Alcott - A Christmas Dream - Part 1 - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

November 29, this past week, was the birthday of Louisa May Alcott.  For her birthday, Megan Wells and Carol Birch presented a retelling of the Christmas portion of Little Women.  They will present it again on December 19 and all this month offer a video of it.

Alcott was seen here nine years earlier in the little known tale of The Frost King and How the Fairies Conquered Him.  That's from a little known, but important trio of books with 32 stories called Lulu's Library.  She explained the books in her Preface as:

All but three of these stories were told to my little niece during our quiet hour before bedtime. They became such favorites with her and her friends that I wrote them down in several small blue books, and called them LULU'S LIBRARY. Having nothing else to offer this year, I have collected them in one volume as a Christmas gift to my boys and girls from their old friend

          AUNT JO.
         CONCORD, August, 1885.

Today will be the opening story,

but it will be in four parts ending on Christmas Eve.  The story has sometimes been called an "American Christmas Carol" and the story does mention the Dickens' Christmas Carol.  There's an inexpensive lesson plan for grades 6-10 at Teachers Pay Teachers and an evaluation disputing it as the "American Christmas Carol" at  Gradesaver.com. They note it's not particularly American BUT its "truly distinctive element" is how it goes beyond the Dickens tale.  The little girl standing in for Scrooge actually is in "a very exclusive club" by showing the "actual redemptive consequences of the change of heart."  Of course that final part will appear here on Christmas Eve.  Until then, both Gradesaver and Teachers Pay Teachers are excellent ways to study this opening story from the Lulu's Library books.  (By the way, it's not Alcott's only Christmas "short" story.)

Alcott also tended to re-use her many short stories.  Beyond even her death, publishers continued reprinting stories by the popular author.  This copy from 20 years later in 1908 shows it was also in "A Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School."  It's interesting that our 19th and early 20th century ancestors could manage this in 4th grade while today it's recommended for 6th through 10th.

THE LOUISA ALCOTT READER

A Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School

BY LOUISA M. ALCOTT

A CHRISTMAS DREAM, AND HOW IT CAME TRUE.

"I'm so tired of Christmas I wish there never would be another one!" exclaimed a discontented-looking little girl, as she sat idly watching her mother arrange a pile of gifts two days before they were to be given.

"Why, Effie, what a dreadful thing to say! You are as bad as old Scrooge; and I'm afraid something will happen to you, as it did to him, if you don't care for dear Christmas," answered mamma, almost dropping the silver horn she was filling with delicious candies.

"Who was Scrooge? What happened to him?" asked Effie, with a glimmer of interest in her listless face, as she picked out the sourest lemon-drop she could find; for nothing sweet suited her just then.

"He was one of Dickens's best people, and you can read the charming story some day. He hated Christmas until a strange dream showed him how dear and beautiful it was, and made a better man of him."

"I shall read it; for I like dreams, and have a great many curious ones myself. But they don't keep me from being tired of Christmas," said Effie, poking discontentedly among the sweeties for something worth eating.

"Why are you tired of what should be the happiest time of all the year?" asked mamma, anxiously.

"Perhaps I shouldn't be if I had something new. But it is always the same, and there isn't any more surprise about it. I always find heaps of goodies in my stocking. Don't like some of them, and soon get tired of those I do like. We always have a great dinner, and I eat too much, and feel ill next day. Then there is a Christmas tree somewhere, with a doll on top, or a stupid old Santa Claus, and children dancing and screaming over bonbons and toys that break, and shiny things that are of no use. Really, mamma, I've had so many Christmases all alike that I don't think I can bear another one." And Effie laid herself flat on the sofa, as if the mere idea was too much for her.

Her mother laughed at her despair, but was sorry to see her little girl so discontented, when she had everything to make her happy, and had known but ten Christmas days.

"Suppose we don't give you any presents at all,--how would that suit you?" asked mamma, anxious to please her spoiled child.

"I should like one large and splendid one, and one dear little one, to remember some very nice person by," said Effie, who was a fanciful little body, full of odd whims and notions, which her friends loved to gratify, regardless of time, trouble, or money; for she was the last of three little girls, and very dear to all the family.

"Well, my darling, I will see what I can do to please you, and not say a word until all is ready. If I could only get a new idea to start with!" And mamma went on tying up her pretty bundles with a thoughtful face, while Effie strolled to the window to watch the rain that kept her in-doors and made her dismal.

"Seems to me poor children have better times than rich ones. I can't go out, and there is a girl about my age splashing along, without any maid to fuss about rubbers and cloaks and umbrellas and colds. I wish I was a beggar-girl."

