Delaware at Christmas

Photojournalist Tabler explores the varied history of Christmas celebrations in Delaware in this nonfiction book.

“Delaware’s Christmas traditions echo the broader American story,” writes the author, who highlights the ways in which First State residents have been “remarkably flexible” in blending “customs that took root in the colonies” with later demographic, social, and cultural changes. The book’s first section, “Cultural Traditions,” explores how various peoples have contributed to the history of Delaware’s Yuletide celebrations. The Scandinavians, Tabler notes, first settled the New Sweden colony in the 17th century and devoted particular attention to the celebration of St. Lucia. Although many groups covered in this section are colonial settlers or 19th-century European immigrants—from the Dutch who celebrated St. Nicholas to the Italians who introduced the Feast of the Seven Fishes—the book also notes the great influence of non-Europeans. For example, he tells of how enslaved African people lived in Delaware starting in the 1600s, and he notes how free Black communities during the antebellum era observed Christmas in independent churches “free from white control.” Later, some Delaware residents observed Kwanzaa, which also emphasized “community building and cultural preservation.” The state’s Latino population grew in the late 20th century, and they added such celebrations as the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The book’s second and third parts offer a chronological history of various Christmas customs, from the popularity of sleigh bells and poinsettias in the 19th century to the impact of consumer culture and gift-giving in the 20th. The final section surveys post–World War II traditions, including the ’60s fad of making wreaths out of IBM punch cards, used by DuPont and other local employers, and ubiquitous “Christmas in July” sales among stores in coastal towns.

The book’s nostalgic style may not appeal to more academically minded readers, but its upbeat, inclusive approach reflects the holiday season at its joyous best. A major highlight of the book is its use of full-color, festive illustrations and images of photos, paintings, magazine covers, and other holiday ephemera, many of which are in the public domain. Tabler has authored three other works on Delaware history, and he clearly has a firm understanding of the state’s unique place in American culture; he also fruitfully draws on primary source material from more than two dozen of the state’s archives, museums, universities, and historical societies. The work’s only drawback is its oversized back matter, “Chapter Continuations,” which offers additional exposition on the topics in each chapter. This information is often diverting, but the section comprises more than a third of the book’s total length and ultimately makes for a disjointed read. Readers who are looking for a history of Scandinavian Christmas observance, for instance, will not only need to read the book’s opening chapter, but also multiple pages of additional information in the final section that’s longer than the initial chapter itself. Still, despite this editorial misstep, the book is a beautifully crafted and colorful work.

A festive, well-researched, and diverse look at holiday history in the Blue Hen State.

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Author Tabler pays homage to the culturally and geographically diverse participants in the formation of Delaware as seen from the fascinating viewpoint of Christmas celebrations. These traditions, many of which are still extant, were derived from voluntary, determined adventurers from Europe and Latin America, native peoples, and African slave populations. Delaware, America’s first state, was originally colonized by Dutch settlers in 1631. That group revered the Christmas season as personified by the virtues of the generous, caring, and sharing St. Nicholas. Swedish colonists followed soon after, and though they sought dominance, the Dutch prevailed in control of the territory. Yet the Swedes would soon build a church, still standing in Wilmington, preserving, among other treasures, relics of the pageant known as Luciafest, homage to a stalwart female whose aura represented the onset of winter.

French Huguenots, fleeing religious turmoil, were attracted to fertile farmland and carried forward such Christmas customs as “giving lasting gifts.” Germans would adhere to the Advent season by ceremonially enjoying flavorful coffee and spicy foods. Black slaves arriving in 1639 settled in communities that portended and would exemplify the customs of Black churches throughout the United States. Immigrants came from Poland in the early 1900s in search of better living conditions, bringing with them a bounty of carol singing and a special wafer symbolizing the necessity for the forgiveness that the Yule season evoked. Scots-Irish Protestants contributed a variety of celebratory influences, including hymns and stories, while Orthodox Christians, Italians, and the mid-twentieth-century incursion and spread of the Hispanic population brought perspectives unique to their countries of origin. Widely acceptable pleasures entwined with the season, including the drinking of eggnog, which was a medicinal concoction in its original form, the cheerful tinkle of sleigh bells, and the many culinary delights like fruitcake and plum pudding.

