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| Library of Congress: Tripp Family, 1936 Christmas, Iowa |
I love the idea of having an old -time family Christmas. The modern, commercialized version can get very stressful. It is good to go back and look at old family photographs to see what Christmas looked like for our Mothers and Grandmothers. In the photograph above, you see a plain tree with a few ornaments and some tinsel. It is pretty and simple. The girls are wrapping presents together. The living room is lovely and what one would call "old fashioned." This is similar to what my home looked like throughout my childhood. It was the same for my mother. There is something so special about a simple old fashioned Christmas.
Today, I want to share with you a special book for homemakers which will greatly inspire you to have just such an old time holiday with your family. It will be a home-centered, family-centered, Christ-centered Christmas. I will also be giving away a copy of this book.
The book is called, "Dear Christmas Mothers" by Mrs. Connie Hultquist. It is a compilation of some of her letters during Thanksgiving and Christmas time.
Have you met Connie? She started hand-writing letters to homemakers many years ago. Then in the year 2000, her Marriage Testimony was published in Nancy Campbell's "Above Rubies" magazine. By this time, Connie was writing her daily letters over the Internet, using a small email machine. This is when I met her, 18 years ago. She has encouraged and inspired many wives and mothers to be old-time homemakers for the Lord.
Her marriage testimony is currently being made into a movie through Pro-Family films. These are the same people who have worked to help make the movie "War Room." You can find out about Connie's upcoming movie, "Bring Him Home," and read more about her marriage testimony on their Page.
Mrs. Hultquist calls herself “Straight up hillbilly.” She knows how to live through depression-era times. Her “underground wisdom” is enlightening and inspiring. Her letters are endearing, heartwarming, and educational.
"We had to start early to gather presents for each of our children. Mary, our sixth baby, was just 8 months old for her first Christmas, and Jimmy was in the Navy. Well, I had to send Jimmy his present early to get it there in time for Christmas. I sent fudge and Christmas cookies to remind him of the tastes of home." (page 9)
"I was sitting in the living room and looking at the low and sweet Christmas lights. What an old fashioned Christmas home!" (page 40)
"You know what, Christmas Mothers? Children don't know that you are poor unless you tell them. . . . We mothers used to mainly make our Christmas with our hands. I would make the cut out cookies galore. They are so simple to make with just the most basic ingredients, and then I would frost them with simple butter frosting." (page 48)
"Sometimes we need to go back to the old ways to get our stability. In this age of feminism, we have, as women, lost our direction. So we must go back to the bend in the road to a time when life made some sense. A place where Mother was the Star of her Home." (page 104)
Some of the chapter titles include:
"An Old Time Christmas"
"Good Mothers and Happy Homes"
"A Snowy Morning"
"A Hand Made Christmas"
"Christmas Fudge"
"A Christmas Homestead"
"Cherry Kolaches and Hot Soup"
The book is paperback, 116 pages.
The Giveaway (Closed)
I will be giving away TWO Copies of this book. There will be two winners. Each one will receive a copy of "Dear Christmas Mothers."
To enter for a chance to win this book, just leave me a comment telling me something about Christmas. This could be a family memory, a tradition, or how you decorate your home. Any comment about Christmas will be an entry for a chance to win the book.
Two random winner we be selected on Friday, November 30, 2018. (U.S. Entries only.) If I am unable to reach the winners within 48 hours, alternate winners will be selected. Your entry is only valid if you include a way for me to contact you.
* This contest is now closed. The winners have been notified in Dear Christmas Mothers - Presenting the Winners.
Blessings
Mrs. White
From the Archives -
Remembering my Childhood - When Television was Special.
I Will Never Regret Staying Home with my Children - A Humble Parlour as a School of Theology.
Make it look like - The Maid was Here.
Mrs. White's special book for homemakers:"Introduction to Home Economics: Gentle Instruction to Find Joy in Christian Homemaking." Paperback, 200 pages.