"Would you like to be hungry, cold, and ragged, to beg all day, and sleep on an ash-heap at night?" asked mamma, wondering what would come next.

"Cinderella did, and had a nice time in the end. This girl out here has a basket of scraps on her arm, and a big old shawl all round her, and doesn't seem to care a bit, though the water runs out of the toes of her boots. She goes paddling along, laughing at the rain, and eating a cold potato as if it tasted nicer than the chicken and ice-cream I had for dinner. Yes, I do think poor children are happier than rich ones."

"So do I, sometimes. At the Orphan Asylum today I saw two dozen merry little souls who have no parents, no home, and no hope of Christmas beyond a stick of candy or a cake. I wish you had been there to see how happy they were, playing with the old toys some richer children had sent them."

"You may give them all mine; I'm so tired of them I never want to see them again," said Effie, turning from the window to the pretty baby-house full of everything a child's heart could desire.

"I will, and let you begin again with something you will not tire of, if I can only find it." And mamma knit her brows trying to discover some grand surprise for this child who didn't care for Christmas.

Nothing more was said then; and wandering off to the library, Effie found "A Christmas Carol," and curling herself up in the sofa corner, read it all before tea. Some of it she did not understand; but she laughed and cried over many parts of the charming story, and felt better without knowing why.

All the evening she thought of poor Tiny Tim, Mrs. Cratchit with the pudding, and the stout old gentleman who danced so gayly that "his legs twinkled in the air." Presently bedtime arrived.

"Come, now, and toast your feet," said Effie's nurse, "while I do your pretty hair and tell stories."

"I'll have a fairy tale to-night, a very interesting one," commanded Effie, as she put on her blue silk wrapper and little fur-lined slippers to sit before the fire and have her long curls brushed.

So Nursey told her best tales; and when at last the child lay down under her lace curtains, her head was full of a curious jumble of Christmas elves, poor children, snow-storms, sugarplums, and surprises. So it is no wonder that she dreamed all night; and this was the dream, which she never quite forgot.

*****

Next week begins the actual dream, yes, Dickens inspired, but worth continuing to see how it might continue to influence audiences well beyond Victorian Christmases.

******************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:        

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 

 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. 

Have fun discovering even more stories

Last Minute Substitute

Thursday I had a surprise phone call from a school district wanting me to do a program...the next day!  Northville Schools annually produces Heritage Day for their third graders, both public and private schools looking at Victorian times.  It's part of their annual Heritage Festival.  Covid hit the gentleman who works at Greenfield Village and would normally have been their storyteller.  Could I do it?  My website and various directories mention that I do a LOT of historical storytelling.  Victorian?  I do a Hired Girl from Victorian times, but she's usually talking about how here in the United States we celebrated a Victorian Christmas.  Hmmm.  September is a long way from Christmas.  I decided it was best to present as the One-Room Schoolteacher who had tales of schools from long ago.

Five groups of roughly 100 students each heard a 20 minute version of the sort of stories and facts from that time a teacher might share with today's children.  It was fun and I was delighted to introduce them to a past their grandparents or great-grandparents may have experienced.  It made me realize I want to tell more of the stories, all Public Domain, that might have been told to students by a teacher in a classroom, but this time, with only 20 minutes, it was better to explain what a One-Room School was like.

On my own, I found myself thinking back to the pandemic of 100 years ago.  I couldn't present it this time as that was a bit after their focus on the Victorian era.  When I see masks, I've asked at times my adult historical audiences, if the Spanish Influenza  has returned!?!  With my Third Graders, since it was so hard to hear their small voices normally and, even worse, with a mask, I said they all looked like they were going to rob a bank!  They really were quite good with their masks and enjoyed the comparison.

Still I found myself wondering about schools during the Spanish Influenza.  I'd never learned about that aspect of the previous century's pandemic.  I especially wondered about Michigan schools, even though there was good coverage and comparisons about schools on the national level.  

A while back for those earlier historical programs I had learned (not sure about the original sources):

By mid-October, the governor and state health department ordered the closing of churches and "places of public amusemënt," from movie theaters to saloons.  Many communities also closed schools.  After those establishments were re-opened in November, deaths went up in December.

While I have specifics about the death toll throughout the state (first hitting urban centers, but eventually spreading throughout the state) that was as far as my knowledge covered the schools, summarized as "Many communities also closed schools."  When doing a historical program in an area, I research local coverage (such as when presenting my current Prohibition program).  Many cities have coverage about how they were affected by the Spanish Influenza.  Even the little town of Pullman, for example.

