How The Old West Shaped American Christmas Traditions

Snow that bites, winds that snap, and a cabin lit by a single candle—yet the room still fills with carols and the smell of plum pudding. We journey across the Old West to uncover how pioneers forged the Christmas we recognize today, transforming scarcity into ritual and distance into community. From homestead kitchens humming weeks in advance to stockings hung by a hard‑won fire, we explore the customs that stitched a shaken nation back together after the Civil War and blossomed into a national holiday by 1870.

We share first‑hand accounts that feel close to the skin: a family pushing through storms to reach a new life in Oregon Territory, neighbors snowshoeing through four feet of powder for a frontier feast, and Dodge City’s Christmas Eve council where civic ambition briefly overshadowed goodwill. These vignettes reveal the texture of the season on the prairie—homemade ornaments from evergreens and ribbon, popcorn garlands, cookie‑dough keepsakes, and gifts carved, knitted, and stitched over months. Each detail reminds us that meaning grows where hands work and hearts wait.

Midway, we read Robert W. Service’s “The Christmas Tree,” a moving tale of a discarded fir that becomes a beacon for a child in pain. The poem echoes the frontier ethic: rescue what the world overlooks, turn it into light, and let hope do the rest. By the close, we reflect on hospitality and charity as the enduring core of the holiday—values that carried pioneers through savage winters and still kindle warmth in ours. If these stories deepen your own traditions, share the episode with someone you love, leave a quick review, and subscribe so you never miss the next journey west.

Chapters

• 0:18 Frontier Roots Of Christmas
• 1:10 Holiday As National Healing
• 1:50 Humble Celebrations On The Plains
• 2:43 Peril, Grit, And Arrival Stories
• 3:48 Dodge City’s Christmas Eve Power Struggle
• 6:12 Homesteader Hope In Oregon Territory
• 8:31 Feasts, Dances, And Sparse Abundance
• 10:41 Handmade Decor And Simple Gifts
• 12:31 Caroling, Church, And Community Rituals
• 13:29 Reading: The Christmas Tree Poem
• 15:33 Gratitude, Charity, And Closing Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:18

