(upbeat soft rock music) - Hello, and welcome to "Prairie Pulse."

Joining me today is Mark Halvorson, from the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Mark, thanks for joining us today.

- [Mark] Thanks for having us.

- Well, you know, we had you on a few years ago, and we talked about Christmas and Christmas traditions, so we're gonna do some of that in today's show, I hope, and you brought some things, but before we do that, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and your background.

- I'm a farm kid.

I grew up on a farm outside of Rugby, North Dakota.

Norwegian, German-Russian background, mom's side of the family, good German-Russians, dad's side, the good Norwegians, and grew up in a woven community with lots of kids all around, and Christmas one of those special times of year which always seemed to take forever.

I mean, when you're a little kid, and going out, doing your evening chores, and crunching across the snow, it was a long wait until Christmas, and finally, it was here.

- Well now, then, tell us, explain to us, I guess, your role at the State Historical Society.

- I'm a museum curator of collections and research.

I work with all the three-dimensional objects.

We write exhibits, we produce exhibits, for not only the main museum, but also the historic sites program, the county, local, and traveling museums, then we send out archives exhibits.

We incorporate historic photographs, documents from the archives, then the wonderful wealth of three-dimensional objects, ranging from moccasins to toy typewriters, to children's toys, in the exhibits.

- Hm, well, as I said, we're gonna, we had you on a few years ago talking about Christmas traditions.

When, exactly, did Christmas, as we sort of know it today, begin?

- In 1840s, Queen Victoria of England was married to Albert.

He was a German.

He was the first one to popularize and introduce the Christmas tree in English society.

Because they had a Christmas tree, they had a whole bunch of kids, and they had the houses at Balmoral, and Osborne house on the Isle of Wight.

They popularized, in the British tradition, the sense of Christmas, and it became more of a festival holiday.

In America, the first use of Christmas, and that's image of Santa Claus, comes in at the time of the Civil War.

Thomas Nast, who was an artist, he gave us Santa Claus, in addition to those familiar things you see, the Republican elephant, or the Democratic donkey.

But he was the one who popularized Christmas, and that was the 15th of January, 1863, in the heart of the Civil War.

- Hm, 1863.

Well, but can you talk about the evolution of Christmas from the origins of, say, Christ's birth, and how it's changed over the 2000 years?

- You have to remember that, in the church tradition, even in the Christian entity tradition, it was, Easter was the grand celebration, the high point of the year.

Now, Christmas traditions, some of 'em are allegedly to have date from the time of the winter solstice, those late-fall harvest seasons.

Remember, the church building on, and encompassing, all different varieties of people all across the world.

Now, St. Nicholas of Antioch was a bishop who was known for his generosity to the poor.

Sinterklaas, in the Netherlands, different permutations of how you say, Sankt Niklaus in Germany, all these are permutations based on different interpretations of St. Nicholas, a kind, loving bishop, sometimes wearing red, sometimes wearing, 'cause red is the color of a bishop, sometimes wearing blue or green, depending on the tradition, giving gifts during that time leading up to Christmas.

- Hm, how about, in the early years of North Dakota as a territory, and then as a state, talk about some of the Christmas traditions on the prairie.

- Well, you have to remember, we have, North Dakota has a rich mosaic of people.

We have Norwegians, we have Swedes, we have Germans, we have Russians, we have Poles, and each of these groups brought their traditions with them.

Now, the common use in Christmas was the Christmas tree in the church.

Sometimes they'd have a tree, and, perhaps, a nativity scene or a creche.

But, for many of the frontier families, it was an expense they didn't necessarily have, initially.

In some of the communities, in the towns, they would have it.

Eventually, though, by the time of the turn of the century, in the public one-room schools, they were doing some sort of a Christmas pageant or a Christmas play, and the parents would come to listen to their childrens do a recitation, perhaps do a little play, whether it was a one-room country schoolhouse out in a township near Belfield North Dakota, or a consolidated school down in southeastern North Dakota.

It was those rich traditions with the school children, the Christmas concert, the Christmas play, these were all part of North Dakota's rich tradition.

- Well now, do you have something you wanted to read for us today, or?

- I'd like to read you a little section from William Clark's journal.

William Clark, he's writing on the 25th of December, Christmas, it's a Tuesday.

"I was awakened before dawn by discharge of three platoons from the party and the French.

The men merrily disposed, and I give them all a little tafia and permitted a three cannon fired, at raising our flag.

Some men went out to hunt, and the others to dancing, and continued until 9:00 PM, when the frolic ended."

Well, his references to a little tafia is to a little ration of brandy, to give them a little Christmas spirit, and also a little additional rations of food.

- [John] Hmm.

- But that's early Christmas in what is now North Dakota.

