Holiday Cheer in a Troubling Time

2020 has been a rather detestable year to say the least, so much that I don’t feel I need to go great lengths to describe the situation. If future generations read this and wonder what worldwide ailments I speak of, I instruct you to google, or whatever means of searching reference you have in the future, 2020 and you will likely find out all you need to know. At any rate, there is one bright spot in 2020, aside from it being nearly over, and that is the fact that Christmas is near.

In spite of forces that might militate against it, there’s a certain sense of Christmas spirit this year that I haven’t felt for a while, evident of the seemingly uptick in Christmas lights that shine from front lawns this year. Oddly, or perhaps not so, it’s a similar situation today, as it was in December of 1931.

It was a tough time for Americans. The nation was amid an economic privation so merciless that history acknowledges it as “The Great Depression”. There were those who prospered during the depression, yet most suffered in some way, shape, or form. For some, it was just another day of destitution, for others, however, the Christmas season was a bright, shining star that glowed bright in the dark world around it.

In an uplifting article from the Glencoe Enterprise, dated in December of 1931, Author Win. V. Working wrote a reflection piece on the struggles of the time and the hope that the Christmas season brought to a struggling world. When people could not afford gifts, McLeod County merchants greatly reduced their prices to make their goods affordable for everyone. He wrote “It has been said that a corporation has no soul. Certainly, the large outside firms are lacking the human qualities that we find in our local merchants. It has been demonstrated to us this year that they are our real friends and the ones on whom we may rely in time of stress. As a result of this, the Christmas spirit really seems to be more in evidence this year than in former years. Adversity brings us closer together, and while the present situation is of little import when compared to a real disaster, the pinch has been sufficient to bring out the facts cited”.

In a troubling time, Working also noted that though things were tough, the situation was not so bad as it was for the early settlers in McLeod County, especially those who struggled through the financial panic of the late 1850s. During the panic, money was nonexistent in Minnesota and most communities operated on a system of barter. To make matters worse, spring crops were at the mercy of Rocky Mountain Grasshoppers that could devour a field, coupled with a string of late frosts, those living on the frontier at the time faced the reality of starvation as well as poverty. Working cited a quote from an unnamed pioneer who, in December of 1857, wrote “Times are hard and there will be much suffering this winter if prospects do not become brighter toward spring. I do not know what many of the people here will do as they have no money and little chance to earn enough to provide for the families”.

It’s odd how we, as humans, tend to look to the past for comfort in the present. Today, we look back at the Spanish Flu Pandemic, or the Great Depression as if to say, “at least it isn’t that bad”, and for Win V. Working and those of his time, they looked back to the generations before they in order to say the same. Perhaps looking to the past for comfort is merely a part of human nature.

To close, I’ll offer the words of our cited author, “It is a good thing for us to have a little hard luck one in a while, if only to cause us to more fully appreciate life’s values. The men and women of the early years knew more of life than we. They were in direct and constant contact with its realities. Their pleasures were few and simple but were enhanced by the contrast to their workaday lives. We might all be happier if we could go back to the plain living and the modest objectives of the pioneer days. Still, with a proper appreciation of these facts, we may better enjoy our present circumstances.”