The popular Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” reveals how a monarch trudges through a snowstorm to give alms – money – to a peasant. The last line of the song is “Ye who now bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.”

In the 10th century Wenceslas was a Duke of Bohemia whom Christians in Europe venerated for his good deeds. A 12^th century historian declared, “Rising every night from his noble bed…he went around to God’s churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty.”

As a Christian duke in a largely atheist territory Wenceslas welcomed German priests into his realm and founded a rotunda that was consecrated as a cathedral.  Murdered in a plot by his jealous brother in year 935, Wenceslas became a martyr and patron saint of Bohemia.

In 1853, nearly 1,000 years after Wenceslas died, an Anglican priest in England, John Mason Neal, wrote lyrics for what became “Good King Wenceslas.” The lyrics were set to the melody of a 13th century song about springtime.

Good Duke Wenceslas was conferred with the title of king by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I as a tribute to Germans. When hundreds of Germans immigrated to Jefferson County in the 1860s and beyond, they brought “Good King Wenceslas” with them and sang the song around the family hearth at Christmas.

Christmas Trees

Germans left their homeland to settle in Jefferson County and elsewhere in Missouri because journalists described the area as a place with plentiful land, few taxes, few regulations, freedom of choice and opportunities to prosper. The Meramec, Missouri and Mississippi rivers reminded them of the Danube River of their homeland. Today, 38 percent of Arnold’s population has German ancestral roots, and German is the number one claimed ancestry on Missouri census forms.

Saint Nicholas of Myra . Image copyright Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church

German pioneers who became farmers and shopkeepers preserved many of their holiday traditions when they reached this area. One custom was to adorn cedar or pine trees with small toys or candy canes. The book Stories behind the Great Traditions of Christmas explains the typical red, green and gold colors of Christmas decorations.

Red symbolizes the blood of Jesus shed in his crucifixion; green symbolizes eternal life of evergreen trees; gold is the color of one of three gifts the biblical Magi, symbolizing royalty, brought to baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

Born in Greece in year 370, Saint Nicholas of Myra is the patron saint of children. More than 1,300 years later his legendary gift-giving inspired images of Santa Claus (“Saint Nick”) based on the Dutch Sinterklaas. Christmas trees with decorations first appeared in the 16th century. Church archives confirm that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strasbourg in 1539. Germans introduced the Christmas tree tradition to Jefferson County and America.

Christmas is Germany’s most special time of year. German Christmas traditions celebrated in Jefferson County and elsewhere grew more popular across America as the 20^th century approached.

Homemade Gifts

Christmas stollen © Couleur . Pixabay

Many Jefferson County residents in the mid-1800s had Christmas in their hearts but could not afford gifts for their family. After cutting down a fir tree and bringing it to a humble home, many parents made toys for their kids. Perhaps papa carved a wooden toy for sons and mama sewed a rag doll or a dress for daughters. Most decorated their Christmas trees with strings of nuts, popcorn or home-made trinkets, not store-bought ornaments.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, founded here in 1840, and St. John’s Lutheran Church, founded in 1848, hosted Christmas services to celebrate the birth of Jesus, nurturing the region with righteous spirit, family values and hope for the new year, as they do today.

For winter recreation, many settlers built bonfires on snowy, moonlit nights on hilltops for sledding and sleigh riding. If someone passed around a jar of Jefferson County moonshine to keep warm, nobody informed the sheriff. A long steep slope called Martin’s Hill was a favorite that every snowfall attracted bundled-up kids with wooden sleds for speedy rides to the bottom with long walks back to the top as noisy dogs jumped and yipped all the way.

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder, circa 1885, wrote Little House on the Prairie. Public domain photo.

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder, born 1867 in Kansas, was the celebrated author of Little House on the Prairie which, in 1974, became a hit TV show. Later in life she lived in a Mansfield, Missouri farmhouse. One of her books described holiday preparations this way: “Ma was busy all day cooking good things for Christmas. She baked salt-rising bread and ‘Injun bread, Swedish crackers, and a huge pan of baked beans, with salt pork and molasses. She baked vinegar pies and dried-apple pies and filled a big jar with cookies.” On Christmas day Laura found a tin cup, a peppermint candy, a heart-shaped cake and a brand new penny in her stocking.

