Fireworks and Fruit: Memories of Old Kentucky Christmases

As a native Kentuckian, I’m fascinated by stories of life in my state before I was born. The books I’m writing now are set in the western part of the state not far from where I grew up, in a region then known as “Between the Rivers,” which now makes up a federal area called Land Between the Lakes.

While researching early 20th Century life in this area, I found interesting memories of former residents about the Christmases of their childhood, from 1900 to World War II.

Nearly everyone recalled getting a fresh orange, either in their stocking if the family followed that tradition, or among their other presents. One woman named Rebecca, whose family did not have a mantel, recalled placing a “special chair” for Santa to leave her presents.

The holiday season was the only time oranges and other tropical fruits were available. One year, her father obtained a full stalk of bananas, which the family hung in a corner of the living room as part of the Christmas decorations.

Firecrackers were another typical present for the children, something that would be frowned on by most parents today. Rebecca said she and her siblings would rise around 4 a.m. on Christmas morning, take a shovel of hot coals from the wood stove, and go outside to light and shoot off the firecrackers.

While snow was not common in

in western Kentucky, and rarely

was there a white Christmas, children

and adults took advantage of it when

it did arrive. In this photo from winter

1951, young Tom Nickell perched atop

a huge snowman, supported from

behind by his hidden father. 

A man named Ted remembered his grandfather’s tradition of “blowing the anvil” on Christmas Day. His grandpa, a blacksmith, would take an anvil with a hole in it, fill the hole with gunpowder, run a fuse a good distance away, then ignite the fuse. When the fuse ignited the gunpowder, the resulting explosion would blow the anvil “as high as a man’s head.”

Ted’s cousin Sallie described a similar Christmas Eve tradition, where Grandpa would take the family to his blacksmith shop, put gunpowder into the forge fire and pump the bellows to set off a mini-explosion, showering the entire shop with sparks.

The adults also made torches by wrapping worn-out stockings around long sticks and soaking them in coal oil. An array of these torches would be set in the ground in the front yard and then lit.

For the most part, this region did not have electricity until the 1940s, but the people sure knew how to light up their Christmas celebrations!

Parents had to be creative when it came to gifts, too. One year, Rebecca received a toy wagon made by her daddy and uncle from white oak, crafted exactly like a real wagon. Mothers often knitted the Christmas stockings and made other presents, such as dolls or doll clothing, as well as new clothing for the children.

The Shirley Temple doll topped the
1935 Christmas wish list for many
Kentucky girls.

The first doll Gertrude received was one called a “Limber Jim,” made of material stuffed with sawdust. When money was available, she said, there might be a pistol for the boys and a small china doll for the girls, maybe a little red wagon or “a small, square box with a jump-up Santa in it”—what we know as a jack-in-the box.

Typically, Christmas Day activities included a trip to grandparents’ house for dinner. Food included, Rebecca said, “real” country ham and gravy, chicken and dressing, beans, potato salad, sweet potatoes, hoop cheese, and fruit salad. Dessert consisted of cakes of various flavors, including orange, banana, chocolate, and fresh coconut. Her favorite was an orange cake with fresh orange slices in the icing.

After dinner, a hunting party would form for squirrels or rabbits, with the men using dogs and guns, boys using rocks and sticks. Rebecca remembered one Christmas when the boys brought back more game than the men.

Then, as now, celebrating Christmas meant gathering with family, sharing a meal, presents for the children, and special traditions. The traditions may change but the reason for celebrating the birth of Jesus remains the same over the years.

What are some of your family’s Christmas traditions, and how far back did they begin?

Source:

Between the Rivers magazine, formerly published in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, Winter 1999-2000, Summer 2000, and Holiday 2000 editions. Information taken from articles written by Doyle Marshall, Gertrude Savells Wilson, and Rebecca Byrd.

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, which takes place during construction of Kentucky Dam, placed third in Inspirational Romance in the nationally recognized Maggie Awards, and second in Historical Christian Romance in the Touched By Love Awards.

When the bright lights of Broadway dim, the glow of home in western Kentucky beckons. This historical short story, “All That Glistens,” was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes vintage recipes.

Dear Santa-...

According to Santa, one of the most popular items in recent years was the Apple iPad.  I couldn’t help but smile upon discovering that the most requested item in letters to Santa in the 1800s was—an apple.

1871 Thomas Nast for Harper's weekly-Library of Congress

The tradition of writing to Santa started in 1871 when Harper’s Weekly published a cartoon by Thomas Nast showing Santa sitting at his desk reading letters.

Fortunately, letters to Santa were often published in newspapers, giving us a look into the hearts of Victorian children and society as a whole.

The form of the letter hasn’t changed much through the years. Most letters include a testament to good behavior, although Santa might well shake his head today if he received the following:

Dear Santa, I’m 12 years old and have been good. Please bring me cigarettes.  Your friend, Paul.

Then as now, girls generally wrote longer letters than boys and tended to be more social, asking after Santa’s wife or reindeer.

The Sears Wish Book was mentioned in many letters:

Dear Santa, you can send me one of everything from the boys' section of the Sears catalogue. But nothing from the girls' section. - Kent

Many letters in the 1800s inquired as to Santa’s health. This puzzled me, until one letter writer cleared up the mystery.  It seems that parents unable to afford Christmas toys told their kiddies that Santa was sick and couldn’t come. 

I was surprised by the number of girls asking for boy dolls.  I didn’t know they had boy dolls back then.  Since a popular way of celebrating Christmas was to shoot off fireworks, it wasn’t surprising to find a number of requests for roman candles and pop crackers—mostly from boys.  Trains, baby carriages and marbles were also popular items. 

Some children depended on Santa for ideas, as this letter from Henry Ford’s son attests:

Dear Santa Claus:
I Havent Had Any Christmas Tree in 4 Years And I Have Broken My Trimmings And I Want A Pair of Roller Skates And A Book, I Cant Think Of Any Thing More. I Want You To Think O Something More. Good By. Edsel Ford

It was tempting at times to read between the lines:

Dear Santa, I had an accident happen to me not long ago.  Please bring a rifle.  Your friend Amos

Then there was this:

Dear Santa, I write these lines because my stomach is very empty and keeps flip-flopping; Please send a barrel of nuts, 14 pounds of candy, a small barrel of molasses and chewing gum.

Santa, it seemed, could do anything: One little girl asked for a cradle and washboard and a “sweetheart for my teacher, Miss Georgia.”

One thing that really stood out was the charitable nature of children.  Many letters contained pleas for poor children. In 1893, a little Texas boy named Louis St. Clair “bursted” his bank to send Santa twenty-five cents to give to the “poor little sick boy.”

Requests for teddy bears started popping up in the early 1900s, as did something called an Irish Mail.

Children didn’t always receive their heart’s desire, which probably explains the number of letters that ended like this: “And don’t try to fool me.”

Merry Christmas to All of You From All of Us!

 It's Never Too Late For a Little Christmas Romance

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