Christmas 1820's
Talked of old times – Gen. C. B. Holland comments on early Christmas festivities
Leader Democrat, December 22, 1899 page 4
"Gen. C. B. Holland was able to come down town yesterday afternoon and spend an hour or two at the bank. He was interested in the crowd of people on the streets and spoke of the changes in Christmas usages since his childhood days.
"Gen. Holland has seen 83 Christmas anniversaries and can remember as far back as 1821. He was born in 1816. When he was a little boy Santa Claus had not become the hero of the childhood world. Children had their fun then, but not with fire-crackers, painted whistles and the holiday gifts now so common. Fire-crackers had not been invented even for Fourth of July celebrations at the time Gen. Holland began to take some part in youthful sports.
"But the young Tennessean made a good deal of noise on Christmas Eve 75 years ago. He shot guns and fired anvils even if gunpowder was a precious article then. Gen. Holland tells of bursting big logs with black powder to make a Christmas demonstration. A log was bored full of holes and loaded with powder. Then when the holiday eve came the loaded log was touched off and split asunder. The explosion made a noise that could be heard all over the settlement.
"Flint lock muskets that had done service for the cause of American independence in the Revolutionary War were then in the country and those guns made a loud report when heavily loaded and the powder well rammed with tow wads.
"It was the custom for men and boys to take in the country on Christmas Eve, going in squads from house to house and firing a salute at each place. Whisky was almost as plentiful as water then. The poorest man could take a bushel of corn to a neighboring still house and get in exchange for the grain a gallon of good proof spirits. Not many families allowed the holiday to come around without being supplied with the necessary Christmas beverage. It was no reproach to take a dram on any occasion and the best church members made egg nogg [sic] on Christmas Eve.
"Gen. Holland speaks with great pride of the good feeling that prevailed among neighbors in those days. Everybody was friendly and homicides were very rare. Such difficulties as occurred were settled in fair fights with fists, pistols being then unknown as weapons of ordinary combats.
"Gen. Holland has not been out much since last year. He is now one of the oldest citizens of Springfield."
According to a biography in Past and Present of Greene County, Missouri, General Colley B. Holland was born August 24, 1816 and died May 5, 1901. Photograph of Colley B. Holland is courtesy of First and Calvary Church.
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