1805, you know, remember the Lewis and Clark Expedition, set up by President Jefferson, but bringing some of those American traditions, celebration of food and festivity.

- [John] Hm, wow.

- But what's interesting is, New Year's was in the secular, in the United States, was the big official holiday.

In 1860s, Philippe Régis de Trobriand, who was the commandant, the commander, at Fort Stevenson, along the Missouri River, he was lamenting that, you know, Christmas Eve, he was, they were all snowed in, a huge snowstorm had covered the barracks.

But it wasn't until January 1st when there was the traditional calling upon.

The officers would call upon him in the morning, and he would call upon the officers and their spouses throughout the day, and the men had the day off.

They were issued extra rations, and they were issued a little bit of alcohol.

- Well, what are some of the Christmas-related items and artifacts that the Historical Society has for sort of, the public to view?

- If you go into the museum, or any of our branch ones, you'll see everything from stockings to little teddy bears.

Dolls were very common.

You have to remember that the largest producers of dolls were the Germans, until World War I.

Those wonderful bisque or China-headed dolls, and when World War I hit, it cut off the entire manufacturer of toys and supply of toys to the North American market, and that's when American manufacturers stepped in.

But there's wonderful things, games, board games, books, anything that was dealt with Christmas.

Usually, though, a child only got one toy.

Perhaps it was a doll, maybe it's a little toy car, or a little toy truck, toy tractor.

Farm families, a lot of our ancestors came here to farm, large number of kids and the, well, loved their children, but they had to be frugal because they had to pay off that farm.

- Well, and I understand you've brought some items to sort of share with us today, that you could bring here to the studio.

- Sure, I brought some things that are more the educational thing, and bring it forward a little bit from a couple years.

Now, if you're of a certain age, you remember certain things from your childhood.

For example, I think there's a whole bunch of people who remember things like a little Volkswagen Mini Bus, the toy Volkswagen.

But it's classic example of an American toy.

In addition, I grew up on a farm, so you had a little toy manure spreader made in the the United States.

Actually, it's functional, the levers actually work, but this would've been pulled by your toy tractor.

Now, this one, of course, is also American-made, die-cast, rubber wheels, and it has the MM for Minneapolis-Moline.

Now, that's a local manufacturing down in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

And, to generations of us, we all grew up seeing, not only just red or green in the fields, we saw blue, we saw Olivers, there were Olivers, there were Cockshutts, there were Case, Alice Chalmers, Minneapolis-Moline.

If you remember certain things, such as, you remember man walking on the moon, you remember whole generations of different types of tractors and toys.

In addition, like many of these items, children would sometimes receive things like this, a toy toolkit, complete with your directions and all your toys, your hammer, basically, functional tools.

A wood plane, a hammer, pliers, screwdriver, all those things that were totally functional.

Toys have changed over the years.

Some things are the same, some things are different.

For example, Tinkertoys.

Now, Tinkertoys have been around since the 1920s.

Your grandfather remembered Tinkertoys, your dad had Tinkertoys, or maybe an Erector Set.

Now, these are from the 1960s, because if you look at them, you remember this, it has the space rocket and the gantry.

Remember, we all grew up in a time, there was a time period where, with the Kennedy administration, and the Johnson administration, we had the race to space.

We put a man on the moon, and the Kennedy Space Center was part of that.

In addition, with your Tinkertoys, you could also make a brand new jetliner.

I still remember, as a kid, going to pick up my sister from the airport, and she came in on a airplane that actually had still, it was a jet airplane, but it had propellers on it, yet.

But it was, you know, Tinkertoys, a construction tool very much similar to the modern day K'NEX, or the Legos, that are still available for kids to play with and are still being popular with younger generations.

- Now, one of the things is, I noticed, you know, well, they have a little plastic here, but a lot of these were metal, the toolkit were metal, so things were made a little different back then.

- Things were made a little different.

The toys were slightly different materials, but they still, they fired those imaginations.

I mean, there are generations of architects, civil engineers, who played with Tinkertoys, Erector Sets, those things that, you know, brought life home and fired your imagination, and they still do.

- Well, you mentioned, too, about children being, maybe getting one toy, or one present.

But, of course, in the 1930s, you know, times were tough.

So I suppose, you know, a child getting a toy was very special.

- It was very special.

A lot of kids didn't receive things.

You have to remember, North Dakota, over 60% of the population was experiencing, in the 1930s, one form or another of public assistance.

But the 1930s also brought us some innovations.

Inexpensive American-made dolls.

Now, you and your wife, probably right before Christmas, are gonna be decorating your Christmas tree, and you're gonna probably be using, maybe, some large, spherical balls, you know, glass ones, as opposed to some little birds or animals.

