Cape Cod Holidays
by David Gallagher
Originally published in Inside Cape Cod, December 2002
Winters on Cape Cod and the islands can be a magical time. For those of us who have worked so hard during the summer months, winter is a time to slow down and enjoy quiet times with family and friends, or to simply wonder at the still beauty of a Cape Cod winter. If you’re like me, however, you sooner or later find yourself missing the bustle of the summer months and dreading the long dark days of winter.
Fortunately, hope is never far away. Just when the days are the shortest, another magical time comes to Cape Cod: The Holidays. Cape Codders simply know how to celebrate. Soon after Thanksgiving, towns are bedecked with lights, greenery, and ornaments to celebrate the coming season.
The bustle comes back. There are Christmas festivities in every town and village on the Cape and Islands, with Christmas strolls, tree lightings, parades, and other festivities to brighten the season. The winter holidays, Christmas, Hanukah, and now Kwanzaa, are welcomed here, and celebrated with gusto. We welcome the light.
A Rocky Start:
While Christmas is celebrated in today with passion, few know that many years ago the holiday was actually outlawed in Massachusetts.
The Puritans that first settled this region opposed Christmas for several reasons. First, the group had strict interpretations of religious days and Biblical teachings. Christmas did not appear in the bible -- it in fact was a pagan holiday until the Church adopted December 25th as the day of Christ’s birth several hundred years after his death. Secondly, Christmas was celebrated in England, and the Puritans wanted a clean break from the old world. Finally, the holiday was celebrated much as it is today, with feasting, drinking, and general merry-making. The Puritans had little patience for any of these forms of entertainment.
Christmas was outlawed -- yes, outlawed -- in 1659. The penalty for being caught celebrating Christmas in Massachusetts was a fine of five shillings.
Fortunately for us, the continued influx of other ethnic and religious groups made the ban unenforceable. After 22 years, the law was changed and families could again celebrate Christmas. Puritan values lasted much longer, however, and the celebration of the holiday remained out of vogue in the area until the mid 1800’s.
A Community Event:
England’s Victorian era is considered by some to be the Golden Age of Christmas. It is the age that gave us many of the Christmas traditions that we know take for granted: the Christmas tree, Christmas cards, and caroling. It was also a time when Christmas came into its own on Cape Cod.
For many in our region during this time, Christmas was a community event, with celebrations that centered on the entire town or village.
Barnstable residents James and Joan Ellis have collected stories from James’ mother Mary Louise Jones Ellis, who was born in 1899. Before she died in 1998 at the age of 99 years, Mary recounted to them fond tales of the Christmas celebrations of her childhood in the early 1900’s.
Mary’s father allowed no Christmas tree in his home, but the family celebrated in their own way. Each child -- there were nine in all -- hung a black cotton stocking on the mantelpiece. On Christmas morning, each stocking held an orange, and apple, and walnuts. Above each stocking was one gift for each child.
On Christmas day, from 4 - 6pm, a party was held at the Masonic Hall next to the schoolhouse in Barnstable Village. Everyone from the village would come to celebrate together. This festive occasion included a tree decorated with candles and strung with popcorn and cranberries. Buckets of sand and water were kept on hand in case the tree caught fire. At this party, each child received one gift from Santa Clause (purchased from money collected throughout the village), usually a small box of hard candies and an orange.
Mary’s family -- all nine children and their parents -- would walk to the festivities rather than take the family carriage. Her father never let his horses stand for more than two hours in the cold and snow.
This community gathering was held in various locations until about 1941, when the practice ceased, presumably with the start of Work War II.
In addition to the early Christmas festivities described by Mrs. Ellis, Barnstable Village also celebrated the New Year with a community gathering. The Village came together at 8pm on New Year’s Eve for “Night Watch Service” at the Baptist church. At midnight, the church bells were rung, and everyone wished their neighbors a “Happy New Year”. The group then dispersed, walking home in what came to be known as “Walking the new year in and the old year out.”
Christmas at Sea:
During the age of whaling, many Cape Codders spent their Christmas at sea. Many of these men, simply worked the holiday as any other day, or wrote in journals and logs of their homesickness. In “Christmas at Sea”, by Edouard A. Stackpole, many of these writings have been preserved.*
Martha’s Vineyard Captain George Smith had reason to celebrate on Christmas day, 1871, because his wife Lucy and three-year-old son Freddie had accompanied him aboard the Nautilus. The family found themselves in the South Atlantic bound for Cape Horn on Christmas day. The ship had taken a sperm whale the day before, and the crew worked hard to get the whale cut in.
Mrs. Smith wrote in her journal of the day: “Freddie has just gone to sleep expecting Santa Clause to fill his stocking. I have got almonds, several little books, a box of blocks, puzzles, and a bag of things Mrs. Carroll gave me to hang for him, and will now fill the stocking...”
It was a hard life. On another ship, New Bedford native Eliza Williams sailed with her husband, Captain Thomas Williams of the whaleship Florida in 1859. They journeyed for three years, and she had borne two children while at sea.
On Christmas Eve, 1859, Eliza wrote: “We had a heavy squall of wind and rain towards morning, and it continued to rain powerful till about 8 o’clock, when it cleared off fine... A finback came alongside of the ship and spouted several times. My husband shot at it but missed. The men have all been busy mending sails and doing other things too numerous to mention. Tonight is Christmas Eve. I would like to be home.”
Many New England ships were decorated if they happened to be in port for the holiday. It was common for the crew secure a Christmas tree to the mainmast when possible, or to decorate the desk with greens when available.
Of course, those fortunate enough to work on land had it far easier. Compare the whalers’ plight to that of Mr. Frank Macy, a Nantucket storekeeper, as he described his Christmas festivities in a letter to a friend in 1878: “Christmas Eve I took the part of Santa Claus at the Methodist church. Next day went to Sconsett with the crowd, in the evening took part of the night before, at the Unitarian after went to the dance, the next night went down to Reb. Smiths with Susie Winslow and talked the days work over, that we did Christmas...”
Old Made New Again:
Today, the bustle of Christmas is a welcome diversion from the darkness of winter. It is a time when Cape Codders come together to embrace the light and each other on the warmth of the season.
Cape Cod and the Islands continue some of the old holiday traditions while creating new ones. The Ellis family is still involved with the celebrations. James Ellis makes rings for every child out of horseshoe nails.
The Christmas Stroll was re-instituted in Barnstable Village in 19XX by Marylyn Fuller, who fashioned the new tradition after a book by Mary Sprague. Today, nearly every town has some form of Christmas stroll or tree-lighting ceremony.
The influx of diverse groups continues to change how the holidays are celebrated. Most towns now celebrate not only Christmas, but Hanukah and Kwanzaa as well. It is not uncommon to see a menorah next to the nativity on a village green. The message is clear: it is a time for all of us to celebrate the light.
This year, I hope that you take some time to enjoy a true Cape Cod Christmas -- or Hanukah, or Kwanzaa. It is a time for light, and a time for hope.
* Many thanks to the Nantucket Historical Association for their assistance in researching Christmas traditions at sea.
SIDEBAR:
“For preventing disorders, arising in several places within this jurisdiction by reason of some still observing such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other communities, to the great dishonor of God and offense of others: it is therefore ordered by this court and the authority thereof that whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way, upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall pay for every such offence five shilling as a fine to the county.”
From the records of the General Court,
Massachusetts Bay Colony
May 11, 1659
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