70 comments:
This seems to be a lovely book. I crave an old fashioned Christmas, especially as I get older. I can now realize the silliness of going into debt and over indulging for Christmas. My Christmas decorations have become more and more simple through the years, placing more emphasis on my nativity scene than anything else.
I am a subscriber to your blog posts already. Adding this for an extra chance of winning. Thank you!
Thanks for a chance of wining the book, it is one that has been on my wish list for awhile now.
Christmas is One of my favorite holidays, can remember going to my grandparents and being with family. Now, I am the grandma and they all come to our house...I love to keep it as simple as we can and focus on the meaning for the holiday
I am already a subscriber to the newsletter for the giveaway
Will be leaving a link on Facebook for the giveaway
We try to male Christmas more ebjpyable by limiting gifts. Each child gets 3 gifts. It takes a great deal of thought and planning with such a limited number. We also have each child make an advent calendar for one of their siblings. The creative juices start flowing around Thanksgiving and they are planning out their siblings advent calendar.
We were dirt poor when I was a child, but I never knew it because my mama did special little things (like those described in the book).
I adore the peace of late church on Christmas Eve. My favorite memory is driving home after church in the snow. The town was quiet and the Christmas lights made everything feel magical. Thank you for offering this giveaway! Crowell.joan@yahoo.com
Oh, this sounds like a beautiful book! One of my favorite Christmas memories growing up was watching my dad paint a picture on the front window in our living room. He'd save Christmas cards and go through them til he found a picture he wanted to paint. :-)
I've found that there is so much going on from Thanksgiving to Christmas, parties, plays, special events, etc., that my family is often burnt out by the time Christmas arrives and it is almost anti-climatic. We've started observing advent and getting ready for Christmas slowly and enjoying the anticipation.
I'm already a subscriber and happy to be so.
My two oldest are adults (26, 24), but they still love staying home all day for Christmas. They just want us all to be together. We also do not have the traditional Christmas meal. We do everyone's favorite appetizers and such throughout the day. It's always fun to plan the menu since everyone gets to pick a favorite or two. :)
I would love this book! It reminded me of when I was a child being raised by my grandparents in a small rural Oklahoma town in the 1960s. They had very little money, but Granny would always cut a tree branch and stick it into an old coffee can. She had a box with a few ornaments, and some of that spun glass angel hair. I was allowed to cut long strips of tin foil for icicles. The few gifts would show up under the 'tree' on Christmas morning, and Granny always cooked a chicken and dressing. I stopped decorating my home around 20 years ago, because I just didn't enjoy all the work it took. However, this post and typing out my memory of a simple time is making me rethink some things. There may be a little wreath on my door this Christmas. Thank you, Mrs. White, you always know how to touch my homemaker's heart!
That sounds like a wonderful book!
One of my favorite Christmas memories would have to be going to my grandma's house. She would always set out the good china and her pretty glass serving bowls and silver flatware. We would always have her creamed mushrooms (there was a mushroom house at the end of the driveway leading to their farm), corn she froze during the summer, bread with jelly that she canned. I know there were always other things on the table, but they were the staples and things that I miss now.
Thanks for asking so I was reminded of that sweet memory!
I already subscribe to receive your updates in my email. :-)
This book sounds lovely! I fondly remember all the sacrifices my mother made in order to make Christmas full of memories. We always did a ton of baking to share with neighbors and friends. Many of the traditions she created are perpetuated in my family today.
I already subscribe to your emails!
Thank you so much for you writings. It helps me remember what's really important. I have tried....since our first Christmas together (1981).....to make an ornament or buy any ornament of something symbolic that happened over the past year......such as new baby, marriage, even something to remember the loss of a loved one. When we decorate the tree as a family, it helps us remember important events of the previous years. Precious memories......blessings.
