Virginian Christmas a Heritage from Many Lands

Christmas Trees Originated in Germany,
While Much of Traditional Feasting
Came From Merrie England;
Legends of Old World

By Georgia Dickinson Wardlaw

Christmas in the Old Dominion invariably runs true to the Virginian's English heritage of those ancient customs and traditions that made for a real old-fashioned Merrie Christmas in the England of our ancestors.

True there are some slight variations in our Christmas celebration that differ from those in the British Isles, but essentially the two are the same. In Virginia, such worthy movements as the Christmas Mother or "Joy Fund" and their kind may take the place of what is known as "Boxing Day" in England, when the poor go the rounds with a Christmas box asking for money, but the objective and ultimate results are one and the same.

If the custom of singing Christmas carols by groups of young people who go from door to door does not generally prevail in Virginia as it has for centuries in England, we at least have the opportunity of hearing old Christmas hymns and carols sung by trained choirs in our various churches on Christmas eve. And so, the strains of "Silent Night," "The First Noel" and "God Rest You Merrie Gentlemen" are wafted to our eager hearts and ears all the same.

The traditional custom of bringing evergreens into one's home; the gaily decked Christmas tree; the giving of gifts; family reunions; those rich foods--plum pudding and mincement--all are as integral a part of the Virginian's Christmas as they are of his English cousins.

Here, the native turkey takes precedence over the boar's head in England, and frothy syllabub and creamy eggnog--"as smooth and mellow as Southern moonlight"--is the Virginian's equivalent of the great "Wassail" which, in Anglo-Saxon meant "To your health"--and was ladled from a huge silver bowl. Still, the underlying spirit of hospitality and cheer, joy and good-will is one and the same.

Alas! The twentieth-century conveniences of regulated heat may deprive many Virginians of even so much as a faint gesture toward burning the traditional Yule Log of our English ancestors, but there was a time--"befo de war" when the old custom of burning the Yule Log prevailed in parts of Tidewater Virginia.

In Virginia today there are a few old-timers with remarkable memories, who have given charming and interesting accounts of how their grandfather's slaves were instructed every autumn to cut huge logs from sturdy black gun trees, roll them into near-by creeks and runs, and allow them to absorb the moisture. When, on Christmas morning, the slave would light the logs in the great open fireplaces, they were promised by their master or mistress that so long as the logs burned, they might have uninterrupted holiday. Imagine, the unbridled joy and mirth of the ante-bellum darky, who, realizing that the black gum logs were fully saturated with water, found to their amazement and delight that the logs burned from eight to 10 days! For good luck, a chunk--charred and gray, was invariably kept for the next Christmas.

Observances of Other Lands Brought Here

All of these Christmas observances are however mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin. What of other customs brought to Virginia by early settlers who were not English? The French Huguenots who fled to Virginia in 1699 - 1700 and founded the Colony of Manakin and settled in Goochland and Powhatan? The Scotch-Irish who migrated from Pennsylvania to Virginia before the Revolution, clearing the wilderness of Augusta, Rockingham and Clarke Counties? Or the Germans who settled the Shenandoah Valley, and founded a Colony at Germanna?

Many Christmas customs and traditions were brought to Virginia by these French, German, Scotch, Irish--customs that still prevail in many parts of the State today. In Richmond's small but staunch foreign-born colony (a mere two per cent of the city's entire population) and quaint and colorful Italian, Syrian, Greek, and Scandinavian observances of Christmas find expression, year in and out, in their homes and communities.

Those who had the rare privilege year before last of visiting the Valentine Museum in Richmond and viewing the Christmas exhibits depicting yuletide customs in other lands from which this small group of Virginia citizens have come, will long remember each exhibit characterizing the German, Italian, Syrian, Scandinavian and Czechoslavakian Christmas. And what is more, will welcome with real enthusiasm the announcement that this year the museum plans to have a similar exhibit.

Quaint German Tree Delighted Visitors

A sight which seemed to delight the largest number of visitors during the 1934 Christmas Exhibit was an old-fashioned revolving tree mounted on a music box which played "Silent Night" and "Ihr Kinderlein Kommet," and was part of the German display. Both the revolving tree and the music box were brought to Virginia from Germany half a century ago, and have been in the same family for several generations--and more interesting still, in continuous use. The little tree, decorated with iced cookies in the shape of birds, rabbits, and hearts, gilded nuts and pine cones, was displayed just as it has appeared in a German home in Richmond each Christmas for the past fifty years.

Bethlehem "crippe" featured the Syrian exhibit, while the Italian display centered about the fireplace of a little improvised stone cottage. Wreaths of fresh fruit and flowers hung from the walls, and flickering candle-light and the deep glow of an open fire illumined the scene.

Bowls of rice and milk placed out each Christmas eve for the tiny elves who visit all Danish homes and bring good fortune at Christmastime, was part of the Scandinavian exhibit, while the Czechoslovakian display was largely a religious one, as in that country the Christmas festival is fraught with great reverence.

Christmas in France differs greatly from our own. There, for instance, the reveillon or Christmas eve feast, is of more importance to the Frenchman than Christmas dinner is to us, while Christmas Day is not primarily gift day, but presents are held for distribution on New Year's Day instead. Particularly in Paris, Christmas eve is a muchly celebrated fete, when cafes are crowded and open all night for the Christmas reveillion, and midnight mass at all churches is attended by the entire populace.