F.W.

Woolworth Company pioneered an inexpensive, American-made ornaments, trying to, even in the hardest of times, trying to preserve that American spirit of Christmas, of that celebration, at least once a year.

Christmas Day parades come about during this time period, kicking off, you know, the tradition.

In addition, out here on the plains, it was still, something would be done, sometimes, by the local community, usually in the schools.

If you were a child of the '50s, the '60s, and the '70s, you perhaps remember that, on a couple Saturdays before Christmas, the local merchants in the biggest town in the county, probably, it was Mott, or maybe it was Crosby, or Rugby, at the local show hall or movie theater, they would show some cartoon, and then followed by, maybe, a silly movie, and afterwards, there might actually be a visit from Santa Claus.

- Well, can can you expand some, maybe, on some of the Christmas traditions, the various ethnic groups, of course, obviously, with Germans and Norwegians settling a lot in this area, can you talk about some of those traditions?

- Well, some of the interesting ones, the good folks at NDSU, Tim Kloberdanz and Bill Sherman, have been writing about some of interesting German traditions.

For example, there was Santa Claus, but if you were bad, he had an assistant who had a little switch.

And if you were a bad child, you might actually get the switch.

Coal in your stockings.

The Swedish community had the whole festival, St. Lucia, with the lights and the candles.

But I think the one part that has been brought down to the present day, in all these ethnic traditions, is the food.

At Christmas time, there's still many Norwegian families that eat lutefisk, sandbakkels, fattigmann, lefse.

German families, they'll break out the kuchen, the pfeffernusse, those spicy cookies and things that they normally didn't have in the rest of their life, because you know, working on a farm and a farm family.

Also, and depending on your tradition, remember, Christmas starts, it's 30 days, starts at Niklaus, the feast of St. Nicholas, the sixth of December, and goes on through Driekoningen, three kings, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, the three wise men.

You all remember from the New Testament that, on what is now Epiphany, the three wise men came bearing gifts, one of frankincense, one of gold, and one of myrrh, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar.

Now, that's the tradition I grew up in, because my cousin was married to a Balthasar Miggler, I had Uncle Melchiors, and our neighbor, next door neighbor on the farm, was a Caspar, and his last name was Schneider.

So, those are names that still ring true to these days.

- Hm, well you talked some about the origins, I guess, of St. Nick, and being in the Middle Ages and stuff, things, but you've also brought some, I guess, some things for us to look at, talking about St. Nick and Santa Claus.

- Santa Claus, right.

Now, Santa Claus, you have to remember, this is a classic example, German-American, it's a newspaper that's Christmas edition, from Golden Valley in Mercer County.

The classic American Santa Claus, big white beard, big red hat.

The Western Union Newspaper Association down in Omaha, from 1881 to 1916, was producing, this was boilerplate.

A lot of these county, small-town newspapers would produce a Christmas special, in which there was the advertising, announcing that they had new rakes, and perhaps they had some toys, things for the wife, things for the husband, for Christmas.

There's a whole series of these that are preserved in the State Historical Society.

This one is from Golden Valley.

There's another one, I believe, right behind there.

Now, this is interesting, because this one is from Gwinner in Sergeant County, and it depicts that, sort of, European, almost a German, or British-style, community.

Santa Claus is on the roof in the foreground, his sleigh is slightly asunder because of the pitch of the roof, but it's a European community, very much a different tradition, but this one is from 1915.

The Christmas issue, "The Prairie Press."

Now, the next one, for those of you is from western North Dakota, you've probably heard of White Earth, North Dakota.

This is from the "White Earth Record."

It is 1916, and you see Santa, about to climb down the chimney, with his sack full of toys, everything from dolls, to little toy drums, to little toy horses and animals.

Classic American Santa Claus.

By the first World War, you know, as Santa evolves over the years, too, sometimes.

In 1917, America was at war in Europe, so Santa Claus here, from "The Gackle Republican," noticed the red, white, and blue ribbons all throughout the holly and ivy.

And he's distributing toys to children all over the world, and he's wearing a red, white, and blue, stars and stripes, stocking cap.

The American Santa Clause as patriotic Uncle Sam.

If you'll reach down for the next one, but Santa also was in favor of progress.

From the "Golden Valley Chronicle," here's Santa driving an automobile, but this is 1908.

This one happens to be, apparently, a Chalmers, Detroit, which was also available at the CW Moulten Firm in Beach, North Dakota that year.

But here's Santa Claus changing with the times, he doesn't always necessarily use a sleigh.

And then the next one is a really great one.

Most of you aren't familiar with a dirigible, unless you use the term, if you think of the term Zeppelin, or the Hindenburg, well, dirigibles were rigid airships.

