The holidays are upon us! I had barely dropped bags of Halloween candy into my shopping cart when I turned into the next aisle and was bombarded by a full-blown display of Christmas. The retail community had completely overlooked the day set aside for gratitude and giving thanks.
This revelation gave me pause, as I wondered how the celebration of Thanksgiving came about. Was it suggested by a group of civic-minded people or just one person? How was it decided to celebrate the day on the fourth Thursday in November?
So, like much of my research, down the rabbit hole I went. To my delight, I discovered once again it was a woman who led the campaign, giving us a day set to give thanks for the blessings and freedoms we enjoy today.
Suddenly finding herself a widow and single mother with children to support–including a brand-new baby–Sarah wrote a book, Northwood. Its success led to a job offer for the “editorship” of a new “ladies” magazine, turning Godey’s into one of the most important periodicals in 19th century America. Though it is now remembered primarily for its fashion plates, crafts, and household tidbits, it covered social issues as well.
Year after year, Godey’s Lady’s Book published the same plea. Each year the campaign brought new success. By 1851, 29 out of 31 states celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. However, not on the same day so she continued to insist the holiday be celebrated on the exact same day.
Despite her claims, she had not achieved the ultimate endorsement; a proclamation from the President. In 1861, with civil war looming, she focused on national unity as her strongest selling point.
Finally, under these conditions and the stress of considerable loss of life, a devastated Southern economy, and public support for the holiday, President Abraham Lincoln endorsed and proclaimed, “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelt in the heavens.” Furthermore, he stated, Americans should “fervently implore” blessings from the Almighty to “heal the wounds of the nations, and to restore it…to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.”
Successive presidents continued the tradition and proclaimed a yearly Thanksgiving at the end of every November. Still not satisfied, Hale’s magazine urged Congress to recognize the holiday. Unfortunately, she didn’t live to see the Congressional Proclamation of the Thanksgiving story (which finally took place in 1941), but by the 1870’s Thanksgiving was already a part of America’s culture.
The national holiday has become just what Sarah Josepha Hale envisioned: a celebration of home and hearth and the blessings for which we are grateful.
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Giveaway!
Two lucky winners will each receive an e-book edition of my upcoming release, “Ivy” Christmas Quilt Brides. Just leave a comment below telling me how you celebrate Thanksgiving in your home.
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Upcoming Release
He was the town bully.
She was his target.
Has anything changed?
Years ago, Ivy Sutton was drawn to the new orphan boy in town. Unfortunately, she soon became the focus of Grady Walsh’s mischievous deeds in school.
Ivy is back home in Harmony, Kansas for good but is she willing and able to forgive the boy who made her childhood unbearable?
Grady Walsh lost his heart to the sweet girl the day she gave him a quilt. Now, as a well-liked and respected tradesman in Harmony, can he make up for the reckless actions of his youth? Or will another steal er away before they have a chance to discover a kind of love that might heal the pain from the past?
Hi everyone! When I was trying to come up with what I would write about for this instalment of “MY FAVORITE THINGS” the first thing that came to mind was my family. So today, I wanted to tell you about my dogs, because they are a HUGE part of my family! My daughter, Jessica, often says I have more pictures of them than I do of her and her brother Casey—I think she is probably right.
My daughter adopted a little fluff ball rescue baby when she was in her mid-twenties, but she worked so much that he spent a lot of time over at “Grandma and Grandpa’s house” (my husband and me). His name was Embry and he grew from that little cute puppy to a 200 pound bruiser within a short time. He was a Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd mix. When Jessica was forced to move to a place with no fenced yard, Embry came to live with us permanently. When he was about 18 months old, he developed a condition called “steroid responsive meningitis” and nearly died. We took him to the Oklahoma State University Veterinary Teaching School Hospital and they knew exactly what it was. They treated him and saved his life, but that changed his temperament.
That breed of dog is very protective anyway, but he because the protector of all protectors. We had to keep him away from everyone but our immediate family. He loved us with all his heart, and we loved him the same way. He passed away at 9 ½ years old—much longer than anyone believed his life span would be with his health issues. I still miss that big ol’ boy. He took a piece of all of our hearts with him.
“just look” and he was not happy about it, but he did go with me. I had a friend who worked there at the shelter, and she brought out one of the dogs that Gary had said he “might” want to look at. Sammy came right over and sat on Gary’s feet and would not budge. When he looked up at Gary with those big brown soulful eyes, I knew he’d picked Gary out. When Gina tried to get him to come and go back into his cage, he whined and looked at Gary. I said, “Well, let’s go back into the back and look at the big dogs—” and Gary said, “There’s no need. I can’t go off and leave this one behind. He’s coming home with us.” It was meant to be, because Sweet Seminole Sammy had been adopted and returned for digging holes when the new owners left him alone in the back yard! We adopted him at 7 months, and he has been such a gift to us.
I just released my first Christmas book this year. Mrs. Pettigrew’s Christmas Match. And of course, you can’t write a Christmas story set in 1882 without doing a little research. Mrs. Pettigrew is a rich (make that very rich) widow and famous matchmaker. She’s throwing a small Christmas ball. The first social gathering she’s hosted since her husband died two years earlier. She’s hired a new maid, a young woman down on her luck who needs a job desperately to survive. And wouldn’t you know, there’s a handsome young man that lives three houses down who should be in want of a wife! It’s all the encouragement Mrs. Pettigrew needs to do a little warm-up before getting back into the matchmaking game. She does this by making the pair spend as much time together as she can manage by sending them off on errands together. But she never lets her “new maid” put on a maid’s uniform, and insinuates she’s a houseguest, not an employee. This puts our heroine in a pickle, and she can’t seem to find the opportunity to tell Mrs. Pettigrew’s handsome neighbor she’s just a servant. At least she gets to enjoy decorating Mrs. Pettigrew’s house and preparing for the ball! Now if she could just get a chance to tell our hero what she really is, she can same them both a lot of embarrassment. Mrs. Pettigrew sees to it she never gets the chance. Good thing I didn’t set the story back as far as the 1830s. There wasn’t a whole lot of decorating going on.
You see, Christmas back then wasn’t quite what it is now. The fact Christmas didn’t really start to flourish until the 1870’s says a lot. In fact, around 1830, most folks back east didn’t “do Christmas.” Hardly anyone decorated the inside of their home, and no one had a Christmas tree. If anyone did decorate, those decorations were sparse.
The winner of a signed copy of
Good Evening!
