Time Machine: Christmas 100 years ago in Iowa

The first national Christmas tree to be set up on the Ellipse, south of the White House, came from Middlebury College, Vt.

Originally planned as a community tree, sponsored by the District of Columbia public schools, news reports began calling it the “national tree” before any lights were added to it.

It was lighted by President Calvin Coolidge on Christmas Eve 1923.

The president walked from the White House to the Ellipse, and flipped the switch that turned on thousands of lights on the 60-foot tree in front of a crowd of about 3,000, while a choir sang and a brass quartet from the U.S. Marine Band played.

Coolidge then returned to the White House to celebrate a quiet Christmas with his wife, Grace, sons John and Calvin Jr., and friends Mr. and Mrs. Frank Stearns of Boston.

Christmas 1923

Cedar Rapids had a municipal tree in Greene Square in 1913, but after three years, it was decided the money was better spent on families in need. So, there was no tree there in 1923, though the tradition resumed in 1925, financed by anonymous donors.

Community trees were set up in 1923 in Tama, Clinton, Preston and Monticello.

A Gazette reporter interviewed several men and women on Dec. 1 about their Christmas present selections and concluded, “Everybody should enjoy the Christmas season in 1923, according to merchants here, for already the Christmas spirit has begun to smolder, and in a week or so will burst into bright flame.”

A few days later, the Cedar Rapids Kiwanis Club met at the Hotel Montrose to plan a Christmas dinner for the children living at the Home for the Friendless, while the Co-Operative Club prepared gifts for the children and a Christmas tree to put the gifts under.

Mail, boxcar homes

In mid-month, the post office released information on sending Christmas cards: “A Christmas card, if printed, may be mailed for one cent with a written signature at the bottom if the envelope containing it is unsealed. If it is sealed, mailers should use a two-cent stamp.”

Size mattered as well.

“The post office also urges mailers to avoid the use of small letters and cards which are hard for the rapid moving distribution clerks to handle and frequently the small sized ones are lost. Two and three-quarters by four inches is the smallest that can be conveniently handled.”

The Public Health Nurses Bureau and the Americanization Council announced Dec. 14 that Christmas would come to the boxcar homes of Mexican laborers in the Rock Island yards. The first tree ever was put up outdoors at the yards. A Dec. 21 program included small toys for the children.

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Gifts for children

More than 150 little “Cinderellas” were chosen by school principals to attend a party given by the Business and Professional Women’s Club at the Chamber of Commerce the evening of Dec. 18.

Alice Inskeep, music supervisor for the public schools, was in charge of entertainment, and Jane Boyd, Tyler schoolteacher and social worker, was in charge of the children. Each child received two gifts from an adopted-for-the-event mother. After a picnic supper, carols and orchestra selections, each child received bags of candy, apples and oranges.

Another tree was decorated Dec. 20 by the Van Vechten Guild at the Colonial Theater, 108 Third Ave. SW, for mothers and babies. The guild paid for the hall and also bought toys.

Over at the Crystal Room of the Hotel Montrose, 130 schoolboys were treated to lunch, followed by a visit from Santa who distributed large paper bags, each filled with a stocking cap, mittens, two pairs of socks, fruit, nuts, candy, a can of syrup from Penick & Ford and a jackknife. A troupe of jugglers from the Majestic Theater entertained. The boys were driven back to school in a fleet of automobiles.

Christmas programs

Schools let out for the holiday break on Dec. 21, but not before the students took part in Christmas programs.

Reading of Henry Van Dyke’s “Story of the Other Wise Man” occurred at two of the junior highs, and intermediate and primary grades had parties and programs that included the Christmas story, carols and poems. Santa Claus showed up at some of the schools to pass out gifts.

One hundred boys, ages 11 to 14, were entertained by the YMCA Dormitory Club on Dec. 21. The club provided each boy with a pound of candy, a pound of nuts, an apple and an orange — gifts from local wholesale houses.

As Christmas Day approached, temperatures were well above normal. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, highs were above 40 degrees.

The Gazette published a full page of Christmas programs and services at local churches. Among them was a program of carols from Poland, England, France, Germany, Bohemia, Russia and Holland at St. Paul’s Methodist Church.

An unknown number of “Yuletide imbibers” were disappointed Dec. 23 when Prohibition Agent Earl Stanley and two police officers raided a home on 15th Street SE and seized a still, 95 bottles of corn and sugar mash, more than four quarts of corn whiskey, home brew beer and wine, The Gazette reported.

In Iowa City, the Disabled American Veterans of World War I sponsored a Christmas feast for veterans — and the other residents — at the hospital at Oakdale.

Post-Christmas

The holiday celebration continued into Dec. 26 with the Christmas Ball given by Mr. and Mrs. H.B. Hunting, a businessman, for their three daughters and their 300 guests at the Hotel Montrose ballroom in Cedar Rapids.

About those Christmas cards. It was well into the month of January 1924 when The Gazette reported a half-million letters were dispatched from the Cedar Rapids post office during Christmas week 1923.

Comments: D.fannonlangton@gmail.com

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