Jefferson County’s German settlers may have participated in some of these homeland traditions 150 years ago or even nowadays:

Saint Nicholas Day (Sankt Nikolaus Tag). On December 5, children polish their boots to leave them outside before going to bed. Next morning, they find their shoes filled with nuts, candy and small gifts from St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas Day, December 6, is observed in many Christian countries.

Krampus Night (Krampus Nacht). Krampus is a devilish sidekick of St. Nicholas. Men in scary Krampus costumes patrol streets on Krampus Night. They are sometimes invited indoors by parents of naughty children to lecture the kids to be good.

Advent calendar (Adventskalendar). Every day for four weeks before Christmas, a window in the calendar is opened to reveal a poem, parts of a story, a picture of candy or small gift. Many families make their own Advent calendars. “Advent” generally means something is coming.

Christmas angels photo (c) HansLinde

Advent wreaths (Adventskranz) showcase four candles in a bed of pinecones, berries, dried flowers and ornaments. Different families vary traditions. Some display it the first week of December, lighting one candle each Sunday before Christmas.

Mulled wine (Glühwein). This classic warm, spicy Christmas beverage sold in big mugs is considered vital for beating winter chill and spreading cheer.

Christmas angels (Weihnachtsengel), perhaps the most loved Christmas ornaments displayed in homes during the season. Childlike angels may be made of wood and seen playing harps or trumpets.

Christmas stollen is a German cake deliciously made with chopped candied fruits, dried nuts and spices, sprinkled with powdered sugar – sometimes with added orange zest.

Civil War

Thomas Nast illustration from 1863 shows a couple separated by Civil War . Public Domain

An article by Jason Roe published in “Civil War Christmases in Missouri and Kansas” reports that food during holidays was increasingly meaningful in the Civil War.  Letters written to loved ones described meals in detail, as this 1861 letter from Daniel R. Anthony, Missouri commander of 1,500 Union troops: Anthony describes capturing a household to serve as his headquarters and celebrates Christmas by dining on “biscuits, coffee, roasted goose, chicken, butter, and molasses.”

Leigh R. Webber, a Union soldier, wrote from Lexington, Missouri in 1861 about hardships and poor discipline in his regiment, admitting, ‘On Christmas eve day most of the men and officers were drunk and riot and noise reigned triumphant.’”

In Jefferson County, roving bands of Confederate guerillas called Bushwhackers shared simple Christmas meals with southern sympathizers in log cabins appreciating the food as much as a warm fireplace. During the war, many Bushwhackers lived in caves.

As war dragged on, Missouri letter writers described special moments. Eugenia Bronaugh wrote her fiancé in December 1863: “This is Christmas week but persons do not seem to be enjoying it much. Last Sunday it snowed faster & prettier than I ever saw it…As I sat by the window I wished so much for you to be here to look at the large flakes that fell so silently for somehow I felt sad & would like so much to have talked to you. Christmas day we had no company. I frequently managed to be alone to think of the last Christmas that rainy day when you were here.”

“History Today Magazine” explains that the Civil War intensified Christmas’ appeal. “Its sentimental celebration of family matched the yearnings of soldiers and those they left behind. Its message of peace and goodwill spoke to the most immediate prayers of all Americans.”

German immigrant Thomas Nast drew this image of Jolly Old Santa Claus in 1881. Public domain illustration.

The Jewish celebration called Festival of Lights coincides with Christmas season. According to History.com, the eight-day observance known as Hanukkah or Chanukah commemorates rededication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Hanukkah, meaning “dedication” in Hebrew, begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar usually in November or December. The holiday is celebrated with lighting of the menorah, traditional foods, games and gifts. Coinciding celebrations mean some Jewish families participate in Christmas activities and vice versa.

The blogger Patrick Young wrote that popular editorial artist Thomas Nast, a German immigrant, “developed the iconic image of central celebratory figure Santa Claus. Nast’s Civil War era cartoons in ‘Harper’s Weekly’ established the fat jolly elf from the North Pole with a big sack of presents as the focus of Christmas Eve dreams for millions of children worldwide.”

Many Americans know the story of a little girl named Virginia who wrote to a newspaper in 1897 asking if Santa Claus is real, and the newspaper’s response “Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus.” Yet few know the  longer response published as an anonymous editorial. Here is the important part:

Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus… Please tell me the truth: Is there a Santa Claus?   Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

The man who wrote it at “The New York Sun” was Francis Pharcellus Church.