I realize that this might seem a bit random, since this is not a post on my memories of past Christmases. Instead, it is a post about some questions on my mind.
As Christmas comes around, I wonder how my ancestors celebrated Christmas. So far, I have not been able to find any diaries or letters written by my ancestors, so I have no idea. I have ancestors from the British Isles and from Germany, and I realize that the traditions of both areas are completely different. How was Christmas celebrated in the Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth Century? How did farmers in the Midwest celebrate Christmas? I don't have the answers to any of these questions. To me, this sounds like a good research topic. Does anyone have any idea where to start looking for information?
Reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books will give you insight on how Christmas was celebrated in the nineteenth century. Actually, spending a lot of time reading fiction and non-fiction written by authors of various time periods and locales will be helpful.
ReplyDeleteAlso, History Magazine is a very reader-friendly, helpful magazine to understand social history. It is published by the same company that created Family Chronicle and Internet Genealogy, and makes a great companion to those magazines as well.