When Victoria, the beautiful voice behind Playing 50's Housewife, approached me last month to collaborate on a 50's Christmas project I was as excited as could be. Unfortunately with covid cases ramping up again, and living with a Mother-in-Law with cancer, our household will be celebrating Christmas separately despite being in the same house- which means no very 1950's Christmas for us... But what would that actually look like if we could?
Christmas, of course, isn't limited to Christmas Day, though. There's the whole Advent season that precedes it- and then there's Christmas Eve... Unlike today, however, where is feels as if every holiday is about the children? For Christmas in the 50's, that wasn't the case; according to Maria Augusta Trapp in Christmas Today, published 1954, Christmas day was reserved for Adults and the Holiness of Christ's birth. So much so, even, that one Daniel Lord, a Jesuit Priest, wrote a short treaties on the matter in the same year.
Instead, it was Christmas Eve that was reserved for the Children to eat, get gifts, and be merry. The Christmas tree took center stage, then, largely as a Children's prop- having been decorated the night before the Eve... Contrary to what most "Christmas in the 50's" articles will tell you, however, the magnificent aluminum trees- classic images of optimistic midcentury futurism (now depicted in modern art as an offshoot we call Retrofuturism)- weren't actually popular in the 50's. Or, at least, they were only popular from 1958 until the mid 60's. Before them, traditional trees were still widely in use throughout the 1950's- and they were still thoroughly decorated.
Christmas Trees, Decorations, and Ornaments, published in 1956, gives interesting instructions on a number of things pertaining to the decoration of one's tree. Trapp (in Christmas Today) also notes that candies, cookies, tangerines, and even apples were used- especially on the lower boughs. Other things, too, that we typically still decorate with today made their eager appearances among the boughs as the family pleased- including tinsel, and electric lights. But instead of leaving a glass of Milk and Cookies out beside the tree when all was said and done? A crib would be placed beside it instead (sometimes alongside a Nativity set, and sometimes not).
Apparently instead of tales of Santa sweeping down the chimney on Christmas Eve night, at midnight the night before the Eve, the family was supposedly entrusted with the Child Christ himself, who came bearing Christmas Gifts. Any premature interruption of the Christ Child would supposedly displease him, though. And so, come the morning of the Eve, the children would wake to find themselves locked out of the celebration room "so they wouldn't disturb him".
At the chime of a bell eventually rung throughout the house, however, the festivities of the Eve's morning would finally begin for the children; their presents would be opened with glee, and carols sung with the family, before an early supper was had. Supper was then followed by what Trapp describes as "a lingering in the Christmas room". Unfortunately, however, she fails to specify any actual activities that would have been participated in during such "lingering".
I can only assume it's a reference to conversation and various holiday games- perhaps even some Bible Games, like those from Popular Bible Games for Everyone, published in 1950. Something like With Bells On, published in 1955 and now considered a rare book, could have been read out loud to those gathered as well. It might have even included crafts like Pine Cone Birds, Yarn Surprise Balls, or one of the others suggested in books like Holiday Craft and Fun (also published in 1950); these crafts could have been more likely made on the night before, however, since many were decorations.
In Trapp's retelling of her family's traditions, the night would be topped off by the Christmas "Angel Mass" at midnight, leading into Christmas day proper. Returning home afterwards would find them another round of Christmas foods- this time frankfurters and rye bread, an unspecified "Christmas Punch" of some sort, and German fruit rolls called Stollen. Then it was time for more sleep before rising early for the "Shepard's Mass" at dawn- followed by the the "Solemn Mass" afterwards. And finally, the proper Christmas feast held that night, with plenty more caroling to go along.
Trapp provides no menu for such a feast- just as she doesn't provide activities for "lingering". But the Benedictine Brother Richard Cleary, writing as one of several co-authors in Christmas Today, mentions two deserts that may have been common: Plum Pudding (from England), and Gingerbread Cake (from Sweden); Better Homes and Gardens' Holiday Cookbook, published in 1959 after aluminum trees became popular, lists recipes for additional gems like Creole Praline, Krumkaka, and Holy Hermits- alongside "Fruitcake-ettes", Orange Bubble Loaf (which sounds delicious to me), and the Stollen rolls mentioned by Trapp.
Here among the Holiday Cookbook's pages, roast Duck with Orange Stuffing takes the place of today's common table turkey- with Roast Beef replacing the beloved Christmas Ham as a suitable alternative; by contrast Cooking for Christmas, published in 1950, provides recipes for Goose, two different styles of whole Pig, and a Christmas Ham- or even Lobster if you truly wanted to get fancy.
Turkey, too, is provided for. If you were a small family like ours, though, you might have had bought a smaller Turkey to match. And if you bought a small bird during the holidays back then, there's a good chance it was a Beltsville Small White; a now critically endangered heritage breed, they were bred specifically to suit smaller families, and saw widespread popularity in the mid 50's as attention shifted to the 4 person nuclear family.
