If you've lived near Lake Michigan long enough, you will have heard or read something about the Christmas Tree ships. This year, the Christmas Tree Ship arrived on December 3 at Navy Pier, welcomed by escort boats, a band, school choirs and throngs of children with their families.

United States Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw currently brings the Christmas trees for distribution to disadvantaged youngsters, but the Mackinaw is simply re-creating a long-standing tradition on the Great Lakes.

Christmas as we celebrate it today wasn't embraced by America until the mid-1800's. Our Puritan forefathers strictly forbade merry-making at Christmas time and December 25 wasn't declared a federal holiday until 1870. Christmas festivities were more common in the southern states and after the Civil War the custom of celebrating Christmas spread across the country.

Along with the celebration of Christmas came the Christmas Tree. Swaths of pine trees grew in the forests of northern Wisconsin, easy to harvest and sometimes even available for free. Retailers got the buyers lined up and all a resourceful person needed to do was get the trees from Wisconsin to Chicago. In the last half of the nineteenth century, that meant moving them by ship during the golden age of Great Lakes sailing.

Unfortunately, November is a treacherous month on Lake Michigan and many a ship loaded with Wisconsin pines never made it to the Chicago port. The Christmas Tree run was usually the last trip a captain made before the ice and snow made sailing impossible and it was always a calculated risk. If successful, the captain stood to make a profit almost as much as he earned during the whole rest of the year, but if a storm should blow up, he could lose both his profit and as his life.

The Rouse Simmons with Captain Herman Schuenemann at the helm is the subject of a well-known Christmas Tree Ship story. The Captain's older brother went down with his ship on a Christmas Tree run and the Rouse Simmons disappeared with her cargo and Captain Herman in 1912. The Captain's widow and daughters continued with the family business for a few years, stringing the new ship with lights and tying a pine tree to the top of the tallest mast in keeping with the Christmas Tree Ship tradition.

If you'd like to read more about the Rouse Simmons and the other Christmas Tree Ships, there are several good books available on the subject that would make excellent holiday gifts:

The Historic Christmas Tree Ship: A True Story of Faith, Hope and Love by Rochelle Pennington

The Christmas Tree Ship: The Story of Captain Santa by Rochelle Pennington

Lives and Legends of the Christmas Tree Ships by Fred Neuschel

Lutefisk for Christmas

In 1870, during what is known as the Golden Age of Great Lakes Sailing, nearly 65% of sailors on the Great Lakes were Norwegian. Sailing was a skill that many men brought with them from Norway and since the vast majority of Norwegian immigrants settled in the upper Midwest of the United States, the Great Lakes were easily accessible.

During an eight year period around that time, more than 110,000 Norwegians came to America, a migration wave bested only by the Irish. A rapidly growing population faced with limited industrial growth led to large numbers of young people searching for greener pastures outside of Norway.

Most set out for America and many wound up in Minnesota, just like Garrison Keillor's jokes about Sven and Ole on his Prairie Home Companion radio show. The Norwegian immigrants celebrated Christmas as Twelfth night so they had ample opportunity for feasts, including sausages, flatbrød (flatbread), smultringer (doughnuts) and home-brewed ale.

Lutefisk, dried cod soaked in lye, was not necessarily a Christmas delicacy, but as the Norwegians became Americanized, they seized on lutefisk as a unique remainder from the old days and incorporated it into their Christmas traditions. In fact, Madison, Minnesota has a giant fiberglass cod statue named Lou T. Fisk to commemorate their standing as the Lutefisk Capital of the United States.

In the Days before "Just Say No" Came to Our Schools

While researching whiskey and black strap and the drinking habits of settlers in the 1800's, Kate found a few interesting stories in The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 2 by Paul Selby.

In the chapter on Kendall County, the writer tells some stories about school customs in the first half of the nineteenth century. Until larger number of German immigrants arrived, Christmas was not really a big deal. The Charles Dickens version became common only after Queen Victoria took up the custom from her German-born husband and most early Americans celebrated Christmas like an ordinary Sunday.

By the 1840's, however, customs started changing, and one odd one was called "Barring Out." A few days before Christmas, the pupils at the local one-room school would bar the door against the teacher until he promised them a treat for Christmas Day. Apparently, some students went even farther by throwing the teacher in the river, tying him up, or burying him in a snow bank. A few teachers resigned their positions rather than face the mob of students, but at least one "was forced to treat his pupils to 'blackstrap' and all the boys became drunk."

Everything You and Your Child or Grandchild Ever Wanted to Know About Christmas Trees

The University of Illinois Extension offers all sorts of interesting facts to know and places to go on their education web site "Christmas Trees and More."

The page was created for use by teachers in the classroom, but children and their families at home will find much to learn and do as well. Web site links include a virtual Christmas tree farm, holiday history and traditions, and the "Nation's Christmas Tree" in General Grant National Park.

Even if you don't have children to educate and entertain you will enjoy browsing the information available. It will provide you with some great cocktail party conversation at your next holiday event!