Not just Sunday Schools but the regular schools.  At the other size, Hour Detroit did a timeline of how it played out in Detroit and went from   

Oct. 19, 1918

Gov. Sleeper orders the shutdown of “theaters, movies, churches, lodge meetings, political gatherings and all gatherings which can legitimately be construed as non-essential,” the Free Press reports. Schools remain open. 

to

Oct. 22, 1918

Detroit schools are closed, and 56 deaths are reported in the city. Nearly 3,000 teachers are reassigned to “work visiting homes of influenza sufferers and advising in their care,” the Free Press writes.

 Similarly M Live reported:

By mid-October, the epidemic was alarming enough that the state Board of Health and Gov. Albert Sleeper issued an order closing all churches and "places of public amusement."

"There was a lot of push back about closing the saloons and, to a lesser extent, the churches," Navarro said.

Schools were exempted in the state order, but many local officials made that decision on their own, including officials in Detroit.

Of course M Live reports about University of Michigan a great deal.  While I encourage people to look up online information on how specific Michigan cities and villages decided, there's a wealth of information about the University of Michigan (and a bit on Ann Arbor).  Michigan Today is the official university blog.  It tells why the university stayed open rather than let students return home and spread disease or stay in Ann Arbor without classes, gathering at the many restaurants and other spots.  The university did cancel football, however.

Beyond that the university used its resources, including buildings and people (the SATC was the World War I version of the ROTC):

October 11. The old Michigan Union building on State Street — originally the home of Judge Thomas M. Cooley, dean of the Law School — is converted to an infirmary to handle the overflow from University Hospital, the Homeopathic Hospital, and St. Joseph Hospital. Another infirmary is set up in Barbour Gymnasium to house SATC members with only mild symptoms.

and

October 15. Eight die, including five in SATC. Ralph Smith, an Ann Arborite in the corps, dies of a hemorrhage in the lungs; he’d first reported sick at reveille only the day before. Three sisters of Chi Omega are diagnosed. Seniors in the Medical School are assigned to care for the sick. Many SATC men are confined to their quarters, awaiting diagnosis.

“It is like the Hun,” says an SATC sergeant-major. “Either you down him or he gets you.”

Two Army trucks are sent to Detroit for surplus oxygen tanks. Food for quarantined SATC men is transported from University kitchens.

“Squads of men loaded with trays of steaming food hastening through the streets at a gallop have become such a common sight that citizens have ceased to turn and stare,” the Daily reports.

October 16. Ann Arbor schools are closed.

While university students should be more capable of handling mask requirements, even then it was controversial, including among the military who were heavily impacted.  Camp Custer had devastating deaths here in Michigan as a preview before it killed in the trenches of World War I.  

(Remember masks then were made of gauze.)

 October 17. With six to 10 deaths each day in the SATC alone, U-M President Harry Burns Hutchins directs students and faculty to wear face masks at all times. Red Cross volunteers move into the President’s House to sew masks for distribution across the campus starting at seven the next morning. Captain B.C. Vaughan, medical officer of the SATC, says the masks may do more harm than good, since students are unlikely to use and wash them properly. Dr. W.E. Forsythe, head of the University Health Service, says masks are essential to containing the spread.

I hope you enjoyed this historical look at similar times.  I imagine there were Substitute Teachers called, even as I was a last minute Substitute Storyteller.

KEEP ON STORYTELLING & STAY WELL!

Aunt Hede - How the Fir Tree Became the Christmas Tree - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

 

Everybody keeps saying that Thanksgiving came at the latest possible time this year, making the time before Christmas extra short!  In keeping with that, here's a short easy to tell Christmas legend.  I told it at the Milford Garden Club as part of my Victorian Christmas program.  As the Hired Girl I told as if it was 1902.  (Read on for why that date should change to 1903.)  I tell how old Queen Victoria just barely made it into the new century, dying January 22, 1901.  Today's story was requested by an audience member.  I had originally found it in an anthology of public domain stories, but it only said the author was "Aunt Hede."  I found nothing about the mysterious "Aunt Hede", but searching everywhere I learned it was originally posted in Kindergarten Magazine, 1903!  If I had seen that I might have omitted it, but it clearly is for all ages.  I found it included in a great many Christmas anthologies convincing me there is no age limit for appreciating it.

My book starts with barely a paragraph on one page and the rest on the second page.  I could scan my book, but the sizing wouldn't be as well done as in this newsletter's front page from "The Chronicles of the Ontario County Historical Society Museum and Research Center" December 2016.


