Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on December 21, 1985.
Traditions then meant more work, but also more joy
By Elizabeth Cloyd
Staff writer
PORTER ー Resting before a blazing fire in a cabin nestled in the snow-covered Indiana Dunes seems like a cozy way to celebrate Christmas.
Melissa Brooks portrays the eldest girl in the house during a Swedish celebration of St. Lucia’s Day. As the eldest girl, she serves coffee and rolls to Paul and Connie White. St. Lucia’s Day, Dec. 13, opened the Christmas season for the early Swedish settlers.
Maybe it wouldn’t seem so comfy if you had to chop the wood for the blazing fire, slaughter a duck or goose for Christmas dinner and settle down to finally relax in a home you built yourself.
For the early Swedish and French settlers in the Dunes area, Christmas was a long season that required much preparation, but resulted in much joy.
Swedish settlers, like Anders Chellberg, celebrated the holidays from Dec. 13 to Jan. 13. Joseph Bailly, and other French settlers in the area, celebrated from Christmas Eve through Jan. 6.
Both groups of settlers enjoyed a holiday season brimming with food, merriment and song, according to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore ranger Jude Rakowski.
Rakowski is coordinating a look at Christmas in the mid-1800s that will begin at 1 p.m. today at the Bailly Homestead and Chellberg Farm.
Visitors will be able to tour the homestead and farm and take a peek at what Christmas was like in the 18th century, the times when the pioneers of Porter County settled here. Call 926-7561 to make sure space is available.
The program is just one event scheduled during the winter months to encourage people to visit and use the park, Rakowski said.
“Yesteryear’s Traditions'' programs began at the farm and homestead in 1981. Rakowski said park rangers and volunteers sought information about the Christmas traditions and events families like the Chellbergs and Baillys may have enjoyed during the holidays.
Authentic Swedish wreaths and a tree will decorate the Chellberg farm and straw sheaves and sorghum branches will decorate the trees outside. At Bailly, trees and carolers will inspire Christmas spirit.
Recreating a pioneer Christmas isn’t easy.
Rangers and volunteers had the information about what everyday life was like for the early settlers, but had to dig around to find out what a typical holiday might be like, Rakowski said.
Much of the information came from northwest Indiana residents who were from Sweden or France, or were descendents of persons from those countries.
“It’s a rich area as far as customs go,” Rakowski said. “There are not as many French people in the area but a lot of people who live here are right from Sweden.”
Many Swedish residents are recruited to serve as guides for the program, to share their knowledge as well as their accents. Rakowski said she tries to find former Sweden residents because their accents add charm and realism to the presentations, but it isn’t always possible to find transplanted Swedes.
One year Rakowski served as “Jude Johannsen” for the day, complete with a practiced Swedish accident.
Rakowski said to learn about Swedish customs, she and other rangers conducted interviews with area residents and leafed through books. Visits to area museums also provided insight into the holidays. Finding out more about how the Baillys welcomed the holidays was another matter. Students enrolled in French classes at Chesterton High School researched customs and will serve as guides during the program. “Yesteryear’s Traditions'' visitors will be greeted by guides in authentic Swedish and French costumes. The guides will divide visitors into two groups, one that will visit Bailly first, the other viewing Christmas at Chellberg first.
The Christmas season at the Chellberg Farm, and other Swedish homesteads, began on St. Lucia’s Day, Dec. 13. On that morning, the eldest girl in the home donned a crown with five candles and beckoned her family to come down for a breakfast she prepared, Rakowski said.
Anders and Johanna Chellberg and their family probably enjoyed a light breakfast of rolls and coffee, and hung wreaths of lingonberries or whortleberries on their doors and walls, according to the ranger.
On Christmas Eve the Chellbergs probably bathed and washed their hair in large wooden or metal tubs. Christmas crowns of straw were hung on the walls of the Chellberg Farm, adn straw was strewn on the clean floor to represent the straw in the manager.
Straw will also represent the manager and wreaths will be hung today, just as they were when the Chellbwehs celebrated Christmas in their home in the 1880s.
A half-moon of evergreens was spread outside the house door, so visitors could wipe their feet before entering. The Christmas tree was hidden from the children as parents decorated it with white candles, flags, woven hearts, fruits and nuts. When the tree was decorated, the Jul-bock, or goat, rang a bell, beckoning the children into the room.
Even the animals celebrated the holiday. Rakowski said wheat and sorghum sheaves were tied with a red ribbon to feed the birds, and the farm animals were given a special Christmas Eve meal.
A bowl of porridge was set in the barn for the Jultomten, friendly gnome that supposedly lived under the barn floor.
Julotta, a church service, opened Christmas Day for the Swedes. Families traveled to church in sleighs and carried candles during the service.
Dec. 28 was St. Stephen's Day, a day of feasting and visiting. Families strolled from home, singing carols at each open door.
The Christmas season ended between Jan. 6 and 13, when the Christmas tree candles were lit for the last time.
When Joseph Bailly and his family established their homestead in Westchester Township in 1822, they probably began their first Christmas there on Dec. 24 with a yule log-burning party. Each family saved part of each year’s yule log for the following year’s Christmas.
A bundle of wheat and sorghum tied to a tree provides a Christmas treat for the birds at Chellberg farm. Trying the bundles to trees during the holidays is a Swedish custom observed by early settlers in the area.
Christmas was a solemn, religious day when the settlers celebrated Christ’s birth with a high mass.
The settlers’ celebrated New Year’s Eve with caroling and a feast. During the festivities, families brought out food, clothing and money for the poor, which masqueraded carolers collected on carts.
New Year’s Day was also filled with caroling and skits, and families exchanged gifts. The French settlers visited their neighbors on the first day of the year, and the gentlemen of each family lined up in order of age to kiss the hostess on the cheek.
The Feasts of Kings, a formal ball, ended the Christmas festivities Jan. 6.
The King of the ball was chosen by pure coincidence.
The oldest woman in the village baked a cake with four beans hidden in it. The first unmarried man to find a bean in his slice of cake was chosen king, and reigned over the festivities for the evening.
Several of these traditions will be re-enacting during the Bailly-Chellberg Christmas. Children will be invited to decorate the tree at the Chellberg Farm, Rakowski said, and carolers will fill the area with music at both locations.
A woman will sing French Christmas carols at Bailly, and Swedish music will be provided at Chellberg. A wood-burning water heater to keep animals warm will also be stoked up and operating at Chellberg.
Volunteers and park rangers will explain the Swedish and French holiday customs and will answer questions about those early Porter County Christmas celebrations and about the first residents.