The stockings were the big thing at our house, because my mother was so clever choosing the items to put in each one. I honestly could have done without the gifts altogether and just had the stocking. My grandmother always put a walnut (still in its shell) and an orange or a tangerine in the toe of each of our stockings, before my mother added the rest. The walnut and the citrus were what my grandmother had received in her stocking as a child, and they brought warm memories of joyful Christmas memories even in a childhood filled with poverty. She always told us that the fruit and nuts and maybe one small toy were all that she received for several years, but they still made her happy, because she knew that her widowed mother struggled even just to provide those items for her and her brother.
I subscribe.
This book sounds lovely! Every year a family favorite has been our advent count down bags. I created a set of 24 little bags. Inside I put a family activity that we can do together. It varies from reading a favorite book, playing a game, giving to others, baking, etc. This is year number 5 and all my kids begged for me to do it again. I'm thinking this has become our yearly tradition. :)
Thank you for the giveaway offer. Very kind of you. One of my favorite Christmas memories was mail...Christmas cards arriving from old family friends that we saved until the next year, my mom's best friend mailed us a shoebox filled with perfect halves of English walnuts from her backyard tree...Grandma's card with a $1 for each of us...simple but filled me up with lifetime memories. Merry Christmas to you.
I have read Connie's testimony...what an inspiration.
Christmas is a time for me to reflect on how Jesus came as a baby.
Reminds me not to be prideful or think I am superior to anyone else in any way. I am always asking Jesus to give me a child-like spirit.
Judy
planetharris@yahoo.com
I also subscribe but I'd love to have this book. I'm convinced I was born in the wrong time! The simple life of a simple homemade christmas is what I long for and how I long to raise my kids. None of this crazy commercialism. I love reading your blog because I feel like our souls are alike in our love for older, simpler things.
Bonnie davidbonnienoahsanford@gmail.com
Thank you for your beautiful posts and giveaways. Whoever needs the book will receive it. As for me, I am blessed that my “book” was my mother before me. Christmas was always centered around Christ first - the Nativity scene, not the tree, was always the focus. And yes, as children we were always happy when there were gifts for the 9 of us (and there was Always something!) But, we were always mesmerized by the Nativity set that Mom put out several days before Christmas, even before the tree was put up and decorated. We “respectfully” touched the little figures who made up the stable scene - Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and angels and the animals, and then the baby Jesus on Christmas morning. A few days later, Mom would put out the three wise men who "came from afar". I'm in my early 60's now and I've never had a Christmas without the Nativity scene as the focus of Christmas. Thank you, Mom!
~ Gwen at ouririshacres@yahoo.com
www.irishacres.wixsite.com/homestead
Dear Mrs. White,
This sounds like such a nice book. I love Mrs. Hulquist's writing. One tradition we have is that we collect Christmas movies and watch them from Thanksgiving until Christmas.
The older I get, the more I long for simpler and less commercialization of Christmas. It saddens me that everything has to be instant. My mom always set the loveliest table and had a full sit down dinner, everything homemade. I try to scale back each year in the store bought gifts and make more homemade food gifts.
duhpaynes{at}gmail{dot}com
Christmastime is bittersweet for me. My father passed away on Christmas morning 8 years ago. Since my children were very small, they mostly don’t remember him, so little by little, year after year, I try to make Christmas a special time for them. I would love to have this book for some encouragement. Thank you!
I loved going to my grandmas for Christmas. It meant everything to me as a child. I wish the same for my children, that their memories can be as fond. Sunrigs@yahoo.com
I love Christmas. We had our Christmas dinner and gift exchange on Christmas Eve so that we could go to our parents homes on Christmas Day. From the time they were very little, our 4 children would put on their pj's and sleep under our Christmas tree in the glow of the tree. They all did this. As they reach about 16 they chose to sleep in their rooms. The group grew smaller with time. Then, our 10 grandchildren arrived and the tradition was renewed. They would all sleep in our family room by the light of the tree on New Year's Eve. My husband and I always babysat our grandchildren on New Year's Eve. Now, they are off to college, in high school, or for the last 2 think they are too old. It lasted for 10 years. Those times remain very special to us and are memories we cherish. From ~ Pamela in Kansas ~
We decided to remove ourselves (as graciously as possible) from gift exchanges with family. We have a day in December when we invite everyone over and bake and decorate lemon shortbread cookies. It smells amazing. Christmas movies and music playing, log fires burning. No stress. On Christmas Eve we go to church and on Christmas morning we have a short family worship time reading from Luke and singing a couple of carols before the kids get their stockings. It’s been more relaxing since we decided to go this route. I would enjoy reading the book. Thank you, melissacseverance@gmail.com
This book sounds wonderful. It is so easy to get caught up in the frenzy this time of year. I like have our grown children and grandchildren over for Christmas dinner.