How the Fir Tree Became the Christmas Tree by Aunt Hede, in "“Kindergarten Magazine”, December 1903  

This is the story of how the fir tree became the Christmas tree. At the time when the Christ Child was born all the people, the animals, and the trees, and plants were very happy. The Child was born to bring peace and happiness to the whole world. People came daily to see the little One, and they always brought gifts with them. There were three trees standing near the crypt which saw the people, and they wished that they, too, might give presents to the Christ Child. The Palm said: "I will choose my most beautiful leaf, and place it as a fan over the Child." "And I," said the Olive, "will sprinkle sweet-smelling oil upon His head." "What can I give to the Child?" asked the Fir, who stood near. "You!" cried the others. "You have nothing to offer Him. Your needles would prick Him, and your tears are sticky." So the poor little Fir tree was very unhappy, and it said: "Yes, you are right. I have nothing to offer the Christ Child." Now, quite near the trees stood the Christmas Angel, who had heard all that the trees had said. The Angel was sorry for the Fir tree who was so lowly and without envy of the other trees. So, when it was dark, and the stars came out, he begged a few of the little stars to come down and rest upon the branches of the Fir tree. They did as the Christmas Angel asked, and the Fir tree shone suddenly with a beautiful light. And, at that very moment, the Christ Child opened His eyes—for He had been asleep—and as the lovely light fell upon Him. He smiled. Every year people keep the dear Christ Child's birthday by giving gifts to each other, and every year, in remembrance of His first birthday, the Christmas Angel places in every house a fir tree, also. Covered with starry candles it shines for the children as the stars shone for the Christ Child. The Fir tree was rewarded for its meekness, for to no other tree is it given to shine upon so many happy faces. 
 
May your own Christmas shine upon happy faces!
 *******************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Hale - The Peterkins' Christmas Tree - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

A lot of people have their Christmas tree up, but I'll bet that, no matter how much trouble it may have caused, it was nothing like today's story of "The Peterkins' Christmas Tree."

The illustration to the left comes from a website called Garden Therapy; Better Living Through Plants and the article there on "How to Make a Nine-Foot Grinch Tree" .  Of course that refers back to the Doctor Seuss story about How the Grinch Stole Christmas!  including that long tree which the Grinch's poor dog, Max, pulled up the mountain.  (The book's Wikipedia link gives some interesting inside views about it.)  If you go to the article on making one, you will see not only how to do it, but various versions of it.

My reason for muddying the storytelling waters here with a decidedly not Public Domain tale (even though it's become a major Christmas tradition in many formats) is the way it clearly touches the ceiling, a ceiling complete with the mitered corners put in place by a carpenter.

The Peterkins did precisely that, calling a carpenter to literally raise the roof -- or at least the ceiling -- to accommodate their tree.  Back on November 23rd I gave the first glimpse of the Peterkins with their story of "Why the Peterkins Had a Late Dinner."  I've never told that story, although maybe in the future I will.  Today's story, however, will once again be part of my Victorian Christmas program when I tell as the Hired Girl.  This year I've particularly had the program spotlight the botanical aspects of Christmas in my stories because I'm telling to a Garden Club, but this story is from 1880 and would have definitely been popular around the turn of the century when my Hired Girl persona would  look back on the way the holiday changed due to the influence of old Queen Victoria who barely made it into the 20th century by dying on January 22, 1901. 

I gave a hint of the Peterkins with their own Wikipedia article which said:

The Peterkins were a large family who were extremely intelligent, but didn't have a lick of common sense among them. Whenever they were confronted with a problem that had a simple solution and a complex one, they unerringly went for the complex one--the simple one never occurred to them. They were usually rescued by their neighbor, the Lady from Philadelphia, known for her wisdom; which usually amounted to the plain, commonsense solution that had been staring them in the face and which any normal person would have seized on immediately.

I also gave various links about the author and her famous relatives and ancestor, but if you have the least bit of curiosity look up the New England Historical Society article about Lucretia Hale's inspiration!  It's somewhat like Doctor Seuss (Theodore Geisel) confessing about his creation of the Grinch.  I find it's always fun to know how an author or any kind of artist lets something lead to a creative work.

I believe strongly in keeping these stories in the Public Domain, but also recognize they need people remembering them.  In the 1960s the book was republished and a whole new audience discovered them.  I've not seen Elizabeth Spurr's The Peterkins' Christmas, as a picture book illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin, but the book information says Spurr adapted it.  I've also just discovered the 11/23 posting of "Why the Peterkins Had a Late Dinner" has been similarly adapted by Spurr and Halperin as a "companion book", The Peterkins' Thanksgiving.   
********************** 

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Civil War Christmas Overview

When the United States became disunited in the Civil War, four Christmases were affected. 

