Akron's Holiday History
From its
founding in 1825 until the 1850s the Winter holidays
were very different from those we know today. Struggling
settlers took little notice of the day called Christmas.
It was a day like any other, a workday and for children,
a school day. In the early churches Christmas was
mentioned during Sunday sermons in December, but that
was about all. The most solemn and spiritual day of the
year was Thanksgiving, and everyone celebrated this
important holiday in Akron.
Christmas, as we know it today, began to take form when
German immigrants
started
arriving in the 1850s who brought with them the
Christmas traditions of their 'Fatherland." Akronites
found these celebrations so charming they embraced and
adopted them as their own.
Around
this time, the children of Akron began hanging up their
stockings in hopes that St. Nicholas would fill them
with candy, nuts and oranges. The first mention of a
Christmas tree appears in an Akron newspaper during the
1860s;
"It was decided that a Christmas tree would best
please the children, and the
Church was the placed selected for the festival. . .
upon entering the Church a murmur of surprise and
inexpressible de light escaped from the lips of the
astonished children when they saw the evergreen
transfigured, blazing with waxen tapers, and be decked
with gifts of showy beauty"
The Ohio
General Assembly made December 25th an
official holiday in 1870. By the 1880s, the business of
Christmas in Akron filled downtown with shoppers.
Merchants - - anxious for the extra trade - -
recommended that
one gift be for
fun, one useful, one a book and one be so fine.”
Christmas
trees were sold at almost every street corner and
pantries were stocked with sweet breads, meats and
spirits, lavish private parties and civic festivals were
held and community leaders encouraged helping those less
fortunate to make their lives a little brighter.
The
family Christmas dinner was for most parts the same as
Thanksgiving where a big wholesome turkey was roasted.
But, an important feature on German tables that didn't
quite catch on with others, was a cooked goose. Many
German residents raised geese in their backyards, which
is why the neighborhood southeast of downtown where the
German community lived was called
Goosetown.