westerns and fell in love with the genre. While attaining a B.A. in writing from the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. She has finaled in and won numerous writing competitions and appeared on various best-seller lists. Besides writing, she’s been a business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, a historical researcher, a publisher, and a full-time homemaker. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

Available Now

Love and Order: A Three-Part Old West Romantic Mystery

 

Wanted: 

Family, Love, and Justice

One Old West Mystery Solved Throughout Three Short Romantic Stories

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice.

 

Youngest child, Callie, has pushed past her insecurities to pursue a career as a Pinkerton agent. Middle child, Andi, has spent years studying law under her adoptive father’s tutelage. And the eldest and only son, Rion, is a rough-and-tumble bounty hunter. 

 

When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

Ho-Ho-Heist

 by Tom Goodman

On December 23, 1927, a brazen heist shook Texas. Marshall Ratliff — an ex-convict bent on easy money— enlisted three men to help him rob his hometown bank in Cisco--a town in Eastland County between Abilene and Fort Worth.  

To hide his identity from neighbors who would have recognized him, he pulled on a Santa Claus suit. Thus the Associated Press dubbed it “The Santa Claus Bank Robbery.” 

Ratliff had his men drop him several blocks from the bank. They parked the getaway car in the alley while their disguised leader strolled toward the bank, trailed by children begging for candy and last-minute wishes. He shooed them off and stepped inside. Moments later, his gang followed.

Once inside, the guns came out. Pistols raised, the men ordered the teller to fill a sack with cash and bonds. Customers and employees became hostages—including two fourth-grade girls.

The plan collapsed fast. Armed townspeople surrounded the building, and gunfire cut through the winter air. Using the hostages as shields, the gang fought its way through the alley, bundled the two girls into the car, and roared off. Cisco’s police chief and a deputy lay mortally wounded behind them.

The escape unraveled. Their car was damaged, the tank was nearly dry, and they tried to carjack another vehicle. In the scramble, they unintentionally left the loot behind — $12,400 in cash and $150,000 in securities. Once outside town, the gang ditched their car, leaving the girls unharmed, and fled into the countryside. A week-long manhunt — the largest in Texas history at the time — brought the fugitives in.

Ratliff landed on death row but found ways to keep stalling his execution, even feigning insanity to angle for a transfer to a state asylum. Before that hearing could take place, he tried to break out of the Eastland County Jail and killed a beloved deputy in the process. 

The citizens of Eastland County finally had enough of their ne’er-do-well neighbor. The next night — November 19, 1929 — a mob forced its way into the jail, dragged him out, and hanged him from a telephone pole guywire. 

For years, Eastland, Texas, carried the grim nickname “The Town that Hung Santa Claus.”

What became of the Santa Claus bandit's accomplices? Louis Davis was mortally wounded in the bank shootout and died of his wounds on Christmas Day 1927. Henry Helms went to the electric chair two months before Ratliff was lynched. Robert “Bobby” Hill, the youngest, received a life sentence and spent years attempting escapes from prison work farms.

Then something unexpected happened: Bobby Hill had a Christian conversion. 

His life change was noticeable. The governor granted him a conditional pardon in 1945, and Hill built a quiet, steady life. When Hill died in 1996 in his nineties, he had been a married, churchgoing model citizen for half a century.

In a tale packed with disguises, gunfire, and vigilante vengeance, Hill’s redemption remains the best plot twist of all!

(Thanks to Lightner Creative for the graphic that accompanies this post. It appeared in "From Christmas Robbery to Redemption," an article in the Southern Baptist Texan about my award-winning book based on the true crime.)

Who Was St. Nicholas?

 By Jennifer Uhlarik

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Thank you for carving out a few minutes from family, cooking, gifts, and whatever else your Christmas Day may hold to stop by and visit with us here at Heroes, Heroines, and History. I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say we wish you the best holiday possible!