The same day this is posted I will bring back my reenactment of Liberetta Lerich Green to talk about her family and, especially, about her brothers Isaac and William who were in the Fighting Fifth and the Third Infantry during the war. 

Wikipedia's article, Christmas in the American Civil War makes a good overview.  Beyond that, this brief summary comes from Civil War Saga's "Christmas during the Civil War" by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks.  She talks about both the homefront and the soldiers themselves.  I particularly appreciate her mention of the soldiers  "decorating their camp Christmas trees with hard-tack and salt-pork and singing carols such as 'Come All Ye Faithful' and 'Silent Night.' ” I also note her mention of some special dinners for "especially Union soldiers in the beginning of the war".  In the coming weeks in December I will post from Detroit newspaper articles about those Christmases.  It's worth noting how circumstances change for the Fighting Fifth Infantry.

My sidebar gives access to the various articles from those Detroit papers I was able to locate and reproduce.  At one time it was a separate blog, but after the sesquicentennial ended in 2015 I transferred it to this site.  The Fighting Fifth was composed of Michigan volunteers.  They were part of the Army of the Potomac and Michigan's contribution to the American Civil War.  Lincoln responded to us with "Thank God for Michigan!" with good reason.

That first Christmas brought contrasts for specific regiments and soldiers versus those at home.  It still does for our military.

"Tad" Lincoln photographed by Matthew Brady

“And when I turned from these musings upon the bill of fare they would have at home to contemplate the dreary realities of my own possible dinner for that day – my oyster can full of coffee and a quarter ration of hard-tack and sow-belly comprised the menu”  wrote one soldier in a book titled The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865 while President Lincoln and his family celebrated Christmas during the first year of the war by holding a Christmas party at the White House.  In later years Lincoln had plenty of reason to visit soldiers in the hospital.  He took along his youngest son, "Tad" who, on Christmas Eve 1863, told his father he wanted to send all of his many gifts sent to him by the general public to the soldiers. Lincoln agreed and said: "Yes, my son, Send a big box. Ask Mother for plenty of warm things, and tell David to pack in all the good eatables he can, and let him mark the box, 'From Tad Lincoln."

Mary Todd Lincoln raised money for Christmas dinners for the soldiers and often visited the hospitals bringing fruit and flowers and sometimes even helping with their correspondence.

Over and over I find reference to one of the most famous Christmas gifts: General Sherman after capturing the city of Savannah, Georgia in December of 1864, a significant military achievement  marking the beginning of the end of the war, sent President Lincoln this telegram, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 100 and 50 guns and plenty of ammunition, also about 25,000 bales of cotton.”

Michigan's 21st Infantry is noted for hitching up several of their mule carts and putting branches on the mules to look like reindeer while they distributed food to the Savannah  area.  I've never had a very favorable view of Sherman, although I understood why he caused the devastation he did.  For a more balanced view, including the "reindeer", here's an interview on National Public Radio to read or hear from Stanley Weintraub, the author of General Sherman's Christmas about that area where many Michigan soldiers became a part of history.

For a further look at the homefront, be sure to see "Civil War Christmas" by Maggie MacLean in her Civil War Women blog

During the Civil War, Christmas was celebrated in both the United States and the Confederate States of America although the day was not recognized until 1870, when President Ulysses S. Grant made Christmas an official Federal holiday in an attempt to unite north and south. The war continued to rage on Christmas Day and skirmishes occurred throughout the country.  …

In the United States, the widespread customs of Christmas cards, carols and trees date back to the 1850s. A feature story in the magazine Godey's Ladys' Book initiated the most beloved symbol of the American family Christmas - the Christmas tree. The story was about Queen Victoria's and Prince Albert's Christmas tree, which was a custom Prince Albert brought to England from his native country, Germany.

Godey's Lady's Book on left; Illustrated London News on right

I use both Godey's Lady's Book illustration from 1860 and the Illustrated London News engraving from 1848 in my Victorian Christmas program about turn of the Century Christmas and how it shaped our holiday traditions.  Can you spot the differences between the royal versus American?

While soldier's Civil War trees were decorated with their rations of hard tack and salt pork, at home were strings of popcorn, ribbon, pine cones, and other homemade paper and foil decorations carefully combined with candles.  Traditional greenery, including holly and mistletoe decorated home mantels, windows and doors and even a Yule log in the fireplace, while the soldiers scrounged for firewood just as they would on any winter day.

