'Not much of a festival day'

Christmas less celebratory in early Arkansas

It is believed that the first celebration of Christmas in Arkansas occurred in 1698 when Jesuit priests at Arkansas Post conducted a Christmas Eve Mass. In the more than three centuries since, Arkansans have celebrated Christmas in a variety of ways, and sometimes not at all.

How Christmas was celebrated depended in large measure on the ethnicity or country of origin of Arkansas settlers. A visitor to Arkansas in the early 1830s wrote that Christmas was little noted "with the exception of the Episcopalians who still adhere to the festival customs of the mother country." German immigrants also brought their Christmas traditions to America, which included decorating Christmas trees.

Although Arkansas officially recognized Dec. 25 as Christmas day in 1838, celebrations were slow to come to rural areas. John Quincy Wolf, who grew up near the White River just south of Calico Rock, recalled in his memoirs that in his area "during the 1870s Christmas was not a holiday and not much of a festival day." However, John and his siblings did hang stockings on Christmas Eve, finding them filled with fruits and sweets.

Like many rural residents, the Wolf family did not put up a Christmas tree. Families, especially in rural areas, celebrated Christmas with a community Christmas tree. Until well into the 20th century families gathered on Christmas Eve at local schools or churches for a group celebration. A large tree normally stood at the front of the room, its boughs draped in homemade popcorn strings and tied with bows. Gifts were usually distributed to the children in attendance.

One Christmas practice which arrived in Arkansas along with early European immigrants was the burning of a Yule log. This tradition involved placing a large log in the fireplace on Christmas Eve. Since labor was suspended as long as the Yule log burned, workers were known to seek out a large green sweet gum or elm trunk -- which was sometimes surreptitiously soaked in water before being placed at the back of the fireplace.

The freedom symbolized by the Yule log was especially important to enslaved people. John Quincy Wolf recalled that "the slaves exercised a good deal of ingenuity in selecting green or slow-burning varieties of firewood in order to prolong their Christmas freedom to the utmost."

It is not surprising that Christmas became a favored holiday for slaves. Urban slaves in particular filled Christmas with parties and dances. John Brown, a prominent Camden leader and slave owner, wrote in his diary in 1853: "It is a human as well as a wise regulation to allow them [slaves] a few days as a Jubilee, and they enjoy it. All are brushing up, putting on their best riggings, and with boisterous joy hailing the approach of the Holy days, while we are in some degree relieved of the particular oversight of them. So, all are happy."

German immigrants to Arkansas brought distinctive Christmas traditions with them. The Hoeltzel family of Little Rock, for example, celebrated Christmas for a month, beginning on Dec. 6 with St. Nicholas Day and continuing through Twelfth Night, the evening of celebration before Epiphany on Jan. 6. Pauline Hoeltzel, who was born in Little Rock on Jan. 1, 1900, recalled the strong aromas drifting from the kitchen. As an old woman, she recalled how her family experimented with new foods, including Karo corn syrup and Jell-O. The Christmas when she first ate a new concoction known as Waldorf salad was particularly memorable.

The Civil War ruined many Christmas celebrations, perhaps none more so than that of the German-immigrant Hermann family of Dutch Mills, in western Washington County. Though the family tried to remain neutral during the rebellion, by December 1862 they were forced to flee to the safety of St. Louis.

The Hermann party, consisting of 19 people including 11 children under age 10, stopped over in Fayetteville on Christmas Eve. One woman, Nanni Hermann, wrote in her diary: "We camped near a spring at the north end of that village, where we spent Christmas day. But the Christ child had lost its magic. Looking up at the star-studded sky on Christmas Eve, our memory saw again the lighted Christmas trees in our distant Fatherland."

Perhaps the Christmas of 2016 will bring some cheer and good will to a nation as politically divided, perhaps, as it was when Mrs. Hermann wrote in her diary.

Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at [email protected].

NAN Profiles on 12/25/2016

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