holiday – Empowering women through fiction and history.

Going A-Wassling: A History of the Christmas Carol

Greetings, blog post readers! It’s been a while since I posted any historical tidbits on this blog. I’ve missed blogging, so you’ll probably be seeing some posts here and there as of next year.

We’re in the holiday season now, so it’s natural to think about all the things that bring us joy during this time of year. Songs have always been a part of the holiday. In fact, singing carols at Christmas has been a tradition since the 14th century, when Christianity began to spread all throughout Europe.

Photo Credit: The Christmas Carol, 1888, Hatch Lith Co., Library of Congress: Rawpixel/Public Domain

Interestingly, using the word “carol” to refer to Christmas songs gives us a little insight into what these songs meant in the past. A “carol” is a song of joy, but in the beginning, it wasn’t just about singing. It was also about dancing. Some of the earliest caroling was done by Franciscan friars. Their caroling, however, didn’t quite look like the caroling we know and love today. Their caroling resembled more the pagan rituals of the “mummers”, or performers who dressed up and wore masks and sang, danced, and performed for people during the holiday season. For a more modern rendition of this ritual, you can check out this video of Irish singer Loreena McKennitt’s 1997 song “The Mummer’s Dance”.

What are these Christmas carols? They’re the songs we think of when we think of the holiday season and the ones we hear everywhere. While many of the Christmas carols we know and love, such as “O Come All Ye Faithful,” were written in the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe or England, there were some carols written later by Americans. For example, there’s “Away In a Manger,” which appeared anonymously in several American magazines in the 1880s.

Before the 19th century, most caroling was done in local churches. But when the printing press became more advanced and cost-effective, booklets of carols began to circulate and afforded many people the opportunity to get to know these songs and sing them in their communities during the holiday season. In the early 19th century, caroling became a thing in many big cities. Caroling events were organized to raise money for charities during the holiday season. However, the popularity of singing Christmas carols in public began to decline in the 20th century, though there was a brief revival of the practice mid-century from schools and community groups.

Today, we rarely see door-to-door caroling except in small towns, and even then, usually confined to families or certain groups. The COVID pandemic, however, saw the birth of virtual caroling, where people would get together online to sing Christmas carols together.

I’ll be coming out with a short story soon that is part of the Adele Gossling Mysteries called “Christmas Coins and Holly,” where caroling has a place with the guests of Lady Augusta’s Christmas celebration. But crime doesn’t take a holiday, so there’s something else going on among the holly to put an interesting twist on the Gosslings’ holiday cheer!

There’s only one place you can get this story for free, and that’s if you’re a subscriber to my newsletter. I occasionally give my subscribers little gifts like that, so if you want to get in on the fun (plus get a free book in the process), you’ll want to sign up here.

Making Progress: Thanksgiving in the Progressive Era

It’s that time of year when Thanksgiving is upon us (at least it is if you’re in the US). A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about Thanksgiving in the Gilded Age. But since I’ve been diving into the Progressive Era with my Adele Gossling Mysteries, I was curious to know how turn-of-the-century Thanksgiving traditions compared to those of America’s Gilded Age.

The Gilded Age was, remember, all about excesses, wealth, and showing off when it came to the holidays. Well-to-do Americans saw the holidays as a time to get into their best dress and parade themselves in hotel dining rooms or swank restaurants for a multi-course Thanksgiving meal that included non-traditional Thanksgiving fare such as oysters and lobster (if you don’t believe me, take a peek at the menu I included in the blog post mentioned above.)

Photo Credit: Cover of Puck magazine showing a mother making a pumpkin pie in the kitchen while her four children look onward, emphasizing the family nature of Thanksgiving, 1903, chromolithograph, created by L. M. Glackens: pingnews.com / Flickr/Public Domain Mark 1.0

Americans started to get a grip on all those excesses and realized their country needed to make some changes in the Progressive Era. Reform was the order of the day, including worker’s rights, women’s rights, and environmental concerns. There was also more emphasis on intimate social circles (family, friends), probably because the modern era made many people feel fragmented and isolated (something I daresay we struggle with today in our social-media-heavy 21st century.)

