Letter to the Editor written by Bertha Ireland published in the New Canaan Advertiser December 13, 1990
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mrs. Ireland, a life-long resident of New Canaan, grew up on a farm here on property where she still lives and attended a local one-room schoolhouse.
Editor, Advertiser,
At this time of the year, memories of an old-fashioned Christmas come to mind.
My mother, father, sisters and brothers have departed and I am alone, but I recall our simple but wonderful holidays.
We didn’t think seriously about Christmas until Thanksgiving had been celebrated. We did, however, go into the neighboring woods early in November and gather greens for our wreaths. We would take a feed or burlap bag and gather ground and princess pine. Making the wreaths was a family project. After our evening meal, the family would gather around our big table in front of the kitchen range and tie the wreaths by lamp light. These wreaths would be hung on the outside of the windows and we would not be in a hurry to take them down.
The school entertainment in our one-room schoolhouse, was the highlight of the season. Our cleaver teacher would see that each pupil took part, either with a recitation or in a play. I remember once when she wanted me to be Mrs. Santa Claus and I didn’t care for Mr. Claus so another boy was chosen for the part. We always got an orange and a small container of hard candy, a big treat!
We also had an entertainment at Sunday School where we received another orange and more hard candy.
Our Christmas tree was a freshly cut cedar tree. We trimmed it with popcorn and cranberry strings, as well as some old-fashioned ornaments and clip on candles. Our gifts were simple, mostly homemade such as mittens, hats, and sweaters.
The big event was the Christmas meal. Mostly it was chicken roasted with a loin of pork. We always had hubbard squash. It had a particularly hard shell. I remember my mother using the axe to cut it in half to bake in the oven. Our vegetables were home grown, potatoes to be mashed, onions to cream. We also had pickled beets and many other pickles, home canned, of course. My favorite was a mustard pickle consisting of cauliflower buds, pearl onions, tiny string beans in a delicious mustard sauce. Dessert was many home-made pies, fruit-cake and cookies.
After the meal candy, cookies, dried fruits in the form of dates, figs and bunch raisins and nuts were placed on the long sideboard where we could go on grazing all afternoon.
We always had a snow-white damask cloth on the table with our best China and silver. My father was at the head of the table and carved and placed the meat on a plate which was passed to my mother who served the vegetables.
After I had my own family, we had some wonderful Christmases of while I shall write in the future.
May you all have happy and joyous holidays, not forgetting, of course, to pray for our service people, may they return to our shores soon.
BERTHA IRELAND
Gathering Roots 