I am already a subscriber to your wonderful blog.
Anfavon@yahoo.com.
I would love to receive this book also. I well remember my childhood Christmas's from the time I was 5 and older. That was the year we moved to a big old 4 square house. There are 8 in my family. We had a big tree, all decorated with a few ornaments, the big electric bulbs and tinsel. We all went to midnight mass and when we got home we had a snack and then got to open the new game we got each Christmas. The older of us kids got to stay up with dad and play the game for awhile. Mom went to bed as there we 2 little girls who she would have to get up with in the morning. In the morning we had a big breakfast, then cleaned up the kitchen and opened our presents. I remember we each got one bigger gift. Most mememorable was the doll and the little bassinets.
I already subscribe to your emails! They are such a treasure when they show up and bring a smile to my face and peace to my heart, thank you!
My favorite Christmas was having my daughter on the 23rd and the nurses putting her into a Christmas stocking to return home on Christmas Day. A cherished memory.
Firstly, I loved reading this. Right up my alley...I was just talking with one of my married daughters, Michelle. I told her my mother had one beautiful tree in the living room, a manger scene and maybe some gold tinsel on tops of living room furniture artfully swirled into a long 'S' shape type design.
It's true, don't make poor to the children. My mother was Depression era and she said that she and her brother never knew they were poor! Our children either, my husband has always been in business for himself and it's been extremely lean in the past but my girls never knew and we didn't receive help from relatives either like some seem to do.
In our home when our girls were little, we made a different Christmas cookie every day for more than several days, it gave us a variety and a big canister would be brought to Grandpa too.
I also avoided any t.v. commercials advertising new glitzy glary toys. I kept to baby dolls usually from old-fashioned Dollar General stores (one of the only stores that carried old-fashioned baby dolls reasonably). As far as the t.v. went it usually played an old black and white movie or old-fashioned type program anyhow. : )
I would love to read that book, it sounds really wonderful. But if someone is in need this Christmas and doesn't have the funds please allow it to go to them first.
With love, Amelia
Dear Mrs. White,
You have truly been a blessing of humility to me as I have read your books and now this little book sounds so wonderful! I have read Mrs.Hultquist's testimony a couple of years ago and was deeply moved by her dedication to her husband. Every Christmas Eve we spend a simple German family meal with my in- laws and our children. We eat boiled potatoes with broth and simmered pork( supposed to be the Hooves) in memory of my husband's father's time in WW2. They used to find the potato scraps in the garbage and fry them up with the minimal amounts of pork. We are happy that our children are able to take part in this meaningful tradition and we hope they will pass some of it down to theirs one day. Many blessings, Heather ( Canada)
Hello!
What a wonderful post about remembering the way Christmas used to be...the way I long for it to still be. The photo you shared at the beginning makes me wish I were living in that very home at Christmas. We try very hard to keep Christmas a quiet family time. We opt out of my husband's large family gathering, we bake cookies together one Sunday in December, and we try to sit together and watch a Christmas show or read a book every night. I am always strengthened in my resolve to do our own thing when I visit you here. Thank you for that! Have a cozy evening!
That is what my tree always looked like growing up. We would cut one from the pasture. Always had tinsel, which we would try to save from year to year. We also would string popcorn to put on the tree and also to give to the birds. Lastly, we would make paper chains of red and green paper. I don't think kids today even know what an old fashioned Christmas is.
