Freeze at Christmas

The following is text from the book Landed Gentry 1871-1978 by Opal Lambert Ross pages 17 and 18:

On Christmas eve the church was host to everyone.  Getting ready for the party was half the fun.  Interested neighbors would meet at the Mike Freeze home to pop and string popcorn-yards and yards of popcorn to trim the Christmas tree.  There was a supply of nuts and hard candies to apportion into snacks, hopefully a snack for each of any number of people who might come to the church to enjoy the evening.  After the fun-work was done Mrs. Freeze would make a lunch for the workers.

And then would come Christmas eve and the people would gather to laugh and visit, to Oh and Ah at the sight of the sparkling tree, and to exchange gifts.  One evening someone filled a mustache cup with gum drops and set it under the tree for her favorite boy friend.  Blanche Wolheater and Myrtle Clyde noticed the gum drops and had a sample.  They found plenty of excuses to walk by, each time eating another gum drop.  When the evening was almost over and the presents were distributed, only the cup was left.

The children shared with beaming parents the program they had been practicing since Thanksgiving.  Some talented person pumped and played the organ while a joyous chorus gave out with carols.  Then, mysteriously and suddenly, no one knew from where came Santa Claus, sweeping down the aisle in a white beard and pillow-padded belly, jingling sleigh bells, jollying and frightening the small children out of their wits.   Sometimes they never did find out who Santa was and thus could reasonably believe there was a Santa.

Santa had a snack of treats for everyone.  Each person could dig into his sack, pushing aside the candy and nuts till he laid his hand on the single orange that was sure to be there.  "Silent Night" would close the evening.  Mothers would gather up sleeping babies and all would tstep out into the cold night and go home in a thoughtful, reverent mood.*

* From Blanche Wiolheater Nagle and from my [Opal Lambert Ross - Author] own memory of Christmas eve at church.