While searching through my dad’s files, I found a Christmas card of Christ Church from 1959. Prominently placed on the front lawn of the church is a painted wooden display depicting one of the founders of the village, Samuel Strickland, attending Christmas service with his family a hundred years before. A photograph of this lovely old church in the heart of Lakefield, and the Victorian family gaily celebrating the season was taken to mark its centennial. Intrigued, I wondered not only who may have made these Victorian figures, but how.
In the 1950’s, the Douglas Fir Plywood Company created whimsical Christmas ‘you build’ patterns for families to create amazing holiday lawn art. It was a genius idea and a wonderful way for the company to sell lots of plywood! A sturdy pattern (in paper suitable for outdoor use) was glued on the plywood and then cut out with a fine blade on a jig saw. The last step was to seal your masterpiece and protect it from the elements. Alternatively, if your mom or dad was artistic, they could do design it themselves and custom make their own handmade pieces of outdoor Christmas décor. Readers of a certain age will remember driving around at night with their parents to admire the Christmas lights and decorations. Perhaps you even posed for pictures with the figures of the Strickland family and were reminded of Christmases past and the contributions of the man called the ‘father of Lakefield’.
One can’t help but wonder what Christmas might have been like 170 years ago for the Strickland family. During the Victorian era, Christmas became more secularized from the original nativity. Although attending church and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ was still central to the holiday, it was no longer the only way to celebrate. The publication of Charles Dickens’ novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’, fed the growing nostalgic interest in the holiday’s traditions, reinforcing it as an event increasingly based primarily around family, food and merriment.
Back in 1857, Lakefield had a population of just 75 people. At the time, Samuel Strickland’s sister, Susanna Moodie, in a letter home to England described her brother’s house, ‘the Homestead’, as “commodious and has a beautiful garden, which would amply satisfy the taste of any gentleman of moderate fortune, four of his five lads are married and settled near him”. She continued her account of Lakefield as “a neat village of pretty, well-built houses [that have] sprung up”. Robert Casement was the postmaster and owned a general store. Mail was received twice a week, and if you could afford or find them, commercial Christmas cards were available. Letters, cards and parcels would have been mailed very early with the hopes that they would arrive in the ‘old country’ in time for the holidays. Gifts in those parcels would have been homemade and serviceable - knitted and crocheted hats, scarves and mittens or preserved jams and jellies. Christmas carols served as interpretations of the original Christmas story and were meant to spread joy and cheer around the holiday. Caroling with friends and family would no doubt have been part of Strickland holiday tradition.
The practice of decorating a coniferous tree inside the home rose to prominence during the Victorian era after Queen Victoria’s German husband, Prince Albert, had erected a Christmas tree for the royal family. The Strickland’s Christmas tree would have been strung with cranberries, popcorn chains, bows, ribbons and lace, and lit with real candles. The gifts under the tree for his grandchildren might have included wooden puzzles or figurines, perhaps a homemade sled or snowshoes, and a rocking horse for the younger ones. His wife, Kate, may have received a store-bought gift from England, carefully brought home from a trip back across the Atlantic. Evergreen boughs made into garlands would have been hung around door frames and decorated the mantle and stair banister at ‘the Homestead’. Christmas dinner (prepared with the help of a servant) would have consisted of wild turkey or goose served with boiled or mashed root vegetables, followed by desserts such as mincemeat pie and plum pudding. Charity has always been an important part of Christmas, and prominent individuals such as Sam Strickland would have donated money and goods to those in need.
While 170 years seems very long ago, these Christmas traditions are not so different from traditions celebrated in our homes today. For over twenty-five years, Christ Church Community Museum has welcomed the arrival of Christmas with the lighting of a community tree and singing carols by candlelight. We hope that you have had the opportunity to join us. From all of us at CCCM, we wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and peace in 2025.