As informative as the text that Tabler has conscientiously arrayed are the complementary illustrations offered to his readers. A wide range of color photographs gives helpful insight into the interiors and artifacts of buildings described in the narratives. Black and white photography from earlier times depicts such intriguing customs as mumming (celebrants disguised in wild costumes and performing dance and other entertainments), along with drawings, and even cartoons. All of these will undoubtedly pique and satisfy the curiosity of Tabler’s audience. Tabler, who has written previous First State works, such as Delaware Before the Railroads and Delaware from Freeways to E-Ways, expertly highlights here the region’s seasonal and spiritual history and cultural expansion, offering readers his well-organized prose and a large selection of fascinating visual accompaniments. His diligent citations of sources include materials from both verbal and visual sources from established educational groups and institutions, providing readers with further underpinning of credibility. In a second segment of this enjoyably informative collection, “Chapter Continuations,” Tabler brings his subject into modern perspective with lengthy notes adding current terminologies and recent relevant events as further support to his historical information. Readers, particularly those dwelling in today’s First State, will undoubtedly consume, concur, and cherish Tabler’s imaginative assemblage of facts and feelings that this special volume provides.

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Establishing Delaware’s influential place on the Christmas stage across the country, Delaware at Christmas is a celebratory history text.

The rich, varied features of the holiday season are dissected in Dave Tabler’s studious history book Delaware at Christmas.

Drawing on historical records, this book is a robust cornucopia of foundational facts about trends that defined Christmas holiday traditions in Delaware. It is packed with revealing photographs, cartoons, artwork, and advertising ephemera that guide the chronology of the holiday season’s secular and religious cultural trajectory. It begins by exploring the cultural traditions of Delaware’s immigrant communities in the colonial period, establishing crucial epochal context about how German, Orthodox Christian, and Dutch influences resulted in an amalgamation of global traditions.

Through food, song, consumerist sidebars, and forgotten traditions, the book casts a wide net for Delaware’s influential place on the Christmas stage across the country. Eye-opening passages concerning alternative holiday libations, such as syllabub, flip, and sack posset are given as much attention as the origins of eggnog as a palliative drink. Delaware’s other specific contributions include the omnipresence of Richardson & Robbins Plum Pudding during the nineteenth century, displacing traditional British plum and fig puddings as the de facto king of holiday desserts, and the proliferation of Kwanzaa in Delaware.

Throughout, the book illuminates Delaware’s important role as an incubator for the evolution of multicultural traditions from the seventeenth century onward. Highlighting a variety of cultural and social evolutions, as well as navigating the impact of World War II and the place of technology and communications in the arc of holiday celebrations, the result is a fantastic primer that takes a fun and educational traipse through evolving Christmas traditions. And while the pages reflect an obvious affinity for Delaware, the inclusion of nostalgic memories (as with a chapter on the bygone presence of toy trains under Christmas trees and a section on Delaware native Harold E. Follett’s short-lived Christmas toy invention, the ThunderStreak) is appealing.

The book remarks on contemporary sustainability and environmental influences that shape yuletide practices across generations with clarity and celebrates the ingenuity of Delaware citizens in embracing numerous flexible traditions. These habits imbue its brief pages with a sense of unabashed home-state pride while generating general curiosity about the state’s diversity, which is shown to have informed the way US Christmas traditions unfolded across the centuries.

A fascinating regional holiday history text, Delaware at Christmas explores the First State’s enduring influence on, and participation in, the diverse traditions of the holiday season.

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Dave Tabler’s Delaware at Christmas is a well-researched deep dive into the rich Christmas traditions brought to the First State by early settlers. Its illustrated pages explore the origins of everything from eggnog to sleigh bells and more.

Readers who are devoutly interested in Delaware’s storied past will find their fill of arcane information in these pages. For example, Tabler notes that on heavy snow days in many Delaware towns, wheeled vehicles became useless and sleighs crowded the streets. Drivers of these sleighs, moving very fast, relied on their loud sleigh bells to avoid collisions.

One of the first celebrations of Kwanzaa began in Delaware sometime in the late 1960s, when the state played a strong part in the development of America’s independent, black churches.

The author also points out the influence of Swedish and Finnish immigrants in bringing a colorful character to life in the state, whom today we call Santa Claus. His name early on was Sinterklaas, and he certainly was not a jolly old elf back then: “Sinterklaas came accompanied by his Moorish servant Piet (Pete), a grinning fellow with a birch rod, whose sack full of goodies, when emptied, is [sic] large enough to carry away any naughty children.”

The information offered, rich with detail, is conveyed in a conversational tone. However, some readers might find the going a little slow, as much of the book’s best content lies embedded in captions and a strange section at the end of the book called “Chapter Continuations,” which offers lengthy postscripts tied to earlier pages in the book. (It’s unclear why this information couldn’t have been included on the pages cited, making for easier absorption of the material.)

Despite such presentation issues, readers from Delaware should find this information about some of the state’s most beloved Christmas customs interesting and illuminating.

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