 

A few days ago, my husband stumbled across an article that said that archaeologists and researchers have found what they hope to be the real sarcophagus of Saint Nicholas in Demre, Antalya, Turkey. This might be a surprising development to you (just as it was to me), since his bones are thought to be held in the Basilica of San Nicola in Bari, Italy—but they were originally buried in his hometown of Myra and later stolen by Italian sailors and moved to the Bari location. Supposedly, this find in Turkey is thought to be the original sarcophagus he was buried in before his bones were moved. Those connected to the find hope they will see his name written or engraved in the sarcophagus to prove that it was, in fact, his.

 

Anyway, all this got me thinking, and I realized that I’ve long known Saint Nicholas was the inspiration for our modern-day Santa Claus, but I don’t know much about the historical figure of St. Nicholas. So…in case you’re like me, I thought I’d share a few details on this Christmas day. 

Victorian image of Santa Claus,
(Found on: Graphics Fairy)

 

Accounts of Saint Nicholas’s life were not recorded for centuries after his death (thought to be on December 6, 343 A.D.), so most of what we know may be embellishments of the truth. Traditionally, Nicholas was said to have been born on March 15, 270 A.D., in what we know today as the Antalya Province of Turkey. His parents, Theophanes and Nonna, were devout Christians who yearned for a child. One source says they prayed and wept for thirty years before Nicholas was born to them. His parents raised him well and set the example of charitable giving to those in need.

 

His early life, in my findings, is mostly lost to history, although it is known that he had an uncle, also named Nicholas, who was an abbot for the local monastery. Young Nicholas looked up to his uncle and spent much time with him and the monastery monks as they did their daily chants and other religious tasks. It is thought that his parents died of some sort of plague, and upon their deaths (when Nicholas was a young teen), he went to live with his uncle. His parents had apparently left him a good inheritance.

 

Nicholas followed in his uncle’s footsteps by taking a pilgrimage to The Holy Land. He supposedly boarded a ship, and quickly, he had a dream of a storm befalling their ship. He told the sailors of his dream, but they dismissed his concerns. Almost immediately, a storm did arise, and as the sailors fought to keep the ship from ruin, Nicholas prayed for the tempest to be calmed. Miraculously, it did grow calm, but not before one sailor fell to the deck from a mast and died. Again, taking to prayer, Nicholas stormed heaven until the sailor was raised from the dead. They made it to their destination, Nicholas walked the Holy Land, and visited many sites where Christ had been in the gospel accounts, including Golgotha—where Jesus was crucified.

Portrait of Bishop Nicholas,
painted by Jaroslav Čermák

 

Upon his return home, Nicholas became the bishop of Myra, supposedly in a rather miraculous way. The old bishop had died, and the others were seeking God for who should replace him. God spoke to one man and said that the first young man to enter the door for the sunrise service the following morning was the one to replace the deceased bishop. The word of God was even so specific as to include the name of the young man. As it turns out, it was Nicholas. The following day, Nicholas, son of Theophanes and Nonna was the first to arrive and was promptly told that he was to become the next bishop. He insisted he was not worthy of such a position, but the men of God at Myra would hear none of it, and Nicholas became the bishop at a young age.

 

He is best known as the patron saint of children and sailors, but he also was known for secret gift-giving and for miracles that came from his intercession, so much so that he became known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. So what sorts of secret gift-giving or miracles was he known for? Again, these stories may very well be embellishments of true happenings, but they make great stories, even if they aren’t completely accurate.

 

In one instance, Nicholas learned of a man with three daughters. The man had once been rich but had fallen on hard times. So hard, in fact, that he would not be able to pay the dowries expected for his daughter to marry well, leaving the three young women uncertain lives of prostitution or other slavery. Nicholas took some of his own inheritance and threw it into the window of the impoverished family’s home. As chance would have it, the money landed in a damp sock that had been left near the fire to dry. Come morning, the father found enough money to marry off his oldest daughter. Not long after, Nicholas returned to the house and again pitched a sizeable bag of money into the window, affording the middle daughter a dowry and assuring her a good marriage. By this time, the father was determined to know who this secret supporter was and waited days until a third bag of money was tossed through the home’s open window. The father rushed out to find Nicholas and thank him, though Nicholas asked the man to keep the secret of his unexpected provision. (Of course, with the first money landing in the sock put near the fire, it is thought this was the basis for our Christmas tradition of leaving gifts inside of stockings hung near the fire).

