Front door decorations for the palace kitchen office 



people assume everyone in that era 

 made their own food," Hicks says. "We 

 don't know what his prices would have 

 been like, but middle-class or upper 

 middle-class people in town probably 

 could have shopped with him." 



The house also includes handicrafts 

 of the 1830s. Imitation china is crafted 

 from an activity book of the era, A 

 Girl's Own Book, using a plain glass 

 tumbler pasted with a picture and 

 trimmed in gold. 



♦ Union Winter Quarters 

 (ca. 1862-64) 



Wander the grounds behind the 

 Daves House and enter a circle of Civil 

 War tents where Union soldiers brew 

 their coffee over the campfire. New 

 Bern celebrated Christmas as a Union- 

 occupied city from 1862 to 1864 — a 

 time when photographs and troops' 

 letters home give insight into how the 

 holidays were observed. 



"There were soldiers here, and local 

 families were dealing with shortages of 

 supplies," Hicks says. "Soldiers were 

 finding ways to make merriment in what 

 would have been a bleak time." 



During the Christmas tours, an 

 actor plays the part of Henry Clapp, a 

 private from Massachusetts who wrote 

 home thanking his family for a Christ- 

 mas package that included gloves, 

 stockings, paper and pens, pies, canned 

 milk, figs, nuts, pickles and even 

 lobster. He spent Christmas Day writing 

 letters and dining with other soldiers 

 and noted that "Hopkinson read 

 Dickens' charming 'Christmas Carol' 

 in the barracks to a delighted audience 

 of the company." 



At that time, the now-venerated 

 story was only about 20 years old. 



♦ New Bern Academy (ca. 1809) 



A classroom Christmas tree like 

 the one displayed in the New Bern 

 Academy was a special treat for 

 schoolchildren in the mid- 19th century. 

 The decorated tree was a German 

 custom popularized in England in the 

 early 1840s by Queen Victoria's 

 husband. It arrived in the United States 



about a decade later when an American 

 magazine carried a picture of the royal 

 family and its Christmas trees. 



The early trees in the United 

 States, like their European counterparts, 

 were trimmed mostly with good things 

 to eat. To the traditional nuts, apples 

 and cookies of Germany were added 

 strings of popcorn, cranberries, candied 

 fruits and hard candies. Though they 

 gained popularity over the years, 

 Christmas trees were found most often 

 in schools and churches. Even as late as 

 1900, only one family in five had a tree 

 in the home, Hicks says. 



The tree and other New Bern 

 Academy decorations were based on an 

 1892 description by Frances Louisa 

 Goodrich, who taught school in the 

 western part of North Carolina. "I have 

 been all day doing up presents," she 

 wrote. "When Miss Marston got home 

 from school, she helped me and by nine 



o'clock had all the tree presents 

 assigned — 105 twists of paper with 

 candy in them. On top of each, we put 

 a motto paper .... Mr. B. brought some 

 sticks of candy and says he heard of a 

 ladder with a doll climbing up and an 

 orange on top as an effective ornament 

 for a tree. We strove to carry out his 

 idea and did well we thought." 



Also during this time, the empha- 

 sis on gift-giving was growing as 

 Christmas presents were advertised 

 throughout December. 



♦ Commission House (ca. 1886) 

 Visitors can tour two eras of 

 Christmas in the Commission House. 

 The dining room is decorated with the 

 candle-tipped Christmas tree of the 

 Victorian era, while the drawing room 

 takes on the swing of Christmas in the 

 1940s. Down the street, a '40s-style 

 big band entertains visitors for one 



6 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1996 



