The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1902-01-09
An Old Time Christina S ia Iowa.

An interesting letter relating remi-
niscences of Christmas four-score years
ago, written by George Schramm for the
Des Moines Daily Register will be read
with great interest. Mr.. Schramm
writes of Christmas tree festival at his
home in Pennington in the year 1915.
He tells of the pleasure that was ex-
perienced by reason of it and pleads for
a restoration OF the real Christmas.
His letter is as follows.
Des Moines, Dec. 2O.-Ed. Register:
In your issue Of the 18th inst. appears
an item concerning the introduction of
this Christmas tree into the United
States. The statement is made that
perhaps not dozen people in Iowa
eyer saw a Christmas tree fifty years
ago. l can, however, assert to the con.
trary, for had the first Christmas tree
in my home in Pennington, Iowa, in
the year 1916, and many people, old and
young came to see it. The custom has
been, | might say religiously, kept up in
my family, and my children grown, my
grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
and myself not executed, greatly enjoy
it. The coming Christmas eve is looked
forward to with pleasure by my family,
who are expected to meet at my dwelling
to see the tree and the gifts Christkind
has brought to them. My father had
his first Christmas tree in America, in
Circleville, o., in 1888. Arriving there
at the beginning of the winter in 1887,
we had no Christmas tree that season,
owing to our unsettled condition, but
the custom was kept up ever afterward
by my father, aud all his neighbors
came to look at it and admire it. ALI
of my fathers children have continued
the custom. For hundreds of years this
beautiful custom has been observed by
my ancestors in upper Franconia and
in Alsace, where they originated. From
Alsace it was introduced into Paris, but
was soon dropped, as the French con-
sidered it unpatriotic to adopt German
custom.
My first recollection of Christmas
tree dates back eighty.three years. l
was not quite three years old Oh Dec. "a
1918, when my father awoke me and the
other children to see the fir tree loaded
with the nice things the Christkind had
brought us, and the cherry bough in full
bloom, and to listen to the music, vocal
and instrumental, emanating from the
church steeple. Precisely at midnight,
as the town clock struck 10, father
opened one of the small windows to al
low the sounds of the music free ingress.
set under the fir tree, illumined with
scintillating lights, when the Christmas
carols came as it were, from heaven it.
self. l sat as one entranced. The
gllded apples and nuts, the beautiful
dolls and decorations and tidbits, and
the sublime music, filled me with an
ecstacy understandable. All these were
the gifts of the good, the divine Christ.
kind. ! like to dwell on this word,
which is not myth, like the one with
our present generation is RECALLED, for
the Book of Books informs us that with
out Him there wss nothing made. Con-
sequently, all good gifts can be and
must be ascribed to Him, and it is no
misrepresentation to tell children so.
1t seems to me that all the objections
to the mythical persons would be re-.
moved by adopting the real giver-the
Observation-Disclosures.
Note-The cherry blossoms were pro-
duced by cutting limb, five or six
weeks before Christmas, and placing it
in a tub Of warm water in warm room
and so keeping it. GEORGE ScHRAMM.