St. Nicholas at Greek Orthodox
Church (Photo by Petr Kratochvil)

A second incident tells of a time of famine, when Nicholas was greatly concerned for the people of Myra. In one version of the story, Nicholas was praying for grain for his people, and he appeared to a ship captain’s dream, promising him three gold coins if he would bring his shipment of grain to Myra. When the man awoke, he found the three promised coins already in his hand, and went to provide what was requested in the dream. In another version of the same miracle, Nicholas went to a merchant, asking for grain from each of his ships—but the merchant refused because his grain was already weighed, and he would be held accountable for any shortfall. Nicholas assured him there would be no shortfall if he provided grain for the people of Myra. Finally, Nicholas prevailed. The merchant sold him the grain—a hundred bushels from each ship—and went on to report to the buyer. Upon weighing the shipments, there was no shortfall whatsoever, and the grain sold to Nicholas for Myra lasted the full length of the famine, as well as provided enough to plant a good crop.

 

Nicholas’s life is marked by other such stories of justice, faith, and miraculous happenings, making him a beloved figure in the history of the world—and because of them, it is easy to see how he could have become the model, despite the over-commercialized version of our modern-day Santa Claus figure. No matter what, Nicholas was a man of God we can look up to for his love and giving nature.

 

I hope you enjoyed learning a few small facts about this historical man who became legend. And I hope you will have a blessed and merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

 

Available for Pre-Order (Coming April 1, 2025):

 

Love and Order by Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings of Callie, Andie, and Rion have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice. When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

 

What do Dutch Windmill Cookies have to do with Christmas?

If you’ve ever bitten into a home-baked speculaas, or Dutch windmill cookie, you need no convincing that every Christmas should include these tasty treats. What do Dutch windmills have to do with Christmas? More than it may seem. 

To understand the connection, let’s go back to the fourth century, when the real St. Nicholas gave away his substantial inheritance to feed people in need. Nicholas of Patara became Bishop of Myra, a town that was then in Greece but is now part of Turkey. Nicholas devoted himself to God at a time when that was dangerous. He suffered for his faith under the brutality of the Roman emperor Galerius, who wanted to stamp out Christianity. Nicholas’s many kindnesses became the stuff of legend and eventually inspired the modern-day Santa Claus.

Every year, In parts of northern Europe, folks celebrate the life of this noble man. On St. Nicholas Eve (December 5th), children put out letters for St. Nicholas and put out shoes, stockings, or plates in anticipation of the gifts that will fill them. Before retiring, they offer carrots or grass for St. Nicholas’s donkey or horse. The children wake on St. Nicholas Day to speculaas cookies, candies, and other gifts in the vessels they set out the night before or under their pillows.

But why bake windmill cookies for Christmas? 

According to tradition, Nicholas lived in a windmill by the sea. By this simple reminder, the people of Holland honor the memory of a noble man who sought to live humbly, like his Savior, who was born in a lowly manger. 

The history of speculaas cookies is wonderful, but I would bake them for the taste alone. If you’ve ever eaten a bland, commercially-baked windmill cookie, you don’t really know what true speculaas tastes like. 

Some people lump speculaas in with gingerbread cookies and some confuse the recipes. Speculaas does contain ginger, but its flavor is much more complex. The dough is laced by a centuries-old spice mixture known as speculaaskruiden (speculaas spices), which includes cinnamon, cloves, mace, ginger, pepper, cardamom, coriander, anise seeds and nutmeg. You read that right. Speculaas cookies contain pepper. Don't knock it before you try it. In telling you, these cookies are heavenly. 

Various theories exist as to why Dutch windmill cookies are called speculaas, which probably came from the Latin “speculum,” which means mirror. Pressing the dough into wooden molds or imprinting it with an embossing roller does create a mirrored pattern. Those are two traditional practices, but you don’t need special equipment to make these time-honored treats. Using regular cookie cutters works just fine, as I can attest. Other options are to cut the dough with a knife, or form it with your hands. This year, I ordered a windmill mold which I’m a little nervous to try. Dusting the mold with rice flour before adding the dough does the trick At least, it did in the online video I watched.

