THE AGE: Christmas history

Ever wonder how Christmas in the 1800’s differed from the 1900s and today? Or where some traditions originated, such as the Christmas tree, the pinecone, the stocking or even… the Christmas pickle?

If you weren’t curious before, you probably just asked yourself, “What’s the Christmas pickle?”

The Wyandotte County Museum in Bonner Springs has all these answers and more at its

“Christmas Through the Ages” exhibit, which will be on display until Jan. 3. At the exhibit, a dozens of Christmas trees decorated from different time periods and on display, as well as the history of many Christmas traditions from different cultures and times.

Trish Schurkamp, director of the Wyandotte County Museum, said the idea for the display came about when the museum decided to do something a little different.

“What we decided to do was to actually look at the history of Christmas since we’re a history museum,” Schurkamp said. “We looked at how it’s changed over the years, what is different about Christmas based on what was happening in our economy and what is or was happening in our world, as well as taking a look at the different traditions people celebrated.”

Here’s a closer look at many famous holiday traditions and where the ideas came from:

The Christmas tree

Schurkamp said the Christmas tree didn’t get started in America until 1776 when a soldier in George Washington’s army decorated a small tree. Prior to that, she said, the Puritans had said Christmas would not be celebrated, and the holiday was actually banned.

“The North and the South were very different in their traditions and the way they celebrated Christmas,” Schurkamp said. “The South saw it as a great party time – a time to really celebrate, shoot off fireworks and have big parties.

“The North was full of Puritans, and they were very reverent, very quiet, everyone had to go to church and it wasn’t seen as a time to party at all.”

Schurkamp said it was during the 1840s and 1850s that the Christmas tree really made its breakthrough. A photo was taken of Queen Victoria in front of a beautiful Christmas tree, and the world fell in love.

“The tree is actually a German tradition, but what happened was most people could not afford this huge, elaborate tree, so they would have small Christmas trees, and those trees would go on the table tops,” Schurkamp said.

The presents, Schurkamp said, were typically hung on the tree and not placed underneath, and gifts were items one needed and not gifts that one wanted. Also, the tree was decorated with edible items only.

“Cookies would hang on the trees for days and then you would eat them on Christmas day,” she said. “There would then be someone in your neighborhood who would be very wealthy, and he would have the huge, beautiful tree, and if you wanted to see it, you’d have to pay him money and go in to see it. Otherwise, you were stuck with your small tree.”

Edible ornaments were replaced by glass ornaments and candles in 1848 thanks to the Germans, Schurkamp said. And by 1860, Santa was also in for a change.

“Prior to this time, Santa was this very thin, little guy, but in the 1860s, a cartoonist would draw Santa as we know him now as a chubby little guy,” Schurkamp said.

By 1870, the world had an entirely new idea of Christmas, and Congress declared it a federal holiday.

Tinsel was also being used on the tree for the first time, and in 1876, the first patented metal Christmas tree stand was used. In 1880, Schurkamp said, President Grover Cleveland used electric lights at the White House for the first time, and stockings also changed: instead of hanging stocking people actually wore, consumers bought commercially-made stockings specifically for that purpose.

In 1890, ornaments became very popular. Schurkamp said while fruits and vegetables were still used, they were fashioned out of wire, so people didn’t have to put the real food on the tree.

By 1900, the Christmas tree had become a national symbol, but when Theodore Roosevelt became president, that quickly changed.

“If you know anything about Roosevelt, you know he was this big conservationist,” Schurkamp said. “He was totally against people going out and cutting down Christmas trees and taking them back into their homes. So we would end up having (artificial) white Christmas trees.

“We would overload it with ornaments, cotton, angel hair, tinsel and pinecones, and that would remain popular until World War I.”

In 1913, the first artificial tree was available and, Schurkamp said, in 1917, the first drip less candle was invented. By 1920, the first national Christmas holiday was developed under the administration of President Calvin Coolidge. But times were about to change once again.

“In 1930, we were going through the Great Depression,” Schurkamp said. “So all the beautiful, elaborate Christmas trees and presents went away because, like times now, we didn’t have the money, so we saw a change in our trees.”

