The holidays are here. We just passed Thanksgiving and are full swing into the Christmas season and Christmas shopping. But let's go back 150 years or so....
In 1863 President Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday on the 4th Thursday in November (a date that moves as everyone knows today), but in 1867 Christmas was still the traditional December 25th. There was no getting away from Christmas if you were around a town or kept track of what the day was.
People were more self reliant in 1867 and not so much into shopping. Sara, my character in Innocence, might knit a pair of socks for her husband and son or a hat and gloves or she could sew new shirts for them. Her husband Willis could make her son Taylor a toy or a fishing pole, but he might buy Sara ribbons for her auburn hair.
If they were going to visit, Sara would have taken a pie or sweet breads and Willis would have brought a bottle of whiskey or jug of corn liquor.
They would have had a tree with ornaments like Blue Jay feathers and Robbins' eggs and Sara could hide little cakes in the branches for Christmas day. She could have put small candles on the tips of certain branches to light the tree on Christmas eve.
But right now, one week after Thanksgiving, she would be working every second she had to get her gifts finished in time.
Do you have your holiday shopping done? Are you making your holiday gifts this year or buying them?
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