For all these reasons, Thanksgiving became more of a family affair at the turn of the century. Magazines and books came out with Thanksgiving recipes to help encourage Americans to stay home for the holiday rather than let hotels and restaurants do the cooking. The recipes were much more what we consider traditional Thanksgiving foods, such as roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. The 1902 menu on this site still has some oddities, such as oysters, but it looks much more like the kind of Thanksgiving meal we feast upon these days than the menu on my previous blog post.

Progressive reformers carried their work into the holidays as well. One thing we see with turn-of-the-century Thanksgiving which was less prevalent in the Gilded Age was the idea of giving thanks and gratitude by helping others. Missionaries and other charitable organizations hosted large Thanksgiving feasts for the poor all over the country. In addition, holiday gift boxes became popular just as they are today (my local Sprouts Market prepares gift bags with food every year that customers can purchase and have the store give to a family in need). Overall, the spirit of gratitude and giving was not lost on early 20th-century progressives.

While none of my Adele Gossling Mystery stories feature a Thanksgiving murder yet, be on the lookout for one in the future! In the meantime, check out The Carnation Murder, the first book of the series, which is totally free on all bookstore sites.

If you love fun, engaging mysteries set in the past, you’ll enjoy The Missing Ruby Necklace! It’s available exclusively to newsletter subscribers here. By signing up, you’ll also get news about upcoming releases, fun facts about women’s history, classic true-crime tidbits, and more!

Fun and Mischief: Halloween in the Early 20th Century

It’s Halloween in the United States today, and if you live in America, you likely already have bags of candy stashed on the front table near your door, expecting little nippers to come knocking and calling “trick or treat!”

Halloween these days is a relatively tame affair where fun is the name of the game. It means dressing up in costumes, taking the kids door to door to get candy, and for some, attending a party or settling on the couch to watch spooky movies (I already have my collection of classic horror films geared up). But in the early 20th century, kids had a very different idea of what constituted “fun” for Halloween. Mischief and mayhem were the order of the day (or, I should say, the night).

What do I mean by mischief? Watch this clip from the 1944 classic film Meet Me in St. Louis. The film is set in 1904 and gives a pretty accurate glimpse of how kids celebrated Halloween in the early 20th century. In the scene, kids build a bonfire, throwing in anything flammable they can get their hands on (and one suspects some of the chairs they’re throwing into the fire might have been ripped off neighborhood porches). Then, they huddle together, trying to figure out who they’re going to torture with their bags of flour (yes, knocking on someone’s door and throwing flour in their face was a thing back then). That was the turn-of-the-century’s idea of Halloween fun.

Photo Credit: A non-grotesque and non-creepy Halloween costume of a witch, 1910: jamesjoel/Flickr/CC BY ND 2.0

This scene also shows how kids dressed up for Halloween over one hundred years ago (and if you’re curious to see more costumes from this era, you can look here). Unlike today where we’re more likely to see cute costumes on smaller kids and spooky-fun costumes on older kids, kids used whatever they could find around the house. The results were creepier and, in some cases, even grotesque.

Trick-or-treating is an organized affair in the 21st century. In the neighborhoods in my area, the local newspaper designates specific days (not necessarily October 31) and times when trick-or-treaters can go around town. In the early 20th century, things were a lot more chaotic. Kids would go trick-or-treating in parades and they could become quite unruly. And did they get candy? Not always. Until the mid-20th century, kids got whatever was lying around. That could be a toy or a game the child of the house didn’t want anymore or some non-candy goodies or fruits or nuts (which would make many moms and dads very happy today).

