DAY 3 – INA AND SADIE’S EXCELLENT FARMHOUSE CHRISTMAS

The dog's collar says, "Watch."

In the evening, Ina and Sadie settled into the big blue rocking chair, snuggling together under one of Ina’s warm crazy quilts to read the little cookbook by the light of the Aladdin lamp. The pictures were delightful. Since they were drawn in the latter decades of the 19^th century, the images of the children and their toys reminded Ina of the years when she was a young mother.

“Santa’s Snack,” read little Sadie aloud from the cookbook. (Notice that Ina took advantage of Sadie’s interest in the cookbook to have her practice her reading skills.) “Make a sturdy sandwich of rye bread, cheese and ham, or whatever Mother has in the house,” continued Sadie.

“Gram, do we have any rye bread?” asked Sadie.

“No,” replied Ina, “only my nice farm bread.” Ina silently resolved that somehow she would have to prevent Sadie from making a sandwich for Santa on Christmas Eve. She hoped, as mothers and grandmothers often do, that the child would just forget about it.

“On a cold winter’s night, hot tea or mulled cider tastes good.” Sadie read on slowly as first-graders do. “Heat, but do not boil, apple juice or cider. Pour it in a mug. Add a clove and a cin . . . – and a cin . . .”

“cinnamon,” prompted Ina.

“cinnamon stick. Christmas cookies for dessert.”

And then, at the bottom of the page, the final sentence: “Maybe you’d better make two sandwiches.”

The NERVE of Santa to suggest two sandwiches, thought Ina to herself. Suspecting that Santa himself had been responsible for that suggestion, she was speechless. She knew for a fact that Mrs. Claus always packed a sandwich for his Christmas Eve flight, AND he enjoyed much generosity as he moved from house to house. Oh! He might tell you that he didn’t have time to eat, but after all, time meant nothing to Santa.  

As Ina was lost in thought, so, too, was Sadie. “Gram,” she said at last, “may I make sandwiches for Santa before I go to bed on Christmas Eve?”

Ina was a loving grandmother but also stern and not one to play to a child’s whim when it was out of line. “No,” she replied a little more emphatically than she really meant to. “The tradition in our family is to set out cookies and milk.”

Two sandwiches indeed! Hmmmph! 

From behind his newspaper, Jack stifled a laugh under a cough. KW

DAY 2 – INA AND SADIE’S EXCELLENT FARMHOUSE CHRISTMAS

Santa before Nast

As a young woman just graduated from high school, Ina became a certified teacher and taught one year in Oregon before the family moved to Idaho. She and Jack had married on Christmas Day, 1891, which ended all hope that she would teach again. But, when they moved to Gilbert in 1896, they were able to establish a school district immediately because she was a certified teacher. She taught the students in her log cabin home. The next year, they were able to hire a full-time dedicated teacher. A farm wife had plenty of work at home, and besides, in those days the prevailing belief was that a school teacher should not be a married woman.

Anyway, back to our story set in 1935. Ina sat at the dining room table mending Jack’s glove. She hoped one of the children would provide a new pair for Christmas. Yes, leather-faced gloves were always on Jack’s Christmas list.

When she finished her mending, she picked up the little cookbook Sadie had discovered in the closet. As a teacher might do, she scanned it quickly. She thought it likely that Sadie would want to try the recipes and suggested activities, and she wisely wanted to be prepared.

The teacher in Ina liked to learn and then share her knowledge with others. The appearance of the little cookbook was a perfect opportunity to learn about illustrator Thomas Nast and the development of the modern Santa Claus. For that research she would need another book, but you could read about Nast here. On a hunch, she found the needed information in the magic “cubby hole” closet. (Yes, the elves provide for adults, too.)

Nast, an American caricaturist from 1860 until the 1880s, was the father of the political cartoon before he became the father of the modern image of Santa Claus. Working for Harper’s Weekly in New York City, he came to exert considerable political influence. Many people of that time couldn’t read, but they could understand the message of Nast’s cartoons, which meant that among the politically powerful, he developed enemies as well as friends. With a change in editorial policy at Harper’s as well as changes in the technology of publishing cartoons, Nast’s work was gradually phased out and by 1886, he was out of a job. Poor investments brought him to financial ruin from which he never recovered.

In 1889, friends at Harper’s suggested he publish a book of his Christmas sketches, which had evidently appeared in Harper’s from time to time. Nast was grateful for the idea and published Thomas Nast’s Christmas Drawings for the Human Race in time for Christmas 1890.

Norman Rockwell's impression of Santa

A short heavy-set man, Nast patterned the image of Santa after himself. His children (he had five) served as models for his family scenes. Many of his illustrations were suggested by Clement C. Moore’s poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” also called “The Night Before Christmas.” However, Santa’s North Pole workshop is attributed to Nast’s imagination.

“Well, well,” said Ina to herself. “How interesting!” KW

[The Nast images and biographical information here are from Thomas Nast's Christmas Drawings, with an introduction by Thomas Nast St. Hill, published by Dover Publications, 1978, essentially a republication of Thomas Nast's Christmas Drawings for the Human Race.]

DAY 1 -- INA AND SADIE'S EXCELLENT HOLIDAY FARMHOUSE

We'll all be children and have a lot of fun out of it. Ina Dobson, December 1932

Ina stood at the wood range in her kitchen, slicing onions and carrots into the chicken broth while Jack took the stewed meat off the bones. The soup, served with farm bread and butter, would make for several tasty suppers. Little granddaughter Sadie was sitting at the dining room table building puzzles. Soon Ina would have her put the puzzles away and set the table.

Yes, Sadie was visiting again, while her parents, Ethel and Ernest, were moving house. They would come for Christmas and then she would have to leave with them, but for now, Sadie looked forward to getting ready for a farm Christmas with her Grandma Ina.

Sadie and Ina had already made a plan and resolved that every day they would celebrate Christmas in some way. Gram didn’t decorate until Christmas Eve – or maybe the day before – but they would do other things to prepare, Gram said. She suggested that they could look through her basketful of old Christmas cards, but she wouldn’t say more. Gram was keeping secrets, and Sadie squirmed with delight just to think of how much fun it was going to be.

Just then Sadie thought of the little cubby closet in her room – the magic closet under the eaves where Christmas things would sometimes appear. She jumped off her chair and announced, “Gram, I’m going upstairs to check the magic closet before it gets too dark.” And before Ina could answer, Sadie was flying up the stairs.

“Oh dear,” Ina muttered, “I didn’t think to put anything in the closet for her to find.”

“Maybe the elves took care of it,” replied Jack.

Sure enough – Sadie was soon back carrying a little booklet entitled A Child’s Christmas Cookbook.

“Gram, Gram,” called Sadie excitedly, “look what I found – a little cookbook. Can we read it? Can we read it?”

“Wherever did this come from,” wondered Ina aloud. “Yes, we’ll look it over, but now it’s time for you to set the table.”

[A Child’s Christmas Cookbook was “published in conjunction with the exhibition, Once Upon a Christmas, at the Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, December, 1964. The exhibition and the cookbook, sponsored by the Denver Art Museum Volunteers, are dedicated to the warm, nostalgic memory of an old-fashioned Victorian Christmas.” The booklet was written by Betty Chancellor and designed by Kay Obering. The illustrations are from Thomas Nast.]