Santa Claus was particularly used in the war by German immigrant, Thomas Nast, creating so many visuals promoting both Union war efforts and Christmas traditions. His images of Santa Claus combine both the Clement Moore 1822 poem called both "A Visit from St. Nicholas" or "Night Before Christmas" and his own German idea of St. Nicholas.  Nast images of Santa Claus and of the Civil War are Public Domain, but some, like Paul's at Sonofthesouth.net/ have been digitally enhanced and are copyrighted.  Nast is often called the father of American political cartoonists.  Lincoln called him "our best recruiting sergeant."  There is much online about him and I would love to use his illustrations from Harper's Weekly, but for now will go on with more about Christmas at home during the war.

Presents were often homemade, but the economy, especially in the South, sometimes made even the materials to make them difficult to obtain.  In many historical accounts I find mothers explained the absence of presents because Santa Claus couldn't run the 1863 blockade of Southern coasts, or that the Yankees had shot him!

Thanks to the Victorian influence Christmas carols were sung both at home and by homesick soldiers during the Civil War along with more secular songs like "Jingle Bells", "Deck the Halls", and, I was surprised to learn, even "Up on the House Top." The latter surely goes back to the importance of Santa Claus by then.

Another song began as a poem when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the pacifist poem, "Christmas Bells" on Christmas Day 1863 in the wake of his son, Lieutenant Charles Longfellow's serious injuries.  Charles had enlisted against his father's wishes and had been injured once before in the war.  Longfellow's second wife and Charles's mother, Fanny, earlier had died tragically and his grief is obvious.  (That link is also to the Civil War Women blog and provides an interesting supplement to the more traditional Wikipedia article on Longfellow. ) After the war the poem was set to music and became the carol, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" omitting two stanzas from the original poem about the war.  It was a long way from the Christmas of 1861 which saw soldiers full of bravado, still relatively well fed and equipped, and eagerly anticipating Christmas boxes of treats from home. Often officers then authorized extra rations of spirits and men engaged in greased pig-catching.

Finally this comes from Steven N. Cone's American Civil War.50megs.com.  I give it here as an excellent grouping year by year of Christmas during the war years.  He credits his sources this way:

Information taken from "We Were Marching on Christmas Day:
A History and Chronicle of Christmas During the Civil War" by Kevin Rawlings.

Unfortunately I don't have the book and I'm uncertain how much is originally written by Kevin Rawlings.  It is enough of a standard to find him often quoted elsewhere.  He has graciously given me permission to include work from that book now in its second printing and he is at work on an expanded edition.  He's also planning a new website (that's guaranteed to take time and attention!)  Here's his present site where you can see he portrays the Patriotic Civil War Santa based on Thomas Nast's front page illustration on Harper's Weekly, January 3, 1863. 

His site credits the photo as an Ambrotype image taken by Claude Levet in 1989.

I continue with the information found on American Civil War.50megs.com, but, due to the possibility of copyright problems, as explained in "Are Civil War images in Harpers Weekly protected by copyright" I omit the illustrations.

Many southern children were told that "Santa was a Yankee" so Confederate pickets would not let Santa through.

By contrast though, Many northern children still received gifts and treats because the northern economy actually flourished and expanded as the war dragged on.

One soldier described Christmas 1862 in the union Iron brigade.. " two men from company f provided a temporary diversion on Christmas Day. The two got into a fight that ended with one struck the other over the head with a musket bending the barrel so badly as to render it unserviceable.

"Ought it not be a Merry Christmas?"

ILLUSTRATION

Lonely camp scene from an 1862 Harper's Weekly entitled "Christmas Eve".

Even with all the sorrow that hangs, and will forever hang, over so many households;
even while war still rages; even while there are serious questions yet to be settled - ought
it not to be, and is it not, a merry Christmas?" Harper's Weekly, December 26, 1863

vs. the familiar Harper's Weekly January 3, 1863 edition about separation.

For a nation torn by civil war, Christmas in the 1860s was observed with conflicting emotions. Nineteenth-century Americans embraced Christmas with all the Victorian trappings that had moved the holiday from the private and religious realm to a public celebration. Christmas cards were in vogue, carol singing was common in public venues, and greenery festooned communities north and south. Christmas trees stood in places of honor in many homes, and a mirthful poem about the jolly old elf who delivered toys to well-behaved children captivated Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.

But Christmas also made the heartache for lost loved ones more acute. As the Civil War dragged on, deprivation replaced bounteous repasts and familiar faces were missing from the family dinner table. Soldiers used to "bringing in the tree" and caroling in church were instead scavenging for firewood and singing drinking songs around the campfire. And so the holiday celebration most associated with family and home was a contradiction. It was a joyful, sad, religious, boisterous, and subdued event.