Then came the idea to paint trees the same color as the interior of one’s house, thus creating the idea for feather trees. Schurkamp said all kinds of colors were made. But with World War II on the horizon in 1940, things were about to change yet again.

“We were mad at the Germans, so all of those beautiful ornaments that were German-made were being broken and thrown away, and we went back and began making our own ornaments,” Schurkamp said. “But we couldn’t use the silver and metal that was put inside them because those were needed for the war. So all that was having a huge impact on our tree.”

“It was a very depressing time in America, and we had become very simple, obviously,” Schurkamp said. “The average home spent about $10 decorating their tree, and the most popular Christmas song, you can probably imagine, was, ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas.’”

By 1950, the war was over and people had started making their own decorations with Styrofoam and beading. President Harry S. Truman lit the first national Christmas tree and gave the first national prayer for peace. Glass ornaments from Germany were becoming popular again.

The tree experienced a little more change with each decade that followed.

“The big rage in the 1950s was the aluminum Christmas tree with the rotating color wheel,” Schurkamp said. “And in the 1960s, we went to a whole new idea of the one-colored tree, where all the bulbs, all the decorations had to be the same color.

“The 1970s became a time of nostalgia. The keepsake ornaments were created, and from the 1980s on, it’s been about the latest gadgets and the most up-to-date fads.”

The Candy Cane

Many Christmas traditions other than the Christmas tree are on display at the museum as well – for instance, the candy cane.

Schurkamp said the tradition came from an old candy maker who wanted to celebrate the birth of the Christ child.

“This candy maker came up with the idea of making an all-white candy to signify the purity of the birth of Jesus and for the purity of his religion,” Schurkamp said. “He made it out of hard candy because it signified the rock he stood upon as a Christian.

“He also made it as a cane to represent the shepherd, and also because if it was turned upside down, it made a ‘J’ for Jesus. He would then stripe it red to represent the blood that fell from Jesus when he was crucified.”

The Pickle

The Christmas pickle is a German tradition, Schurkamp said, where a pickle would be the last ornament to go on the tree. It would be placed on the tree on Christmas Eve after the children went to bed.

“The parents would hide the pickle in the tree, and the next morning, the children would get up and the pickle was the first thing they would look for,” she said. “What this did was remind the children of the beauty of the tree and the ornaments on it versus the gift under the tree and being greedy.”

The Pinecone

The story of the pinecone revolves around King Harry, the Jesus child and his family, Schurkamp said.

“It’s said that King Harry was chasing the Jesus child and his family into a forest,” she said. “Jesus and his family grew very tired, and they saw an old, gnarly fur tree, and they went over and they laid against it. The tree took its branches and covered the family, so when King Harry and his men came, they didn’t see them.

“The next morning the old tree raised its branches and released the family, and the Christ child placed his hand against the tree and blessed it. Today, if we take a pinecone and cut it in half, we will see the hand of the Christ child inside.”

The Stocking

Schurkamp said stockings started with an old, poor widower and his three daughters.

“He knew he was going to have to come up with something, and he didn’t have the money,” Schurkamp said. “So one night, the three girls hung their socks on the fireplace to dry after washing them. The story is St. Nicholas had heard of this poor old man, and he climbed down the roof after they all went to bed and put three gold pieces in each of the stockings. And that’s why we hang out stockings – in hopes of our own gold.”

The Exhibit

Schurkamp said she’s hoping people who come see the exhibit are reminded of their own histories.

“What we want is for when people hear these traditions or see the Christmas trees, they can step back and think about how they’ve celebrated Christmas throughout the years,” she said. “What has changed in your life and how have your Christmas traditions changed through those decades – through the wars, through the Depressions, through the times.

“Also, we want people to think about what traditions they want to pass down to their children, their grandchildren. Do they know the stories of their family? We feel that it’s very important to pass these things down as a way of keeping your history within your family, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”

The Wyandotte County Museum is open from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. For more information about the display or the museum, call (913) 573-5002.