I just finished preparing our December Morning Time for our homeschool. We will memorize scripture and poems and sing songs. We also have a fun read-aloud planned. I can't wait!
Thank you for offering a giveaway for such a precious book! We have a Christmas tradition of opening presents Christmas morning and baking cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Followed by our Christmas dinner in the afternoon. Being thankful and spending time with one another.
I just signed up as a subscriber.
Hello Mrs.White,
I love reading Connie's blog and would love to have her book. My favorite memories of Christmas are the family gatherings and just being together with my parents...sure miss those days! Hope your Christmas is a blessed and healthy one. Thanks for the chance to win.
Kay W.
Thank you for this giveaway. I like to keep things simple and long for an old fashioned Christmas. Some of my memories were hearing my dad (santa) call out Ho, Ho, Ho merry Christmas! as we lay in our beds. We knew that just a few minutes later we would be able to open presents. Other memories were Grandmas Christmas feast and homemade candies, getting to play on her organ, and sing along with records on her turntable. My dad and grandma are both gone and I miss them dearly and really think about them so much; especially at Christmastime . Merry Christmas , Mrs. White.
Tima- tinselart15 at yahoo dot com
I subscribe to your newsletter.
Tima- tinselart15 at yahoo dot com
I love a simple Christmas. I used to go all out and put lights and greens all over everything. It took me a couple of days to put out and light up all of my Snow Village. I made SEVERAL different Christmas cookies, bars or fudge candy. These days I have been keeping it much simpler. A smaller tree from our own property, a nice Christmas centerpiece on the table, some cut out frosted christmas cookies, a dessert, and a nice ham or lazanya dinner. No one even notices that I have cut back so much. Most of the time I took half of the plates of goodies back home after the family get togethers. No one could eat all of the sweets anyway. My stress level is so low now that I can actually enjoy and look forward to Christmas with my family. No more exhaustion and crazy expectations, and everyone has a nice memorable Christmas. ~Diane W
So many things I could share about favorite ways to have lovely quiet Christmas... But was just thinking today how special it is when a tradition just keeps passing down through the years. A simple example is the Snowball Cookies my mom learned to bake from her new mother-in-law. They were my oh-so-favorite and when I was young married, the first Christmas cookie recipe I began baking. Now my own daughter tells her son's how it was her all-time favorite Christmas cookie. Who knows how far and wide that little Snowball's gonna roll? smile
I would just love to read Connie's new book!
Mom and I would bake cookies and sing Christmas carols together while doing that. She made wonderful peanut butter cookies and her famous mincemeat cookies, to name a few. We always had lots of cookies to serve to guests.
Friends and family would take time to visit during the holiday season. It was so special.
Today no one seems to have time for anything like that.
Thank you for your blog, Mrs. White, it is such a nice place to visit!
Oh, what a delightful giveaway of such a beautiful book for Christmastime. I must say that one of my most favorite things about this time of year is getting to do all sorts of special baking. While I do bake throughout the year, there are specific recipes that I only ever make at Christmas. And those are special! They hold fond family memories and have become traditions each year...and it's such fun, too!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful book with your readers!
I have been a subscriber to your lovely blog and so enjoy receiving your posts in my inbox. Thank you for the additional entry into the giveaway! ♥
Merry Christmas!
I am a new subscriber to your blog. I joined earlier this month!
I love a simple Christmas. I love to decorate the house with my family. I love creating decorations w supplies we find (pinecone, acorns,etc) or already own. We try to limit our sweets & treats so the baking is not as grand as when I was a child, but we do have a few favorites. I love to simmer an orange and cinnamon etc on the stovetop to create a cozy smell that’s reminiscent to when my mother baked.
I would love a copy of the Christmas book.
Blessings & happy Christmas
Sounds like a great inspiring book. We like to make cookies and decorate the tree together. We also read the Christmas Story leading up to Christmas, an informal advent study.
