You know the line in “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” by Clement Moore … “The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.”
After Santa had filled all the stockings, what do you suppose was inside?
Oral histories recorded by the Bruce County Historical Society tell us much about early life here, including what you’d find in a Christmas stocking. The tapes made by senior citizens are stored in the Bruce County Archives.
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In 1979 George McKenzie, 81, of Southampton, recalled: “At Christmas we hung up our stockings. You might find in it a turnip, a carrot and a few candies.”
A turnip? Isn’t it supposed to be an orange? Here’s a different stocking stuffer:
In 1974 Gertie Dell of Port Elgin remembered her first Christmas stocking this way: “I was just a little girl, I think about three years old. I can remember sitting on the dining room floor getting my hand down in this stocking trying to get things out of it and they had at this time Punkin Sweets, nice big, yellow, sweet apples. That was what they had instead of oranges.”
How about presents? What gifts could children look forward to?
John MacMurchy, 96, of Lucknow recalled in 1982, “The greatest difference I see between Christmas now and then is in the kind and number of gifts given. We had no
money to buy things so the women would knit mitts, socks and sweaters which were needed and deeply appreciated by the receivers. I think perhaps a more joyful and friendly spirit prevailed at this season in those early days.”
Isobel (Duncan) Harron was in her eighties when she remembered, 33 years ago, gifts which came not from Santa, but from the government. Her father, A.J. Duncan, became Indian Agent at Cape Croker in 1912. “I was born in Cape Croker and I went to school there. … The government sent gifts for all the school children. All the little girls got a nice doll and there was just one with dark hair and of course I would choose that, and the Indian girls wanted the blond dolls. I don’t remember what they gave to the boys but they all got gifts too. It was a pretty exciting time.”
In a 1979 recording Catherine McLean of Southampton recalled the holidays like this: “Christmas was a happy time. All Christmas tree decorations were made at home. Parcels took much longer to wrap. We would pleat the tissue paper, making quite a fancy wrapping. Games were a welcome gift. At our home the family and relatives would enjoy the usual turkey and Christmas pudding. On New Year’s we would go to one of the other houses for dinner. Mother always made sure my dark-haired brother entered first or if someone was coming to our home a dark-haired person came in first.”
From 1967 comes an account in The Southampton Beacon. Margaret (Meyers) Kitchener remembered “the greatest thrill” of her childhood, “the one big event which happened the day before Christmas”.
Margaret wrote, “When you live in a little town at the end of the line, the arrival of the afternoon train holds a very special significance for you. Although the train was due early in the afternoon, always on the 24th it would be late, and the short afternoon would be drawing to a close when you started up town for the mail. The line stretched down from the wicket to the wall, then formed a V to the opposite corner, then wound snake-like all around the little room. One jammed in with the crowd, and steamed and talked and laughed until a shout from the other side of the partition warned you that the harassed postmaster might make good his threat, and send everyone out!
“Then the town’s “blue blood” (people who rented boxes) would come in — the owner of the local Beacon, complete in “Christie Stiff” and cigar, and you watched while he opened his drawer and took out an armful — and you said a little prayer that maybe you would get at least one parcel! — the village doctor whose very presence seemed to fill the tiny room to overflowing — you touched his coonskin coat, and Ioved him with all your childish heart — he had brought most of us into the world, and rejoiced and mourned with all of us …
“At long last, you are at the wicket: the postmaster peers down at you; begins sorting the letters under your initial — envelopes and parcels for you! You stagger out under your load — never a thought for the icy blasts stinging your cheeks. Home at last, parcels opened, cards read — hot soup, mother’s best strawberry preserves, and the ultimate in enjoyments, the long-awaited Christmas cake! — no time, just no time like the Day Before Christmas!”
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by Robin Hilborn
Bruce County Historical Society