Of French Christmas customs and traditions, there are quite a few. Noel cakes are baked, and the Yule Log is the principal home feature of Christmas. Part of the log is kept from one year to the next with which to start the fire and is christened with grain, brandy and wine. All of the days between Christmas and the Feast of the Epiphany are days for celebrating.

The French Bonhomme Noel or Pere Noel (Father Christmas) distributes gifts, or etrennes, as the French call them, to the little ones on Christmas eve--leaving them in the little sabots (wooden shoes) instead of on the Christmas tree or in the stockings hung by the fireplace. Among the peasantry, there are seldom ever more than a few trinkets and some sweetmeats. But in Paris, Christmas is nowhere gayer. The presence of many Americans there as residents, has tended to popularize the Christmas tree, and in many Parisian homes, the tree is gradually displacing the petits sabots.

In Poland, curious wafers are made of flour and water especially as a Christmas delicacy. Legends are similar to those in Germany. Many peasants still believe that the heavens open on Christmas and the scene of Joseph's Ladder is re-enacted, but only the saints are permitted to look on.

Christmas Customs in Italy, Russia and Sweden

In Italy, the sixth of January is the time for gifts. Here, on the Eve of Epiphany, children hang their stockings before the hearth fire and go to bed to await the cry--"Ecco la Befana"--when they jump up to find the presents awarded for good behavior during the twelve months. A stocking of ashes (which no doubt has its parallel in the dreaded bag of switches brought to undeserving American boys and girls) is the award for bad behavior. Elder Italians take their presents from a sort of grab-bag or "Urn of Fate" and the traditional Italian Christmas feast is of fish and nougats.

In rural Russia under the old regime, peasants assembled on Christmas eve, and forming a procession, visited the houses of the higher dignitaries where they sang carols and received gifts. In Russia, this procession, made up of young and old, always formed at sunset and was known as the Kolenda. At the conclusion, the peasants joined in a masquerade at which they impersonated the animals symbolic of the Nativity in the Manger--chiefly, cows, pigs, and goats.

At the appearance of the evening star, a Colatzia was served, which was simply a supper or ritual, when the peasants sat down to a table covered with straw, and the sacred rites of dividing the blessed water and giving a small portion to each guest was performed. In Old Russia, gifts were always distributed on Twelfth Night, but under the present regime, most if not all of these quaint customs doubtless have been relegated to the past--that part of Russia's colorful past which belong to the Czars.

In Sweden, a large package known as Julklapp contains the Swedish gifts, which invariably are in much wrapped bundles and boxes. A common custom on Christmas eve is to place the shoes of all the family in a row to signify a pledge of family harmony during the coming year. The Bible is read and family services are held, after which gifts are distributed. As evening falls, the reunited family sits down to the traditional meal of fish and porridge. With this simple fare disposed of, members of the family gather about the Christmas tree, which in the more metropolitan centers, is the tree familiar to all Americans--gay with tinsel and ornaments and glittering with countless small lighted candles.

"There is not a peasant in all Sweden who will sit down with his children to a Christmas dinner until he has first raised aloft a Christmas dinner for the little birds that live in the cold and snow without," writes a former Minister to Sweden. The Swedes erect in the center of their dooryard a pole, at the top of which has been found a sheaf of grain.

Scandinavia is especially the land of the Yule Log, and a quaint surviving custom is that which one sees in many villages,--of leaving a lighted candle in the windows to give light to Kristine who brings the gifts.

In the German Alps it is believed that the cattle acquire the gift of language on Christmas Eve, and no one is permitted to eavesdrop, for it is believed that the cattle kneel in adoration. One reads too, with interest, of the less serious side of the German's Christmas, when little German children look forward to the visit of the Christ-like and Knave-Ruprecht, who, closely muffled, comes knocking at the door. Inquiring as to the behavior of the children since his last visit, and finding it to be satisfactory, Knave-Ruprecht scatters apples and nuts with a lavish hand, from a bag he carries on his shoulder. Again, one hears of the German Kriss Kringle, derived from Krist-Kindlein or little Christ Child, who plays a similar role to Pere Noel in France.

In Germany, decorating the house is begun on the morning of the 24th, with one room reserved for the tree and gifts, and closed off from the others. A feast is spread on the dining room table with honey and ginger cakes everywhere in evidence, and by 5 o'clock the guests begin to arrive for the Christmas eve feast. At 6 o'clock doors are opened and the tree is disclosed in all of its brilliance, while gifts are distributed and "everyone kisses everyone else."

Christmas Tree Had Origin in Germany

The Christmas tree, as we have really come to know and visualize it, had its origin in Germany, and it was the marriage of Queen Victoria to a German Prince which led to the introduction of the tree into England.

When their oldest child, the Princess Victoria, was five years old, her father set up a tree on Christmas eve--German fashion--in the nursery at Windsor Castle. Almost eight feet high with the figure of an angel with outstretched wings placed at its top, the tree was adorned with dozens of wax candles, while bright colored candies, gilt gingerbread, fancy cakes, toys and dolls completed its brilliant and lavish decorations. This set the precedent of the Christmas tree in Great Britain, and the next year a Christmas tree blazed and twinkled in "every English household."

An interesting fact, however, is that the Christmas tree came to America before it did to England--German settlers bringing the custom with them. From no less an authoritative source than the Valentine Museum, the first Christmas tree in Virginia was introduced by the Reverend Dr. Minngerode, rector of St. Paul's Church, Richmond, during the War Between the States. Just what this tree looked like, and in whose home it stood, would indeed be interesting to know.