Christmas meant parties, plays, dances, carolers, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, stockings, presents, and festive decorations everywhere.

Nat Taggart remembers: Though there wasn’t much money, the excitement and challenge of gift-giving kept everyone in high spirits. Most gifts were hand-made. In 1930, my seven-year-old cousin, Alice Montgomery (Wyatt) gave me her calf for Christmas, as my calf had died a few months before. Alice had tied a red ribbon around the calf’s neck. We decided to name the calf “Gift.”  It was a Christmas I’ll never forget.

Penny Spackman Clendenin remembers: Every year my mom made us new pajamas or robes that we opened on Christmas Eve; other presents were opened on Christmas Day. Christmas stockings were stuffed with fruit and ribbon candy. We always had a Christmas Eve party for Grandma Spackman’s birthday with a piñata. Grandma always took her turn trying to break the piñata, even at 96 years old.

 

 

Richard Blaylock remembers: We opened presents on Christmas Eve, then visited family and friends on Christmas Day. I helped install antennas on houses for those families who got televisions for Christmas around 1945-50. We worked late into the night on Christmas eve. 

Jeanette Greenwell remembers: We rode on horseback to the mountains to cut a Christmas tree and decorated it with strings of popcorn & strawberries, paper chains, and paper snowflakes. Clip-on candle holders which held small candles were lit and wax dripped onto the branches, causing a wonderful evergreen smell.

 

LaVern Cottrell remembers: Every Christmas my sister and I sat freezing while riding in the rumble seat of the car to Salt Lake City all bundled up in quilts. My father’s house was the first in North Ogden to have outside Christmas lights in 1949 or 1950.