Many of the Christmas traditions that have stood the test of time came from the early pioneers of the Old West. Christmas in the Old West was just as exciting then as it is today. And by the mid-1800s, the American Christmas tradition included many of the same customs and festivities as we celebrate today. These festivities included tree decorating, gift giving, Santa Claus, greeting cards, stockings by the fire, church activities, and family-oriented days of feasting and fun. By the end of the Civil War, people were looking for cohesion in a difficult time. Celebrating Christmas helped the nation understand the confusion by offering comforting celebratory traditions. It wasn't until 1870, when Christmas became a national holiday, that pioneers began getting in the spirit of things, and those frontiersmen on the plains who homesteaded far away from the more civilized life usually celebrated Christmas as a humble affair. Christmas was difficult for pioneers, cowboys, explorers, and early settlers. Those living on the outskirts of civilization often suffered from terrible blizzards and savage December winds. Despite the many challenges and difficulties those living on the prairies faced, Christmas provided a much-needed opportunity for people to come together and celebrate the season. Lucian Rule, a historian in the late 1800s, recalled in his story entitled Trig about his family's arrival in Oldham County. It was Christmas time, a wet, snowy day with a bitter wind blowing. And to make matters worse, as we neared the Kentucky shore, the Indians fired at us from the opposite side of the river, so that it was quite a while before we dared to disembark. Sometimes the old pioneers would conduct a business meeting, like in Dodge City on the eve of Christmas. When Dodge City learned that it would soon become the primary serving point as a way station for herds, city organizers rallied to form future business ventures. To keep the cattle drives from circling the western end of the town, a plan was needed to lure cowboys into local establishments before moving on to Ogallala. As the cattle shipping season of 1876 approached, Dodd City Townsmen braced for a new economic opportunity. They formed a special council on Christmas Eve of 1875. This particular council of businessmen met to appoint temporary officials. These selected men were to hold office until a municipal election was planned for the following April. The special council immediately parted in differences, and on Christmas Eve of 1875, Dodge City became a divided town. The division came when one of the members of the individual committees proposed the idea of ordinances. Even though, in one instance, a town became divided, most pioneers of the West found Christmas as a time of joy, hope, and togetherness, which remains an integral part of Western tradition today. For many pioneers, living in the Wild West often meant a meager, almost skeletal existence when it came to food and clothing, let alone Christmas. Lenore Gale writes about how the Kincaid family celebrated Christmas Eve in 1853 as homesteaders in the Oregon Territory. On that Christmas evening so long ago, the Kincaid family had been in Lane County, in the territory of Oregon, for only 75 days. But they had a snug, warm little cabin, a beautiful hill claim with timber and clear sparkling water, they had some stock and planned to get more. They had a team of good horses, a friendly little dog, the children were in splendid health, a small school had just been started within walking distance over the hills. The road to the future looked promising, and they all determined that if hard work and grit would lead to success, they would reach it. That faraway Christmas night ended with grandfather playing old carols on his violin, the happy children joining in singing the words. When the little folks were tucked in bed, grandfather and grandmother looked at each other with firm chins, but there were tears in their eyes. Christmas celebrations for the pioneers would usually begin with the women baking for the holiday feast weeks in advance. If their year were good, there would be plum pudding, preserved fruits and vegetables, fresh game, and fresh ham. William Lehigh remembered his first Christmas gathering in Route County in 1877 on the Snake River at the home of Alfred McCargar. There was four or five feet of snow, and we started on snowshoes on the night of December 23rd, making the distance during the night and arriving early for Christmas Eve, when the celebration was to occur. There were about 30 people at McArgers for Christmas, and there was a fine time with a big dinner and a dance, but I never went in for dancing much. Two of the McArger girls were there, and I can truthfully say they were the most beautiful girls in Route County. So far as I knew at that time, I hadn't seen any other woman in the county. The Christmas celebration at McCarger's broke up when the liquid refreshments gave out, which was sometime Christmas Day, and a large portion of the crowd went to Dixon for a good time. All of us had plenty of gold dust, and it was surely a good time we had. Though perhaps modest, these hardy pioneers made every attempt to decorate their homes for the holidays with whatever natural materials looked attractive at the bleakest time of year, such as evergreens, pine cones, holly, nuts, and berries. Decorations were largely homemade, supplemented with colorful ribbon and yarn. That is, if there was enough wood on hand to sacrifice a tree for decoration, or even a room to display it during Christmas. Historians cite other decorations of dried fruit or popcorn on a string, wrapped candies, cookies, nuts, or even tin and glass bottles. Some might even have a Christmas tree gaily decorated with bits of ribbon, yarn, berries, popcorn, or paper strings, and other homemade decorations. These homemade decorations were often figures or dolls made of straw or yarn. Cookie dough ornaments and gingerbread men were also popular. Mary Crawford King left a written record of her first Christmas gathering in Steamboat Springs in 1877. Those who attended were Mr. and Mrs. James H. Crawford, their children, and Mr. and Mrs. S. D.N. Bennett. On this occasion, there was a small tree strung with ropes of popcorn and paper cornucopias, which Mrs. Bennett had made and decorated with pictures and pink ribbons. The cornucopias were filled with Mrs. Crawford's homemade candies and raisins. The Bennets arrived at the Crawford house in the morning to enjoy the tree and stayed for dinner. The two families ate trout, venice and roast, mince pie, and cottage cheese. They ate in the one room of the cabin that was completed at this time. At the very least, almost every home would make the holiday a time of feasting, bringing out preserved fruits and vegetables, fresh game if possible, and for those who could afford it, maybe even beef or ham. Many women began to bake for the holidays weeks ahead of time, leaving the plum pudding to age in the pot until Christmas dinner. Many homemade gifts, including corn husk dolls, sachets, carved wooden toys, pillows, footstools, and embroidered hankees, might have had the family members working on them for months before Christmas. Others knitted scarves, hats, mitts, and socks. If the family had had a good year, the children might find candies, small gifts, cookies, and fruits in their stockings. Most families would usually sing carols around the Christmas tree or fireplace on Christmas Eve. Most would attend church on Christmas Day, return home for the traditional Christmas meal, and visit with friends and neighbors. As a part of this Christmas tradition, Wild West Podcast proudly presents the reading of The Christmas Tree by Robert Williams Service. In the dark and damp of the alley cold lay the Christmas tree that hadn't been sold, by a shopman dourly thrown outside, with the ruck and rubble of Christmide, trodden deep in the muck and mire, unworthy even to feed a fire. So I stopped and salvaged that tarnished tree, and thus is the story it told to me. My mother was queen of the forest glade, and proudly I prospered in her shade. For she said to me, When I am dead, you will be monarch in my stead, and reign as I for a hundred years, a tower of triumph amid your peers. When I crash in storm, I will yield you space. Son, you will worthily take my place. So I grew in grace like a happy child, in the heart of the forest free and wild, and the moss and ferns were all about, and the crank of mice crept in and out, and a wood dove swung on my highest twig, and a chipmunk chatted, so big as so big. And a shy fawn nimbled a tender shoot, and a rabbit nibbled under my root. Oh, I was happy in rain and shine, as I thought of the destiny that was mine. Then a man with an axe came cruising by, and I knew that my fate was to fall and die. With a hundred others he packed me tight, and we drove to a magic city of light, to an avenue lined with Christmas trees, and I thought, maybe I'll be one of these, tinseled with silver and tricked with gold, a lovely sight for a child to behold, a glitter with lights of every hue, ruby and emerald, orange and blue, and kitties dancing with shrieks of glee. One might fare worse than a Christmas tree. So they stood me up with a hundred more in the blaze of a big department store. But I thought of the forest, dark and still, and the dew and the snow, and the heat and the chill, and the soft chinook and the summer breeze, and the dappled deer and the birds and the bees. I was so homesick I wanted to cry, but patient I waited for someone to buy. And some said too big, and some too small, and some passed on saying nothing at all. Then a little boy cried, Ma, buy that one. But she shook her head. Too dear, my son. So the evening came when they closed the store, and I was left on the littered floor. A tree unwanted, despised, unsold, thrown out at last in the alley cold. Then I said, Don't sorrow, at least you'll be a bright and beautiful New Year's tree. All shimmer and glimmer and glow and gleam, a radiant sight like a fairy dream. For there's a little child I know who lives in poverty, want and woe, who lies abed from morn to night, and never has known an hour's delight. So I stood the tree at the foot of her bed. Santa's a little late, I said. Poor old chap, snowbound on the way, but he's here at last, so let's be gay. Then she woke from sleep and saw you there, and her eyes were love, and her lips were prayer, and her thin little arms were stretched to you with a yearning joy that they never knew. She woke from the darkest dark to see, like a heavenly vision, that Christmas tree. Her mother despaired and feared the end, but from that day she began to mend, to play, to sing, to laugh with glee. Bless you, O little Christmas tree. You died, but your life was not in vain. You helped a child to forget her pain. And let hope live in our heart again. Grunge.com, and The Christmas Tree by Robert Williams Service. Mike and I would like to close this year's series of podcasts with a special thank you as we close for the holidays.

SPEAKER_02: 15:43

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire of hospitality while generating the flame of charity from the heart. It is doing a little something extra for someone. And to all of our listeners, remember that Christmas is the day that holds all time together.