Moving on, Cooking for Christmas provides at least a couple drink recipes that could be a winning choice for Trapp's nondescript "Christmas Punch" (on top of an old fashioned Egg Nog that I think my Husband would actually love). But for a more traditional dessert option, several Puddings (and even Sorbets) are suggested. This includes the infamous Plum Pudding mentioned by Brother Cleary- but the book also contains instructions for that famous cake roll known as a Yule Log. And from Holiday Cookbook, options include an Eggnog Pie, something called a "Jack Frost Dessert", and a Mincemeat Icecream Cake- among plenty of others.
And, of course, as Retro Housewife Goes Green would have you believe, it isn't truly a 1950's menu without several options for the era's near ubiquitous Jell-o molds. And in that regard, Better Homes and Gardens happily delivers en mass. However, despite the weird and wild ways early Gelatin dishes manage to put a grimace on the face of the modern familiar with Jell-o as a sweet (as opposed to the old common savory)... You won't actually catch them appearing on suggested holiday menus- which RHGG notes, but attempts to ignore in favor of modern perceptions of the era's food.
See, made popular by the availability of refrigerators, and the general domestic reform of the midcentury, Jell-o Molds certainly do seem to be everywhere during the era. And yet they were actually less common than they appear based on how often they show up in in cookbooks; the fact of the matter is they were more a status symbol than anything else, for those who could actually afford a modern (and still very expensive) refrigerator... Something fancy, served mostly at parties and holidays, and other "high profile" sorts of events- and by the mid 70's, they were well out of fashion even as that.
Certainly, there was plenty of celebration- and by the looks of it, there was plenty of food, too... More so, it seems, than what we're typically used to today, especially on the Protestant side of things, I'd say; after a certain point it all almost seems like a bit much, to be honest. And yet I still find myself agreeing with Brother Cleary when he says:
What, then, is more natural for man than to celebrate the cause of all his joy [...] by bringing into use those things which have always been indicative of life, of love, of joy, of festivity: Color, lights, flowers, decorations, special delicacies in food, special garments, music, singing, etc.?
What's more natural, indeed! And for such significant of a religious event, it's really no surprise the all the bells and whistles and stops would be pulled out. It almost doesn't seem like Christmas without it, even to today.
Not to be left out, however, those who'd complain that consumerist emphasis has "pushed Christ out of Christmas" and made it a Secular affair, would be happy to find their sentiments echoed fervently in the midcentury by one Edward Malone- another Benedictine Brother whose writing appears in Christmas Today; it would seem old anxieties about a quote unquote "war on Christmas" are a tale as old as time. However, interestingly, he does go on to say that:
There is no reason why Christ could not be put back into Christmas in the market place. It is not that the things we do to celebrate [...] are unchristian; they have merely lost their Christian significance. Christmas trees, Santa Claus, the giving of gifts, caroling, are all Christian in their origin. What we might do is make an effort to see that the Christian significance of these things is made known to the world. Merchants might somehow find the courage to put an image of Christ in their store windows [...] The Christmas customs of other nations might be represented in our window displays, and their Christian origin and significance explained. This would, perhaps, contribute to a better understanding of other nations.
It's a far cry from the complaints today, which seek to remove consumerism from the holiday entirely- let alone from the misguided (and completely ahistorical) claims that these traditions are Pagan in origin and have no place in the holiday as "stolen goods"; claims Brother Cleary does a good job dismantling... The icing on the cake, though, is what he goes on to say afterwards:
More important than an external change in our manner of celebrating Christmas, however, is an internal change which it should express. More pernicious [...] is the disfigurement of the true meaning of Christmas. We even go so far as to misquote the angels.
Brother Malone finishes with a message of tolerance, acceptance, and good will towards our fellow humans, Christian and nonChristian alike. After all, as Brother Cleary notes in his own essay:
The individuality and ingenuity of various Christian communities manifests itself in diverse expressions of joy over the birth of God in the flesh. Every nation and even every family has its own special way of observing Christmas. Nonetheless, many practices which began as local observances have spread to other lands [...] All of these customs celebrate Christ's birthday. they are supposed to direct us to Christ. And like the star of Bethlehem, they will lead us to the Christ Child if we are wise enough to follow their meaning.
We are all of this Earth, and of the Gods, together- and all of us have contributed to the tidings and blessings of season... And while our celebration now may not resemble wholly the celebrations of our ancestors in the midcentury (many of whom are still with us today), a thread of continuity can still be found. And that's just one small part of what makes history such a beautiful thing; and with that:
Happy Holidays!
For an audio transcript of this post, you can now listen on Youtube!