The net bags have peanut brittle. You can also find apples, gingerbread cookies, candied orange peels and chestnuts as treats.

This illustration by the famous Thomas Nast entitled Christmas Furlough was published in 1863.  You can see everyone understood the significance of the mistletoe.

Notice the gift of the toy soldiers and ribbon candy.  A period magazine included images to trace for a paper garland that included a star, harp, ax, and moon.  The anchor shown here was a common symbol of loyalty.

The Civil War, 1861-1865, affected every American.  More than 100 men from Platteville Township joined up and nearly every family in Wisconsin had a friend or relative who served.  The war and its ideas of patriotism, duty, and the Union filled people's thoughts.  A popular ladies magazine took an illustration from a previous year and redrew it to include American flags on the Christmas tree in a December story.

In the 1860s wreaths and evergreen garlands were traditional decorations. Merchants and street vendors sold greenery in larger towns and cities. Rural people made their own from materials found in the yard and woods.
The decorated Christmas tree was less common. For some German immigrants, the tree was a tradition reminding them of Christmas in the Old Country. For other Americans it was a stylish and fashionably new idea promoted by national magazines.
 These early trees were usually table top decorations.  While gifts were exchanged, it was a smaller part of the holiday.  The most common celebrations were gatherings - family and relatives to dinner, friends stopping by, or a neighborhood dance.  For many Americans, it was still a working day although some schools closed.

Decorating for a special event has a long tradition. In the 19th century decorating for Christmas included adding greenery and color to the public rooms of the house.  In Wisconsin, the options can be limited. Most families could find evergreens, but holly, while traditional in song and story, doesn't grow here.  Really organized and determined to decorate families prepared for the holiday by saving items like colorful leaves, dried flowers, ribbons, and rose hips for December.  It wasn't strictly traditional, but Wisconsinites soon realized the decorative usefulness of cranberries.
Magazines suggested simple decorations like paper flowers or more complicated ideas like the recipe for creating imitation frost on plants by leaving a spray in an alum mixture and waiting for crystals to form.  Another hint called for dipping dried beans in red sealing wax to imitate holly berries.  As is always true, people vary and some were content with a sprig of greenery or a wreath on the door while others involved the whole family and hung decorations wherever you looked.

Locally men harvested ice for families and businesses on Horn's Pond. The piece with the green handles has a guide so the blocks are the same width.

Performances at the Museum

Platteville High School Blue Notes

Making ornaments

On of the good things about winter was traveling over the fast snow-covered roads in your cutter.

Platteville Chorale

Late 19th Century Tree

Our prune man chimney sweep is a symbol of good luck. You can see five edibles in this picture.

The stereoptican viewer is a gift as is the witch's hat pincusion. Harder to see is the beaded quill pen to the left of the candy cane.

Japanese lanterns might hang in the garden for a summer party or on the tree in December. Popcorn garlands are an American touch.

Bittersweet from the yard adds color. The paper ornament girl might be store bought or copied by clever fingers at home. You might also recognize the candy in this picture.

The stuffed dog was bought as a panel and then sewn and stuffed at home.

Standard Gauge Trains

Luckily Christmas decorations could be saved from year to year. Also while some decorations like a string of lights for the tree were expensive, others like paper garlands were not.

Decorations especially in families with children continued to be made at home.  A little different idea is the string of peanuts and raisins here.

Many decorations like this pressed cardboard image were made in Germany.

Monopoly was a new game in the 1930s.  The toy stove is electric and has both an oven and one working burner.  The camera next to the waffle maker folds compactly.  The green balls are for a game - roll the balls and count the score of the dimple you land in.

It was not unusual to find homes using both old and new technologies. Piped in gas and water were available in town, as well as electricity. Some families already made the switch to electric refrigerators, but many homes still relied on the ice box, and weekly deliveries in the summer by the ice man to keep food cold. A new refrigerator may have been a Christmas gift for some households. At least General Electric advertised its refrigerators as the perfect gift.

The 1930s

The Great Depreession brought terrible hardships to many families. Some were without the daily necessities of food and shelter and celebrating Christmas seemed like an impossibility. Even Santa Claus was hard up. Families who had employment were still careful with their money. You made do with what you had. Home canning and gardens were one way to stretch your budget.

Images from gift wrap. Inexpensive gift wrap was a relatively new idea. The invention of cellophane tape in 1930 really made wrapping easier.

Platteville Children's Choir

There is a milkweed puff to the left of the moon sugar cookie. We found several references to these. One book said there was no reason to explain how to make these simple decorations since everyone knows how. It must be a lost art since trimming off the individual seed and then glueing the fluffy bits one after another to a crumpled tissue ball was anything but simple when we tried it.

One gift, behind the riocking horse is an organette or paper roll music box, The small black box by the footstool is a camera. Other girfts are the fur stole and manicure kit.

By the turn of the century most Americans were familiar with the Christmas tree even if not everyone had a tree at home. You could see a decorated tree at school or church or a bazaar or party thrown by an organization. When it comes to Christmas trees, people, then and now, tend to fall into one of two groups. Traditionalists want the tree to be decorated the same year after year. Others want something new, perhaps something even startling. By the turn of the century, options for decorating a tree were plentiful.  Popular magazines offered ideas - trees aimed at children, color themes, or trees for places without evergreens.

Starting in Germany about 1900, and by mid-decade in the United States, the white tree began a new trend. In our case it stands in its snow cave in the forest. Thought to be more natural and artisitic with decorations reminiscent of ice and snow, the look was a reaction to the multicolor Victorian trees which now were seen as gaudy and overdone.
Cotton batting snow, icicles made of glass, foil, or mica crusted cotton, snowballs made from milkweed silks or tissue paper, silvered glass ornaments, silver tinsel and white candles could all be found on the white tree. Some families even took their older glass ornaments, removed the outer paint leaving the silvered interior, and hung these on the tree. Popular scarp or paper ornaments included snow angels and snow babies, clad in white fur and decorated with glass glitter and spun glass.
The buckeye or horse chestnut portieres or curtains aren't a Christmas decoration. The style of the time favored natural or rustic furnishings.

The tree wasn't the only decoration.  The kissing ball with its mistletoe goes way back.  Garland and swags were also popular although some complained about cleaning up the needles.