OUR HERITAGE
CHRISTMAS IN A COLLEGE TOWN
BY AMY PIERCE
BY ED MORRIS
For 122 years, Wake Forest was both college and town.
The two could not be separated for they were truly one.
The students were a part of the community and members
of the households where they lived or “took” their
meals. During most of the 19th century, the traditions
of Christmas experienced a revival from Colonial days
and grew and evolved into many traditions we hold most dear today.
The College recognized Christmas as a holy time and a time for family
and social events; however, study and scholarship came first. For the
Christmas holiday, the college closed December 24 and 25 only –
insufficient time for students who lived any distance away to travel home
for the holidays. Nowadays in Winston-Salem, Wake Forest University
students are finished with exams and have scattered across the country
and the globe for the winter break. Most of them don’t return to their
studies until mid-January (at
least in non-COVID 19 times).
The same is true for colleges
and universities all across our
area and the nation.
In 1883, the College trustees
bowed to the wishes of the
student body and expanded
the Christmas recess. For the
first time, classes would be
suspended from December 23
until December 27 – four full
days of freedom from lectures,
exams, and study. Still, there
were a number of students
who could not afford to travel
the long distance home. In the era before automobiles, even four days
did not allow time to venture to areas remote from train service. The
tradition of making Wake Forest home for Christmas lived on.
One of best sources for a glimpse into Christmases past is to look at
the pages of the Wake Forest Student, a scholarly publication begun in
1882 and still published today as the Wake Forest Magazine by Wake
Forest University. The “Christmas” issue of The Student would be
filled with ads from local merchants, many with names still recognized
today, including Holding, Brewer, and Wilkinson. The balance of
the publication was dedicated to poems, reflections, and stories of
Christmas. On that first extended break back in 1883, one student
sat on the wooden fence that surrounded the campus before Tom
Jeffries’ stone wall. He lamented about what he would do during
the four-day break and reflected back to the past three Christmases
spent in Wake Forest. The previous year, he enjoyed the company of
three girls from nearby Oxford who were visiting family in town. The
year before, he attended a play in town that he remembered as being
so very funny that it uplifted his spirits. He also remembered the free
time he spent with “chums” who were in the same situation as he.
In 1903, the publication turned its attention to Santa Claus. Santa was
described as “a low, fat man with white whiskers, dressed in furs; a
man with sweet, beaming countenance, who came in the dead hours
of Christmas Eve night and brought innumerable good things to good
children, but left nothing but ashes and switches in the stockings of
bad children.”
In 1942, America was at war; college women and soldiers from the
Army Finance School were sharing the campus with college men, and
new Christmas traditions appeared. Downtown merchants still ran black
and white advertisements for the best and newest items for Christmas
gifts. The break was still not
long, but certainly more than
the two or four days from a
century earlier. Local cedars
were the most common
choice for Christmas trees,
both on campus and around
town. The Christmas “social”
became popular among the
co-eds. The girls would talk
the boys into cutting down a
tree, placing it in a makeshift
tree stand and the holiday
festivities would begin with
trimming the tree.
In 1923, the young editor of
the Wake Forest Student penned these profound thoughts: “And why
not make Christmas mean as much to you now as it did then, when
you looked forward to the tree loaded with gifts, the new pop gun,
the little red wagon, and at last the bicycle. Do you have a word of
cheer for every person you meet? Do you congratulate them upon
their successes during the past year? Do you extend to them your
very best wishes for the coming year and hope it will be the greatest
of their lives?”
May we all consider that young editor’s words and reflect upon Christmas
past, present, and future. 2020 and COVID-19 have brought us
much closer to those days a century ago when college students made
the best of Christmas in our town. If nothing else, maybe we have
received the gift of more opportunity to reflect on all the things that
make us strong as a community.
Ed Morris is executive director of the Wake Forest Historical Museum & Wake
Forest College Birthplace. For more information, visit wakeforestmuseum.org.
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