I can’t recommend this speculaas recipe enough. I’ve used it for years. Baking the cookies makes my house smell like Christmas, and my family's eyes light when they come out of the oven. Why not add this delightful treat to your own Christmas celebration?

Over to You

What is your favorite Christmas cookie? What memories does it bring back for you?

What’s New with Janalyn Voigt

I’m almost finished shopping and decorating for Christmas. Between attending events and visiting with friends and family, I’m stealing away to read through the manuscript for The Whispering Wind one last time. My publisher gives me the opportunity to proofread my work after all editing changes are finished. Such careful scrutiny requires patience and the ability to focus. I’ll have more of both once the Christmas tasks are finished. Meanwhile, here’s me wishing you a very Merry Christmas. See you next month.

Janalyn Voigt

Explore faith, love and courage in the American West. 

 Discover Montana Gold

Dash Away All!

By Kathy Kovach

T’was two weeks before Christmas and I at my laptop

Was pondering reindeer, both flying and full stop.
When was it, thought I, that the beast became fable?
What catapulted it to sky from the stable?

A story, a poem, a coloring book?
All definitely needed a second look.
So, I proceeded to research as my deadline loomed,
And my knowledge of said reindeer bloomed and bloomed.

Remember this Christmas to look toward the moon,
For one (or eight, or nine, or ten) tiny reindeer may be flying by soon.

-A poem by Kathleen E. Kovach, December 2022

Why was it the reindeer that became legend? Why not a flying horse, goat, or dare I suggest, a flying squirrel? Okay, the last one has never typically pulled a sleigh, but it’s a fun image.

Reindeer are indigenous to Northern Europe and Asia. Norway, specifically, has the highest concentration. The thought of a flying beast may have come from their belief in the Norse god Odin who flew on a large, white, eight-legged horse named Sleipner. Odin was said to visit children. They would set out boots filled with hay and carrots for the horse. In return, Odin left them small gifts. His son Thor rode through the sky on a chariot pulled by two magical horned goats.

Sleipner

Could these myths have led to the thought of a magical gift giver and his sleigh?

We know that Saint Nicholas was a real person, a bishop in the early Christian church during the time of the Roman empire. His legend grew to where he rode a white horse from village to village to deliver presents to the children.

Recalling the earlier legend, the thought of a flying beast of burden infiltrated the imagination, and in the 1812 story, “Old Santeclaus with Much Delight: The Children's Friend: A New-Year's Present, to the Little Ones from Five to Twelve” a singular reindeer appeared on the pages. Thus, the thought of flying caribou was born. Written anonymously, the publisher revealed that the author had learned about reindeer from his mother who shared stories of indigenous people.

As printed in An American Anthology, 1787–1900, 6th impression between 1900 and 1909.
Wikipedia

Then, in 1823, another story in poem form caught hold. “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, or more popularly, “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore, became the anthem of children everywhere. Now, not merely one reindeer would do, but eight tiny creatures escorted St. Nicholas from house to house. This poem may also have been the first suggestion that Santa was an elf, a right jolly old one to be exact. But that’s another article for another time.

The tradition of eight reindeer stuck for seventy-nine years until it was challenged by L. Frank Baum in 1902 who suggested ten would do a better job. In “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus,” their names were different than Moore’s offering. Baum's version was never accepted because Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder, and Blixem, (the latter eventually changed to Donner and Blitzen,) had become entrenched in American tradition. Those who read Baum’s book simply said, “That’s a nice story,” and returned to what they knew and loved.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 
1948
Max Fleischer Director
Adaptation by Joe Stultz

It wasn’t until a marketing campaign in 1939 for Montgomery Ward department store did a new character emerge in the Christmas lexicon. Ward’s in-house advertising copywriter Robert L. May was approached to write a poem that could be included in coloring books and given away to customers when they made a purchase. He pulled from his childhood, a disturbing one where he’d been bullied, and created Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, and thus, a new favorite emerged. Rudolph, who had been ostracized by his peers (and even Santa himself, with which I take issue), snatched the hearts of every child who felt the same. And evidently, parents as well, for they bought all the Rudolph merch they could find. They still do 120 years later. The tiny, humble soul managed to become the ninth reindeer, and we are so much better for it.