But what really characterized early 20th-century Halloween was mischief. In addition to the bonfire and the flour-in-the-face, it wasn’t unusual for kids to vandalize homes belonging to people in town they didn’t like or even steal things off their lawn or porch (in the film clip above, one of the adults warns her children to return a neighbor’s hammock after they steal it). I remember when I was a kid, Halloween meant you were at risk of being “egged” (having kids throw rotten eggs at your house) if you didn’t open the door and give out candy. Thankfully, that practice has largely gone out of style.

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A Safe and Sane 4th of July

Today is Independence Day in America, also known as the 4th of July. Americans have always been enthusiastic about their freedom, especially when you consider it’s an integral part of the American way of life. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era were no exception. America was coming into its own during the late 19th/early 20th centuries in commerce, politics, and society. The Spanish-American War of 1898 brought America onto the world stage for the first time. Things were pretty good.

But Americans carried their enthusiasm a little too far. We know the staples of 21st-century 4th of July celebrations. It’s a social holiday with family BBQs and fireworks to boot. The latter is especially synonymous with Independence Day for most Americans. I’ll never forget the first fireworks display I saw when I was living in San Francisco in 1995 at Crissy Field. It was an impactful show of country spirit and dedication.

Photo Credit: Drawing of a skeleton dressed up for the 4th of July celebrations, 1899, lithograph, created by L. Crusius, Welcome Collection: Look and Learn/CC BY 4.0

It’s hard to believe in the Progressive Era, some politicians were pushing for a “quiet” 4th of July, encouraging Americans to stay home instead of going out and celebrating with fireworks. But they had good reason. The enthusiasm for the 4th had by that time gotten out of hand. Children were going around shooting off toy guns to join in the fun and sometimes their aim wasn’t so careful. Fireworks, as you might imagine, weren’t exactly sophisticated in those days so safety wasn’t a priority. In addition, when people set off canons, firecrackers, and other explosives, they caused many injuries and even death. And we’re talking serious statics here. In 1903 (the year my Adele Gossling Mysteries opens), more than 400 people died and 4,000 were injured during the nation’s 4th of July celebrations. Many of these came from tetanus as a result of shrapnel wounds from dangerous explosives or careless toy guns.

These well-wishers of what was dubbed the Safe and Sane movement weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. We know many Americans made fun of the reform movements taking place in the early 20th century and they resented these politicians who wanted to take away their fun on Independence Day. Many cities began to implement ordinances to try and curtail these dangerous celebrations. In San Francisco (where part of my series takes place) women’s clubs worked to get toy guns out of the hands of kids younger than seventeen.

This movement encouraged other cities to implement more community-related events around the Fourth (like the yearly firework display at Crissy Field in San Francisco that I saw in the 1990s). Other events besides fireworks were sports, games, and picnics. These events gave Americans a chance to celebrate the holiday in a social environment that was, well, safe and sane!

Want to see more Progressive Era politics in action? Read the Adele Gossling Mysteries! Book 1 is available for free. Book 2 is on sale now!

If you love fun, engaging mysteries set in the past, you’ll enjoy my novella The Missing Ruby Necklace! It’s available exclusively to my newsletter subscribers and you can get it here. By signing up, you’ll also get news about upcoming releases, fun facts about women’s history, classic true-crime tidbits, and more!

America’s Mini War: The Spanish-American War of 1898

Today, on Memorial Day, we honor those who fought for our country and the sacrifices they made. We think of war as a big, complex thing — that is, they go on for years and cost many lives. World War I lasted 4 years (though America didn’t get involved until the last year of the war) and World War II lasted six (though, again, America didn’t enter the war until three years after it started). The Vietnam War was even longer and more complex. It began in 1955 and ended in 1975, though American involvement lasted from 1965 to 1973.

So it’s no wonder many do not remember the war that happened in between the Civil War (1861-1865) and World War I (1914-1918). But its implications and impact resonated for years to come and even today.

