These stories can also be heard on Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
December 29, 2024
This story comes from Marcella Eklund Woidtke’s history of her mother Emily Erickson’s family. Emily’s parents Arne and Mathilde Nelson lived northeast of Badger in the early 1900s.
On a cold December day about two or three weeks before the Christmas holidays, Arne butchered a couple of pigs and a beef animal. The meat was then preserved as previously described (by freezing it and storing it in a snow filled barrel). The hay was all hauled home and piled by the barn – it was a busy time for everyone. This was the annual pre-Christmas preparations, seeing to it that the needs of both family and animals were taken care of.
The girls in the family were busy cleaning house and getting ready for the gifts. The custom was that everyone should have something new for Christmas, be it mittens, scarves, socks, or something else – something personal for each one and usually it was something to wear. Sometimes it would be a special toy to play with, but this was not very often unless it could be homemade.
On Christmas Eve, December 24th, Arne and one of the boys went to the swamp to cut a balsam spruce tree – always a balsam to put up as a Christmas tree in the living room. Then every child who was able to help decorated the tree. The little balsam was transformed into a lovely Christmas tree decorated with tinsel, pretty bulbs and wax candles in many colors. The candles were held in place by a clothespin-like clip that was attached to a branch. Care had to be given that the candle did not touch or be placed too close to an evergreen bough because it would catch fire and the tree and everything around would go up in flames. Later in the evening the candles were lit and the family opened their gifts.
The farm animals were not forgotten at Christmas either. It was an old Norwegian custom to give the cows and other animals something special on Christmas Eve, a little extra grain and a little extra attention. They were bedded down in clean straw and made comfortable so they, too, could enjoy something special, as did the family inside the house.
Another Norwegian custom was to prepare something special for the Nisse. Nisse are little man-like creatures who live in the barns and keep bad luck away from your home. If some food was not left in the barn or outside the door, the Nisse would be very disappointed and this in turn would cause you to have bad luck all year. So of course Arne and his family did not want to forget to pacify the Nisse!
At 5:00 PM the supper was ready. It consisted of sweet soup and spareribs, vegetables, potatoes, bread and milk. During the time Mathilde was preparing the food, Arne took the youngest child on his lap and while the rest of the children gathered around him, he told them stories about the Nisse in Norway. When it was time to gather around the table for their meal, mother Mathilde told the children about Jesus and the story about his birth in Bethlehem.
The dishes were washed and put away and it was now time to open gifts. There was only one gift for each child, but they knew this gift had been made with love and it was something new they could claim as their very own – made especially for them.
The memories of their Norwegian Christmas came back to Arne and Mathilde as they were gathered together with their family. Memories of only lard cracklings for Christmas Eve supper, this was supposed to be a treat from the bunde or landlord. Now they feasted on pork and sweet fruit soup. They now owned their own land and had a warm house for their family to live in. The children were well fed and everyone had a future to do or become whatever they desired to be. It was a good feeling, and as their eyes met, Arne and Mathilde moved close together and touched hands – each knowing what the other was thinking.
It was time to hustle the children off to bed to dream about the Nisse and wonder if the Nisse would appreciate the food they left for him. As a special treat before going to bed, each one of the children was given a big red apple. Arne had not forgotten to buy a box of apples the last time he was in town.
Christmas Day was spent just like any other holiday or Sunday, with the exception that Mathilde told the children more stories from the Bible, stories about the shepherds, wise men and all the things related to the Christmas story as told in the Bible. She knew her Bible well and made sure her children also realized the wealth of knowledge one could receive from the Bible.
Between Christmas and New Year’s the older children went “Julebokking” or Christmas Fooling. Dressing up in crazy, wild costumes, they went from neighbor to neighbor. The neighbor invited them into the house and offered them treats, after which amid the noise of howling, frightened babies, they took their leave and went on to the next neighbor. If for some reason they were unable to go “fooling” before New Year’s, they went after New Year and this was called “New Year’s Goat”.
Many of the Norwegian traditions were carried with to the new country by the immigrants, but as the years went by they developed some traditions of their own. However, with regard to the culinary aspect of Christmas tradition, you will still find many families of Norwegian ancestry still carrying on the traditional Christmas foods.
Thank you to 
for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.