We meet inside the museum to watch a salient movie “the night before Christmas” before the night tours started.
They had a BIG Christmas tree set up in the café area with presents and everything. Thanks goodness they were smart enough to put up a chain barrier around the tree otherwise my kids would ran up to it thinking those gifts were for THEM! It was fun to see such a LARGE real Christmas tree though.
This is jumping my thoughts to what I was thinking later that night – but I was thinking, how fun would that have been if you lived in a small community where you had a big tree like this in your town square and each family placed one of their own personal ornaments on the tree. I really do love the tight-community feeling you get when you walk thru these old village reenactments. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy I live in the years I do, I’m very grateful for the inventions and changes that have made life easier… but I can’t help but think, the Maninites communities sure are living a more pure, happy and ALIVE way of life. It just makes me feel like we’ve come so far, but at what cost? well, I guess that's how we know we havent made "Zion" perfect just yet... just some thoughts… anyhow, moving on.
we were divided into groupd and then our tour guids would take us thru the village and we get to go into the homes and they have ready for us some seasonal treats of the decade, and we listen to stories about what Christmas was like in 1914.
At the first home, they served apple cider. I never liked apple cider. It tastes like … well what I would imagine something else tasting like that I didn’t want to actually WRITE out on a blog. But Andrew loved it however. That surprised me. and at this home we learned how people use to have these simple table top trees cause you weren’t allowed to cut down trees unless you owned the land, and only the upper-class owned the trees so that’s why THEY would have those BIG elaborate trees. But if you were a poor guy, you would either CUT off the TOP of a tree in secret, or gather loose limbs on the ground and then whittle them into a stick. And this style just kept on as a tradition thru out the years even when the family finances changed. We also got to learn how to make those insanely fragile shaped ornaments. They start as a 1 inch tube of glass, then they’re blown into a small build, then placed inside of a shape molder and then blown to fill it out. Then they pour a metallic paint inside, swish around and then pour out the excess paint. Then they paint the outside with yet another paint, and then they paint tiny details, and THEN they would cut the tip of the excess glass! Phew! Can you believe it! What a talented labor of love for each ornament!
Then at another house we got short bread (I loved it! It was surprisingly sweet) and we learned all about the 12 days of Christmas feasting! You actually would start the 12 days of Christmas ON Christmas day and then feast on these type of treats and pastries for the next 12 days and then end on Jan 6 (3 kings days). You’ll notice there is a pineapple and flags in the middle of the table. That was always a big treat of the season if you had a pineapple cake. And they would use these flags for the top of the Christmas trees instead of angels and stars.
At the convince store we had fudge! Oh, it was so good, it MELTED in your mouth! So good! We were then explained how things worked behind these counters in those good old days, and how much things cost. You could get a Christmas Goose for $.45 CENTS! And I got to look under these glass display cases at all the pretty little knick knacks of the age. I can totally imagine that if I was a little girl in those days falling in love with so many little treasures but hoping and saving for just one small item all year long to find under the tree on Christmas day. There were items like lady gold watches, hair pens, mustache grooming kit, itty bitty tiny tea set or a naked doll you would take home and make clothes for yourself. Makes you remember how RICH and SPOILED we are today, and our kids too. If you look in this picture you’ll see this statue of a man who looks like Santa. Andrew and Amanda thought he was very cool and liked him a lot, and the store keeper laughed cause she said this was the statue of a mean minion who would hunt down bad little children who hadn’t been good that year. Now, weather she was telling me the truth about the statue or just making small talk… creepy small talk. But it was way more common to use fearful tactics with kids in those day in order to force them to behave well. I’m glad we’ve changed a little bit in that area. Can you imagine what things would be like if we still did things like that today? When you walked into Wal-mart, instead of being greeted by an sweet elderly person, you would be attacked by a man in a devils’ costume waving a pitchfork.
Next was my second favorite moment of the night. We went on a carriage ride thru the town, and since we were the last tour of the night our driver graced us with an extra long ride. It was so magical, the snow was lightly falling down, we sang Christmas carols as we rode over snow covered streets flanked with oil lanterns that flickered in the dark night. Picturesque right? When the driver pulled up Amanda started jumping up and down and said “I’m so excited! I’m so excited!” and then the driver said “oh you’re excited eh! Well come right here little darling.” and he PULLED her up over the side of the carriage to sit right next to him. The rest of us climbed in thru the back. And Amanda and Andrew got the 2 best spots on the whole buggy. They got right up front behind the horses on both side of the driver. And the driver is such a sweet guy, he’s been doing this for forever and is so great with kids and doesn’t brush them off and always has a fast answer to all their questions. And I never knew just how fun it is to be in a wooden carriage and have the horses run really fast. You pump this way and that, but it is so fun.
But the best part of the whole night was the very ending. Our carriage took us to the church that was settled ever so sweetly on a small hill. Derick and I got a pew all the way in the back and we sang Christmas carols from these vintage printed songbooks by lamplight. It was SO awesome and special! Derick said that that made his whole night! We loved it so much! It was like being in an Ann of Green gables book. The church’s motto on the back of the wall I think summed up the feeling of the evening; “One is your master, even Christ and all ye are brethren”. It was wonderful to have that Christmas home feeling again!
Walking back to the car when it was all over, Derick and I held hands and just kept saying what a wonderful night it’s been and how we’ll always remember this. It was just the thing we needed to feel the Christmas season come into full bloom. So Merry Christmas my loved ones!
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