And that's the evolution of imagination in flight.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

A fun side note: My mother was working at Montgomery Ward at the age of eighteen when they introduced the marketing campaign. Of course, she couldn’t share that with me until I was older.

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother—and soon-to-be great-grandmother—though much too young for that. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

Website
Blog With A Giggle
CraftCinema

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Christmas on the Prairies in the 1860s-1880s – by Donna Schlachter

 

Christmas, 1876

Many of the images we conjure regarding Christmas have been around for a long time, including Christmas trees, Christmas pudding, fruitcake, and Santa Claus. Some are strictly American in origin, including the notion of Santa as a jolly, old elf. Most were brought to this country by immigrants from primarily Europe, including Germany, England, and France.

Cattle in snow storm

 

And while much of the more civilized parts of America were enjoying many of these traditions, life was much harder on the prairies, where a single winter storm or a poor crop due to insects or drought could mean the difference between life and death.

Farming and ranching still require attention to fields and stock every single day of the year, leaving no room for the week-long festivities we often enjoy today. Neglecting chores could mean no food tomorrow—or even today.

Plenty of food, with enough to share

Still, many families, particularly those with children, endeavored to set apart the day and celebrate Jesus’ birth. Laura Ingalls Wilder, who famously catalogued life on the prairies in her series, Little House on the Prairie, says that her mother cooked all day long, baking bread, beans, and pies.

In the forts, soldiers caroled while venison roasted over an open hearth. Depending on their country of origin, a family might bring in a Christmas tree, although perhaps they’d have hung it by the trunk from a beam. Children gathered at the kitchen table to make homemade decorations, including miniature corn husk dolls or yarn angels. If there was a little extra cookie dough available, they cut out gingerbread men and punched a hole in the raw dough, stringing a piece of ribbon or yarn through after it was baked before hanging it on the tree.

Preserved fruit and vegetables were enjoyed, with the women often beginning the process weeks in advance.

Yarn doll

 

Gifts were simple, usually homemade, and most often something the person needed. Knitted and sewn items such as caps, mitts, and scarves were favorites, as well as occasionally socks or a sweater. Knit or carved toys for the little ones were also enjoyed, and if the family enjoyed a good year financially, perhaps a few candies, fresh fruit, or a small gift from the mercantile in town would appear in their stockings, which were hung on Christmas Eve, often after church service or a time of family singing in their own home.

Carved toys

 

Following is a recipe used by Mrs. Isabel Beeton, a native of England:

Victoria Sandwiches

4 eggs (weigh them in their shells)

Caster sugar, equal to the weight of the eggs

Butter, equal to the weight of the eggs

Flour, equal to the weight of the eggs

¼ teaspoon salt

Jam or marmalade, of any kind

Cream the butter for about five minutes then add the sugar and beat for about two-three minutes. Add the eggs and beat for three minutes. Add the flour and salt and beat for an additional five minutes.

Butter a 9”x9” baking tin and pour in the batter. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for doneness. Allow to cool on a cake rack.

Cut the cake in half and spread the jam over the bottom of the cake. Place the other half of the cake on top and gently press the pieces together. Cut them into long finger pieces. Pile them in crossbars on a glass dish and serve.

***

Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery and Household Management, Isabella Beeton,
1874, London.

 

However you celebrate your Christmas this year, despite the changing world we live in and restrictions on numbers permitted in a group, I pray you’ll find the true meaning and joy of the season—Jesus becoming Emmanuel, God with us—and carry that with you all year through.

 

 

Resources:

https://truewestmagazine.com/christmas-on-the-frontier/

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-christmas/

 

 

About Donna:

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and they have been published more than 30 times in novellas, full-length novels, devotional books, and books on the writing craft. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In Crime, Pikes Peak Writers, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches writing classes online and in person. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.

 

Where to find me online:

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