Photo Credit: Headline in the New York Journal of Congress declaring war which began the Spanish-American War, 25 April 1898, New York Public Library: Picryl/Creative Commons CC0 1.0

The Spanish-American War stands out in the annals of American history for several reasons. First, it was a very short war. War was officially declared on April 21, 1898, and the fighting ended on August 13, 1898 (though the war itself officially ended four months later). America was involved in this war for financial and humanitarian reasons. The consequences of the war for the United States helped to push the nation toward one of the greatest changes that occurred during the Gilded Age — it hurled the country onto the world stage.

The war involved fighting in Cuba, a colony of Spain at the time. Spanish rule was oppressive to Cuban insurgents, and they had been fighting three years prior. The brutal treatment of the Cubans by the Spanish gained a lot of sympathy in the United States, thanks to the yellow journalism popular at the time. It was very much on the minds of Americans. In Senator North, a novel by Gertrude Atherton published in 1900 but set a bit earlier, shows Washington society discussing the war constantly at their dinner parties and picnics, and outlines some of the great debates going on in the Senate about whether America should or should not enter the war. The thing that pushed America to declare war on Spain was the sinking of the battleship USS Maine, which newspapers played up as having been caused by either mines or torpedoes fired by the Spanish army (though it was never established whether this was really true, or whether it was some kind of technical error having nothing to do with the Spanish).

A major player in the war was Teddy Roosevelt, who left his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to join in the fighting with a group of soldiers known as the Rough Riders. This short war made Roosevelt a hero and cemented his emerging political career at the turn of the 20th century. The nation ensured independence for Cuba (which helped with political and financial trade) and gained control over the Pacific, including the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The war also allowed the United States to declare Hawaii its territory (though Hawaii wouldn’t become a state until 1959).

There were relatively few casualties in this war (about two thousand, as compared to 116,000 during World War I, 700,000 in World War II, and 58,000 in the Vietnam War). But those who fought made this little war an important part of American foreign politics and trade.

False Fathers, the second book of my historical coming-of-age series, the Waxwood Series, takes place during the summer of 1898, so the war is very much on the minds of Waxwood’s resort guests. In one scene, Jake and Stevens, a father figure who guides Jake throughout the book on his journey to manhood, are watching Stevens’ cousin Roger and his friends play billiards, and the subject of the Spanish-American War comes up:

The sky grew black, and the sea calmed. The young men played and drank into the night, and Stevens showed no signs of retiring. Jake wanted to leave, but his feet felt cemented int hat room. He listened as their talk moved from college professors and sports to the war in Cuba.
“We ought to pull out while we can,” said Mr. Harrington. “It’s not worth the lives we’ve already given for it.”
“We’re not there for fancy, boy.” Mr. Trent shot two balls in the left side pocket. “Let Spain and every other country see we’re a force to be reckoned with.”
Mr. McDonaugh cocked his head. “The frontier’s all taken, so what have we left?”
“Virile man conquer virgin territory,” Roger agreed, his words sounding thick.
“We’ve almost won anyway,” said Ivan Morvell. “Not two weeks ago, the Rough Riders—”
“Those braggarts!” Roger snarled. “Posing for the papers like gladiators. And that goose with his mustache and spectacles!”
Stevens jumped up. In the shadow left by two lamp, his indignation was unavoidable. “I suggest you speak about Mr. Roosevelt with respect.”

For these young men who are coming of age in the last years of the 19th century, the war symbolizes the potential for bigger and better things, not only on a national level but on a psychological level for them as young men going out into the world. The idea of power expands both in the public and private spheres.

The complete Waxwood Series will be out in one box set next month, but feel free to get a head start by grabbing Book 1, The Specter, now. The book is free on all book vendor sites and you can get all the details and links here.

If you love fun, engaging mysteries set in the past, you’ll enjoy The Missing Ruby Necklace! It’s available exclusively to newsletter subscribers here. By signing up, you’ll also get news about upcoming releases, fun facts about women’s history, classic true-crime tidbits, and more!