Before the war

Many of the holiday customs we associate with Christmas today were familiar to 1840s celebrants. Christmas cards were popularized that decade and Christmas trees were a stylish addition to the parlor. By the 1850s, Americans were singing "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem," and "Away in a Manger" in public settings. In 1850 and 1860, Godey's Lady's Book featured Queen Victoria's tabletop Christmas tree, placed there by her German husband Prince Albert. Closer to home, in December, 1853, Robert E. Lee's daughter recorded in her diary that her father - then superintendent at West Point - possessed an evergreen tree decorated with dried and sugared fruit, popcorn, ribbon, spun glass ornaments, and silver foil.
Clement Clarke Moore, a religious scholar who for decades was too embarrassed to claim authorship of the 1822 poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," was now well-known for his tribute to Santa Claus. "Santa Claus" made his first public appearance in a Philadelphia department store in 1849, marking the advent of holiday commercialism.

By 1860, many worried about civil unrest, fearful this Christmas would be the last before the outbreak of war. An Arkansas diarist writes:

"Christmas has come around in the circle of time, but is not a day of
rejoicing. Some of the usual ceremonies are going on, but there is
gloom on the thoughts and countenances of all the better portion of our people."

1861

ILLUSTRATION

Men of the 5th New Hampshire engaged in a hilarious greased pig chase as their
Christmas entertainment. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated History of the Civil War.

Events proceeded quickly in 1861, hastening war. Abraham Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States in March and the bombardment of Fort Sumter occurred in April. Southern states seceded and the Confederates claimed their first major victory at the first battle of Manassas. For the shopkeeper or farm boy or student away from home for Christmas the first time, melancholy set in.
Robert Gould Shaw, then a 2nd lieutenant in the 2d Massachusetts Infantry, writes about guard duty near Frederick, MD. He would later earn fame as the commander of the heroic African American unit, the 54th Massachusetts.

"It is Christmas morning and I hope a happy and merry one for you all,
though it looks so stormy for our poor country, one can hardly be in merry humor."

. . .

Yet Christmas 1861 also saw soldiers full of bravado, still relatively well fed and equipped, and eagerly anticipating Christmas boxes of treats from home. Often officers authorized extra rations of spirits and men engaged in greased pig-catching contests, footraces, jumping matches, and impromptu pageants dressed as women. Soldiers erected small evergreen trees strung with hardtack and pork. Some were excused from drills, although other references point to the need to haul logs and forage for firewood no matter what day of the year it was.

IL

Artist Winslow Homer depicts soldiers' joy at receiving holiday boxes
from home in this 1861 Harper's Weekly illustration.

1862

ILLUSTRATION

By Christmas, 1862, Thomas Nast had allied Santa Claus with the Union Army.
From Harper's Weekly, January 3, 1863.

This sad year brought forth the war's impact full force with battles at Shiloh, Manassas, and Antietam, and campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley and the Peninsula. Many Fredericksburg, Virginia citizens were homeless or fled their town just prior to Christmas.

Harper's Weekly illustrator Thomas Nast, a staunch Unionist, is now depicting Santa Claus entertaining Federal soldiers by showing them Jefferson Davis with a cord around his neck. Abraham Lincoln would later refer to a politicized Santa as "the best recruiting sergeant the North ever had." More moderate illustrations show soldiers decorating camps with greens and firing salutes to Santa. Ironically, it was Nast who fixed Santa's home and toy workshop address at the "North Pole" "so no nation can claim him as their own."
John Haley of the 17th Maine, for instance, wrote the day before Christmas. "It is rumored that there are sundry boxes and mysterious parcels over at Stoneman's Station directed to us," Haley continued in his diary. "We retire to sleep with feelings akin to those of children expecting Santa Claus. We have become very childish in some matters--grub being one of them." On Christmas Day, Haley returned to his tent to endure a practical joke from his tentmate:
On returning to camp, I was informed by my tentmate that there was no parcel at the station bearing my name. My mental thermometer not only plummeted to below zero, it got right down off the nail and lay on the floor. Seeing this, my tentmate made haste to dive under the bed and produce the box, which he had brought from the station during my absence, and in a few minutes we were discussing the merits of its contents. Most of the men have been remembered, and any that have not received something from home are allowed to share with their more fortunate neighbors.
Officers of the 20th Tennessee gave their men a barrel of whisky to mark the day. "We had many a drunken fight and knock-down before the day closed," wrote one participant. But there were other more somber occurrences recorded for Christmas 1862. One account tells of soldiers being forced to witness an execution for desertion and another grim letter describes how men firing their weapons in a funeral salute were mistakenly punished for unauthorized holiday merrymaking.

