I've always enjoyed Christmastime, possibly because the early Christmases in my life were happy times, and I still remember. At Christmas time 1946, I was 6 years old, going on 7, and was in the middle of my first year of school at Pea Ridge School. World War II was over, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had passed away, and our new president of the United States was Harry S. Trumann. The school population at Pea Ridge had the building bursting at the seams and in need of expansion, but Pea Ridge was still a small village of fewer than 200 people. Many more people lived on small farms in those days, including ourselves.
At home, we never went big into Christmas decorations, but we did always have a Christmas tree, and a few other decorations around our living room. We were usually a little later than most people about putting up the Christmas tree, but we always had it in place about a week before Christmas. My first memory about the Christmas tree was going out on the farm to select it and bring it in. I didn't even know then that you could buy Christmas trees. We took the wagon and horses and went to the woods looking for the right tree, always a live cedar tree about 6 or 7 feet tall. At 6 years old, I was old enough to "help" Dad bring in the tree, and my brother Ben "helped," too. Our little brother, John, was just a year old, and too little to "help." My sister Donna was still just a hope for someday maybe. We were never able to find a perfect tree. Always our tree had a flaw here or there, one side was a little thin, or it was a little crooked, or it had a double trunk. We would turn the thin side to the wall, wire in an extra branch in the thin spots, bend and brace the crooked places, and we always eventually had a great-looking tree.
The year 1946 was just the second year that we had electric lights for the tree. The REA and Carroll Electric high lines to our farm were completed in the fall of 1945, and we were into having electric lights and appliances, and hot and cold running water in the house, and a bathroom in the house. So we were feeling much blessed, and feeling as though everybody was doing a little better after the war was over.
I always enjoyed the scent of the cedar tree, especially when we sawed the end square and attached the tree to the stand. Even with colored electric light strands draping the tree, we still decorated with strands of popcorn which we made ourselves, running the needle and thread through the kernels of popcorn until we had a long strand. We also made colored chains by cutting strips from the funny papers and gluing together small loops to form chains. Sometimes we made loops from colored construction paper, or from strips of Christmas wrapping paper. Always we put a gold star at the very top of the tree, representing the Star of Bethlehem. We would form a star with five arms, and wrap it with gold shiny wrapping paper. I had learned to draw and cut out a star, so I made the star myself. We also decorated the tree by putting our Christmas cards in the tree as they came in the mail. Many times we would have gifts from our California relatives arriving in the mail, and those were placed under he tree, and sometimes even in the branches.
At church, we always had an evening Christmas program, sometimes on Christmas eve, sometimes on the Sunday night before Christmas. We young ones learned Christmas songs which we sang in the Christmas program, and each of us was given a little speech, as it was called. Each of us had a short Christmas poem or verse to memorize, and to "say" at the program. I got up to say my Christmas speech, and I went blank on it, but when I reached over and touched the Christmas tree, I remembered my speech and was able to say it after all. I was always pretty bashful, and having my speech delivered was a great relief. After the Christmas program, we would have a fellowship time, with food, and then an exchange of cards and gifts for our Sunday School teachers. Finally old Santa Claus would show up with brown bags of hard candy and nuts and an orange for everyone.
On Christmas morning, first thing, we got to see what Santa Claus had brought us for Christmas. The other gifts had to wait for later. In 1946, Santa Claus brought us two new sleds for the snow, and "we" got a new bicycle, our first. Later in the morning, after all the chores were done, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas dinner. In those days, dinner was always at noon. Then we would open presents from our cousins and uncles and aunts and Grandpa and Grandma, and we kids would play with toys and play in the snow until it was time to go home for chores. It was a great day.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Community on 12/25/2013