Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Currier & Ives lithograph c. 1876 courtesy of the
Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thank you very much for reading the History Reporter blog -- an adventure that began six months ago. Look for new posts in the new year. In the meantime, may you enjoy family, friends, cookies, and holiday cheer.

I'll close this month with two more vintage recipe from Roy Ald's Favorite Recipes of Famous Men published in 1949. (For more recipes, visit this post.)

Richard Greene's recipe for Queen Victoria's Plum Pudding sounds very Dickensian and Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy's Swedish cookies seem too delicious to pass up.

A British actor and matinee idol, Greene starred in such films as Four Men and a Prayer and Hound of the Baskervilles with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. In the 1950s, he had a hit British television show titled "The Adventures of Robin Hood."

An actor and radio personality, Bergen was also one of the most famous ventriloquists ever. He and his sidekick dummy, Charlie McCarthy entertained the masses on the radio and in films.

Queen Victoria's Plum Pudding

Greene noted that this recipe was made in his youth by his family in Plymouth, Devonshire, England.

1 lb. raisins
1 lb. currants
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 lb. suet, chopped fine
5 eggs
1 cup brandy
1/2 lb. candied orange peel
1 grated lemon rind
1/2 grated nutmeg
1/2 lb. bread crumbs

Mix brandy with beaten eggs. Combine raisins and currants with flour, then add remaining ingredients. Pour liquid mixture over dry mixture in top of double boiler. Steam for 6 hours. 

Swedish Cookies

Cropped 1943 screenshot of Edgar Bergen with Charley McCarthy
from the film Stage Door Canteen. Credit: Wikimedia.org

Bergen noted that this recipe originated with his family in Chicago when he was a child.

1/2 lb. butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg, flour, extract, and salt. Beat until smooth. Drop on buttered tin. Bake in 400 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes.

See you in 2012!

Dear Santa . . .

Today's "A Patch of History" article for Rochester Patch titled "Dear Santa: Newspaper Letters Tell of Days-Gone-By Wishes" features a historical look at Santa Claus and letters from long ago kids who wrote to him with dreams of sleds, dolls, a Davy Crockett fort, a Shaun Cassidy record and more. What follows is a sampling of that article. To read the article in its entirety, please visit the Rochester Patch link above.

The spirit of Christmas is never as evident as it is in the words of children. For year, newspaper editors throughout the country thought so, too, as each December many of them printed letters to Santa written by local children.


An editorial cartoon for the nation's wishes printed
in the Lake Orion Weekly Reveiw on Dec. 23, 1938.
Source: Lake Orion Public Library

Letters to Santa then and now reaffirm the message of the holiday season as they brim with a sense of hope and innocence that often seems lost to us as we grow older.

I’ve been told by those in the know that Santa receives just over a million letters a year. For decades, the Lake Orion Review newspaper set up a mailbox just for Santa letters outside its headquarters in downtown Lake Orion, a small town in southeastern Michigan. Every Christmas, Santa provided the paper with some of the letters written by local children.

What follows is a sampling of letters written by area children from 1937 to 1986 (all misspellings were in the letters as printed).

Dear Santy Claus,
I would like a lectric train and a rectter set. Give all the poor boys and girls some toys and please come soon. Are you getting along ok are your rainders ready to come to earth and bring all the presents? So long Santy. – Kenneth, 1937

* * *
Dear Santa Claus,
Do you think you can come to my house this year? You know I will asleep. I want a scooter for Christmas. I think you will come to my house. Could you stay for dinner? We would like you to stay. – Martin, 1940

* * *

Dear Santa,
I have been good. I feed the dog . . . and I had a good report card too. And my name is Jeff and I’m 8 and I want a toy Thunder-Burp and two pairs of boxing gloves, that’s all I want. Thank you and may you have a Merry Christmas. – Jeffrey, 1957

* * *

Dear Santa,
Please bring me for Christmas a jet airplane, a dart set, bow and arrow, fire engine, cannon truck, air rifle, boxing bag, bowling set, Gunsmoke game, Moon Rocket, tool set, army tank, talking robot, smoking train, pair of skates, football helmet, a fanning gun, a sled, Davy Crockett fort, road building set, pop machine, socks, P.J. pants, underwear, shoes, because I have been good all year. Thank you, Santa. – Gregory, 1958

* * *

Dear Santa,
I’m in fourth grade this year. I will try to be good. I’m ten years old. Did you ever get stuck in the chimney? How are you and how is your wife? Did you work hard this year? For Christmas this year I want a paint-by-number set, Struto Road Builder set . . . trick shot gun shoots backward and rocket firing Airacobra Stagecoach Strongbox. I hope you come. – William, 1961

* * *

Dear Santa Claus,
I’m fine. For Christmas I want little Miss Echo, Candy Land, a sled, stroller that you can make 11 different things, play dishes, Popza ball and a snowsuit and some slippers, table and chairs and a bed for my dolls. I hope you have a nice Christmas. – Beth, 1962

* * *

Dear Santa,
We all like you and I please want you to bring me a set of stral cars and putt, putt, speed wax and a pear of house shoes, and Vedy, Bird, Police, Chopper and a pear of pajamas, and stretch arm strong. – Tommy, 1976

* * *

Dear Santa,
I have been a good girl this year. My mama told me so. For Christmas I would like: Dump truck, ice skates, 2 dolls, sled, play skies, Colorforms . . . escape game, sink, record player, records: Shawn Cassidy Sixteen – sick of school. – Jody, 1977

* * *

Dear Santa,
How are you? This is what I want for Christmas: a new doll, rolling skates, clothes, E.T. game, cowboy boots, also a new 1982 4x4 truck and a good job for my daddy. Thank you. – Amanda, 1982

* * *

Dear Santa,
I want a Muscle Man Ring and a giant that can climb up. Also a Karate Kid. Thanks. – Nick, 1986

* * *

Dear Santa,
I hope I get bigger. I want snow to come. – Tim, 1986

* * *

Dear Santa,
I thank you for the present you gave me last year. This year I want Kid Sister, Barbie dolls and some other things. I hope Rudolph is doing fine and the other reindeer and Mrs. Claus is doing fine too. And, especially, I hope you are doing fine, Santa. Will you try to make the world be better for people? – Kristin, 1986