Christmas is a season celebrating the birth of Jesus.  The Christian church festivities extend from Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve) to Jan. 6 (Epiphany) .The reason for the season has not changed over the years, although it is easy for some get lost in the shopping hype.

Camden and surrounding towns begin getting everyone in the mood for the joyous season, by “Christmas by the Sea.” We have celebrated that with Santa Claus coming to town and the lamp posts so beautifully decorated with lighted wreaths by the Camden Garden Club.  The Camden Public Library has a large tree inside, where people decorate if for days with hats, scarves and mittens made for the children who might not have any for the winter. Camden is a sight to behold, as ones goes through it.  The stores have all decorated to make it all lovely.

In days of old, Christmas cards were single stock, and many sent post cards as shown in this article. The postage was one cent in the early 1900s. Today many people have sent their beautiful large folded cards with 49 cents stamps.

The stockings were always” hung by the chimney with care” and most are beautiful ones with glitter and even the name of the child.  They are filled with expensive items compared to the ones many years ago. 

Hung then were the child’s own stocking, and probably one that was well worn, but washed I am sure.  It was filled with an orange, an apple, maybe a few walnuts and if you were lucky a five cent candy bar filled the toe. All children were told that if they were not good all year, at Christmas their stocking would be filled with coal.

The family went hunting for a Christmas tree, and no one seemed to care if trees were cut on their property.  It was dragged home and boards nailed on the bottom so it would stand up. 

Decorations were made by the children with garlands strung with of popcorn and cranberries.  How long the garland were depended on how much popped corn you ate while threading it on the string. 

Sometimes ornaments were cut from the ends of tin cans.  Red and green construction paper was cut in strips and a pretty chain of those would also trim the tree.  Believe it or not, there were no electric strings of colored bulbs.  There were little tin clips that held a real candle (size of candles on a birthday cake) and lighted. 

I do not remember any houses burning down from them, but now I wonder why not?

You rushed to look under the tree Christmas morning and would find one or two presents, but were just as excited as if there were a dozen.  Maybe it was a doll that had cost one whole dollar, and perhaps a jump rope.

For Christmas dinner was a chicken and vegetables, if you had raised some chickens. As money was scarce for nearly all for all families in Camden, no one expected more. The holidays were still a very exciting time, and everyone had a Merry Christmas.