It takes four days to celebrate Christmas properly in sunny Italy, according to Mr. and Mrs. Bosloetti, Carrington's only Italian residents. The church festival begins at midnight Christmas eve when high Mass is celebrated in the Catholic churches. On Christmas day big religious pageants and festivals are held, with the priests and altar boys and little girls dressed in white leading the parade throughout the city. Pictures of Jesus and Mary and the saints are carried in the parade, and sometimes people are dressed to impersonate the holy family. Three or four masses are held every day during the four‑day period and while most people go to mass just once a day during Christmas, some of the old men and women will spend nearly the whole time in the churches attending masses. Santa Claus visits the children Christmas eve. After the first day at the churches everyone has a merry time at feasting with plenty of fine wine and dancing.
Mrs. Ella Mae Hargrave gave this report in the December 24, 1975 edition of the Independent.
My own thoughts turn to a doll, the most beautiful doll in the whole world. It was in the window of the drug store in Morris, Minnesota. I never expected to have it for my very own, but I would gaze at it longingly every time I passed the store. I believe the druggist took pity on me and it was put on the tree at the church with my name on it. I can still feel the thrill of that episode in my life. I am sure many of you have had experiences such as that.
I have been reading about the Christmas season in Carrington during the early days. There were no stores selling Christmas trees in the early days, but Mr. T.N. Putnam, father of Hugh Putnam, was in the lumber business and when the holiday season was near he would order out a load of trees, always the tall ones for the churches and the smaller ones for every home in town. They were left near the track, where the parking lot is now, and everyone was welcome to pick out a tree, no charge. No one ever took a tree unless he first went to Mr. Putnam's office and asked for one.
The trees were lighted with candles and I am sure you all remember how exciting it was when the tall trees were lighted at the churches. Usually two men with lighted candles attached to a long pole were in charge of lighting the candles. There were also two buckets of water ready for an emergency.
They had a Santa Claus too, Mr. Boylan. He was the mayor of Carrington and acted as Santa at the Congregational church, now called the Federated Church.
After the services people went to their homes to enjoy the evening. The neighbors gathered at the Putnam home, the Montgomerys live there now, and the third floor was filled to capacity. On the pool table in the center of the room was the tree surrounded with gifts, and then Santa Claus would appear, usually Leslie Putnam, amid songs and laughter he would give out the gifts, then Mother Putnam would appear with her helpers and serve a real Christmas feast.
There is a delightful story when Mr. Putnam planned to surprise his wife with a grandfather's clock. It was a beautiful mahogany clock about seven feet tall and fitted into a place in the hallway. Mrs. Putnam went to church and her husband, with three men assisting, put the clock in its place in the hallway and then waited for her to come home. She came, hung up her coat, walked past the clock into the kitchen. They couldn't believe she had passed the clock without seeing it. She came back, passed the clock again, and sat down with them to visit. They had just decided they would have to tell her when the chimes rang and startled her and she rushed out and finally saw it. This beautiful clock is now in Alexandria, Va. in the home of Frank Lewis Putnam.
I have questioned different ones asking them how they celebrated Christmas when they were young. Mrs. Gerda Johnson tells us that in Sweden they always had a tree lighted with candles and the tree was left up for 21 days and lighted every evening. The gift most cherished was one orange for each child. Signa Hazel told me the same thing.
I asked Mrs. Mayo Meadows about her early recollections of Christmas. She said they always had a tree at the church but never in the homes as trees were very scarce in their area. Here too, they watched with awe as the men lighted the candles on the tree. The first time when she was on the church program she sang, "Away in the Manger" and she said her father was so proud of her because she sang all three verses without a mistake.
Comparing the trees of yesteryear with those of today, they had more of a personal touch. The young people would gather at the homes and string popcorn and cranberries and these were festooned around the tree and with the lighted candles, it was a beautiful sight.
Our trees today are swathed in gold and silver festoon, many ornaments and novelties and dozens of twinkling lights. Of course it goes with the times. But I think it might be fun to try the old fashioned way sometimes."
Mrs. O.H. Berg tells this story about her Christmases:
"My father, Glen Sutherland, farmed a few miles southeast of Brantford. How well I remember the Christmases we had there. My mother always made us a new dress‑ she never had a pattern, we just picked the kind of dress we liked from the Sears Roebuck catalog, and she cut out the material and made it for us. She always curled the front of our hair with an old curling iron she heated in an old kerosene lamp. Somehow she always seemed to burn my forehead in the process, and I would try and ease the pain by pressing my forehead against the frosted window pane, but generally it hurt all evening. We always had a Christmas program to present to the parents, and invariably, I would have to be a man or a boy in the dialogues, as there were not enough boys for all the male parts. I remember the boy I liked best always traded around to get my name for the exchange gifts, that we had drawn names for. (The school was Nordmore No. 1)"
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 435