…

1863

ILLUSTRATION

Children still found Christmas morning joyful in this 1864 Harper's Weekly edition.
Note that the youngster on the right is equipped with sword, drum, kepi and a haversack
with "U.S." prominently displayed.

This year saw the battles of Gettysburg and Vickburg and the beginning of the end for the Confederacy. Thomas Nast portrayed Santa Claus in a patriotic uniform, distributing to Yankee soldiers to raise their morale. Southern parents were gently preparing their children that Santa Claus may not "make it through the blockade" to deliver presents this year. Harper's Weekly depicted a tender reunion scene of a soldier husband and father briefly reunited with his family during furlough.
Holiday boxes and barrels from home containing food, clothing and small articles of comfort were highly anticipated by soldier recipients. Depending on their duty assignment, Christmas dinner may have consisted of only crackers, hard tack, rice, beans and a casting of lots for a single piece of beef too small to divide. Those lucky enough to receive boxes from home could supplement a meager meal with turkey, oysters, potatoes, ham, cabbage, eggnog, cranberries and fruitcake.
One of the dreariest accounts of Christmas during the Civil War came from Lt. Col. Frederic Cavada, captured at Gettysburg and writing about Christmas 1863 in Libby Prison in Richmond:

"The north wind comes reeling in fitful gushes through the iron bars,
and jingles a sleighbell in the prisoner's ear, and puffs in his pale
face with a breath suggestively odorous of eggnog."

Cavada continued:

"Christmas Day! A day which was made for
smiles, not sighs - for laughter, not tears - for the hearth, not prison."

He described a makeshift dinner set on a tea towel-covered box. Each prisoner brought his own knife and fork and drank "Eau de James" (water from the nearby James River.) Cavada reported he combed his hair for the occasion and further related that the prisoners staged a "ball" with a "great deal of bad dancing" during which hats were crushed and trousers torn. Sentries called "lights out" at 9 p.m.

…

1864

ILLUSTRATION

General William Tecumseh Sherman is host at a celebratory Christmas dinner
in Savannah after presenting the captured city to President Lincoln as a holiday.

The final wartime Christmas came as the Confederacy floundered, Lee's Army behind entrenchments in Petersburg and Richmond. Abraham Lincoln received a most unusual holiday - the city of Savannah, GA -presented by General William Tecumseh Sherman via telegram. Union and Confederate sympathizers were hoping this Christmas would be the last at conflict.

…

Holiday season charity was not forgotten this year. On Christmas Day, 90 Michigan men and their captain loaded up wagons with food and supplies and distributed them to destitute civilians in the Georgia countryside. The Union "Santa Clauses" tied tree branches to the heads of the mule teams to resemble reindeer.

Many other units, however, were on the march, either trying to evade capture or pursuing the opponent for better position. Soldiers left in the squalid conditions of prison camps spent the day remembering holidays at home, as did others in slightly more comfortable settings.

…

Moods were more bouyant in Washington and New York, where celebrants supped on substantial feasts and attended the theatre.

IL

"Snowy Morning on Picket" from Harper's Weekly January 30, 1864.

After the war

ILLUSTRATION

Thomas Nast's most famous image of Santa Claus was published in Harper's Weekly on January 1, 1881.

The events of 1865 again influenced holiday celebrations. President Lincoln's assassination shocked the nation, but by mid-summer, the conspirators were hung or imprisoned for lengthy terms. War was ended and many soldiers had been mustered out of service. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution became law on December 18, 1865, abolishing the institution of slavery. Soldiers and civilians alike were ready to reunite with their families and again embrace Victorian holiday customs.
At the end of hostilities, commerce once again flowed southward, and goods filled Northern shops. Long-held holiday traditions were re-introduced, as ornamental greens and trees filled the markets and toys and other items went on display. Newspaper illustrations were of domestic and wintry scenes.
The final verse of a poem By the Christmas Hearth published in the Christmas edition of Harper's Weekly reflected the sentiments of many:

Bring holly, rich with berries red,
And bring the sacred mistletoe;
Fill high each glass, and let hearts
With kindliest feelings flow;
So sweet it seems at home once more
To sit with those we hold most dear,
And keep absence once again
To keep the Merry Christmas here.

(LSK: After that, the site gives “The Story Behind: 'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' “)

Finally I've previously mentioned the network, My Merry Christmas.  I recommend prowling it thoroughly.  I've published some of my Public Domain stories there and back in 2011 Mary Hansel published in the Christmas History section "Christmas during the Civil War", which draws from many of the sources above for yet another nice summary.

I will publish the relevant Detroit newspaper articles over each of the coming December Saturdays.