The older I get the more I yearn for the simple Christmas times of my childhood. My favorite part was going around the week before Christmas to visit all the relatives, sample their goodies, see their decorations, and just enjoy being together.
I already receive your emails alerting me to a new post. Adding this for another entry.
Christmas has always been such a special time for me. I am of Polish heritage, and the meatless Christmas Eve supper called Wigilia has a lot of memories for me. The meal, usually at my grandmother's house, always included a mushroom soup, fish, some sort of potato or noodle dish and two vegetable dishes, and poppy seed cake and nut Kolach for dessert. I would sing Polish Christmas hymns with my grandfather in Polish. We always went to church on Christmas Eve. I kept up the traditions for many years until my own children grew up and moved far away. I love reading Christmas books, so it would sure be great if I won!
One of the joys of "making Christmas" is in the actual making of gifts. One of my favorite memories is of making doll clothes for my girls' dolls every year. They were simple clothes made from a hand me down pattern and hand me down fabric scraps sometimes. They loved them though.
Blessings,
Laura
So many things I could share about favorite ways to have lovely quiet Christmas... But I was just thinking today how special it is when a tradition just keeps passing down through the years. A simple example is the Snowball Cookies my mom learned to bake from her new mother-in-law. They were my oh-so-favorite and when I was young married, the first Christmas cookie recipe I began baking. Now my own daughter tells her son's how it was her all-time favorite Christmas cookie. Who knows how far and wide that little Snowball's gonna roll? smile
I would just love to read Connie's new book!
We live a cozy life all year and that continues on through the Christmas season. My favorite personal thing to do during the holidays is sit by the fire with the Christmas tree on and read my favorite Grace Livingston Hill books that have a Christmas theme. Some of them I've read so many times, but I enjoy them again each year.
Merry Christmas!
Sallie
I also subscribe to your website. Thank you!
Dear Mrs. White,
Thank you so much for the chance to win this book...I love Connie! We will be having our entire family(including 10 grands) for Christmas breakfast. Will be a FUN & loud/hectic time but can't wait. God bless you & yours.
Kay W.
Hi Mrs. White,
I wondered why my comment hadn't posted and saw that my email was required. Please note my address and allow my comment to be accepted in the draw. Thank you for your kind offer for an opportunity to receive this book!
Lori in Missouri
lcsr59@sbcglobal.net
Hi. I enjoyed this post and have the same love and desire for the old fashioned, simple, Christ centered Christmas's of the past. I have always tried to make our family's main focus about the one true Gift, but the last few years even more so. My children call our Christmas tree the "Jesus tree" because all the homemade (and store bought) ornaments are centered on Him. Even the tree topper, which is a compilation of a wooden cross, a beautiful wooden carving of the name'Jesus,' and a crown of thorns from Jersusalem (found inexpensively on Amazon).
I am so thankful to have found your blog and books. I feel like it gives women a feeling of "permission" to truly work at and enjoy the "career" of being a Titus 2 woman for the Lord. I love your simplicity and honesty. Thank you ❤
Tobi from TN
I just commented, but did not include a way to contact. It's shearussell@rocketmail.com.
Thanks again, Tobi from TN
Looks like a wonderful book! Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love old fashioned ways, seems like such a simpler time of life. I just found your blog and I can't wait to dig into it!
My favorite memories are of the delicious feast and music at my late grandma's house in the 70s and 80s.
Tina- tinselart15 at Yahoo dot com
Mrs. White,
thank you so much for a chance to win Connie's book...i love her writings! and, yours! we will be having Christmas Day breakfast with all of our family including 10 grands :-) God bless you & yours...keep your posts coming...i look so forward to each & every one of them.
Kay W.
I love decorating cookies and ornaments each year with all my little ones around me. :-)
I am already a longtime subscriber and thank you for additional chance to win the book drawing! God bless your ministry to fellow homemakers...
Each year I put on the Christmas music and start to decorate with joy in my heart.
This year my newborn will have her first Christmas!
renee@totalhomemakeover.com
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