Well, Santa, in this image from 1911, is using a dirigible.

You know, he's suspended below the balloon, and he's distributing children of the world toys.

This is from Donnybrook, "The Donnybrook Courier," farming community and village of Donnybrook.

This was their 11th year of publication, but a classic illustration, and it also shows that importance of the American Santa Claus, red suit, benevolent face, progressive.

And the final image was one from a newspaper in western North Dakota that they forgot to print on the cover, but it's interesting, because Santa, by this point, has progressed even further, and he's flying one of the brand new airplanes, and he's got his toy sack stretched out over the wing, and he's waving good night to all the little sleeping children after he's distributed the toys in the local community.

And, on the side of the of the airplane, is the expression "joy," as in peace and joy.

- [John] So, very nice.

Well, how about the influence of the story "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

- "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" is one of those influential stories, written by Clement Moore.

There has been some scholar debate whether Clement Moore actually wrote it.

The first illustration, of course, by Santa in the United States, was Thomas Nast.

But by the 1890s, Santa Claus had become the American version.

"'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

This is based on a, this is a reprint that the museum has available in the museum store.

It's based on a 1904 Saalfield edition.

This was bought by a young girl in Minot, North Dakota, sold by a printing company up there.

With your little indulgence, we all familiar with the opening stanza.

"'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."

But it's a classic illustration, on one of the last pages, you have the entire, all the different types of toys, the elephants, the toy elephants, the arc, everything that was available, everything that brings to life that spirit of Christmas, to generations of children, to generations of young and old.

- Then, can you talk about the influence of, say, another author, Charles Dickens, and "A Christmas Carol"?

- "A Christmas Carol" is is a wonderful story, because it comes out of that time period in British history where Christmas is becoming popular, and it's becoming more of a secular holiday as opposed to a religious holiday.

And the image of Ebenezer Scrooge, and that spirit of not being giving and charitable to your fellow man, really strikes British society.

Charles Dickens, his works were very influential in shaping Americans' view of British, and shaping the British view of themselves.

And, every year across North Dakota, across the entire Midwest, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, someplace, Ebenezer Scrooge is being played by some young person on the stage, because "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is one of those timeless classics.

I mean, another thing that's a timeless classic that we're all familiar with at Christmastime, you can go to any, many number of communities, and you can listen to a performance of Handel's "Messiah."

It's an oratorio, but they always perform the Christmas section, and they always conclude with the "Hallelujah" chorus from the Easter section.

- And, you know, prairie region may have something that everybody envies, and that is, you usually associate Christmas and snow.

What would it be like for you, if you had to be in a southern or western state with no snow?

- I quite frankly don't know what I'd do, because I've always been around snow.

I've always associated Christmas with the sound of crunching snow, having to shovel, and that sort of wonderful feeling, that you're sort of snowed in.

It's warm, it's cold outside, but it's, that's Christmas.

But traditions are different in different parts of the world.

I know the Australians, totally opposite us, but Christmas means snow, it means the smell of cooking lefse, it means toys.

- Well, can you talk some about the magic of Christmas for children, and how does it differ for adults and children?

- Adults and children.

I think, when you get a certain age, you take more joy out of, it is better to give than to receive.

I know as a little kid, it was like, "Wow, I got three presents, I got four presents, wow."

And you reach a certain point in your age, and you're going, what you want to see is that expression of joy on your loved one, your spouse, your child, your sister, your brother, because that's what Christmas is.

It is that exchange of love and affection in the coldest part of the year, with those, to bring them close to you, the one's we love.

That's Christmas.

- Well, and the magic, as you and I talked about, is, there's children of all ages.

- [Mark] There is, at that.

- Especially when it comes to Christmas.

Can you touch briefly on, maybe, some of the things that are going on at the State Historical Society?

A lot of things are going on.

- A lot of things are going on.

The Christmas tree has been up, now, for a couple weeks.

It'll be coming down here at the new year.

In addition, there's going to be opening an addition to the exhibit, exploring a little more of the early fossil history of North Dakota in it.

And so, you know, there's always things going on at the Historical Society.

Check us out on our website, www.nd.gov/hist.

There's not only events going on at the North Dakota Heritage Center, but they're also going on at places like the Williston, the MYCIC Confluence Interpretive Center near Williston, North Dakota, the Chateau de Mores in Medora, Fort Abercrombie, down in Abercrombie, now down by Fargo, and at the Pembina State Museum, northeastern corner of the state.

Check us out, and make sure you get out and always remember, at some point at Christmas, there'll be "Merry Christmas" on the Capitol building, and at New Year's, the year.

- [John] All right, Mark, thanks for joining us today.

- Thanks for having us.

- Well, that's all we have this week.

As always, thanks for watching.

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