Over the years, I've shared accounts of Christmases past for your reading pleasure--and in case you want to share them with your students. For your reading pleasure:
Christmas 1873 shares a report on Helena's Christmas happenings in the Helena Weekly Herald.
What was Christmas like in Montana Territory? shares excerpts from Dave Walter's Christmastime in Montana, including an account of William Thompson's first Montana Christmas in 1863 and newspaper accounts of Christmas in Bozeman in 1867 and in Helena in 1868.
Christmas, 1910 shares Edna Patterson's reminiscence about Christmas on her parents' homestead outside of Glendive (also from Dave Walter's book).
Santa Claus Didn't Come to the Gallatin Valley in 1864 offers excerpts from a letter that Homer Thomas wrote from his family's farm in the Gallatin Valley to his grandmother back in Belleville Illinois in 1864.
P.S. Looking for a great holiday activity? Consider asking your students to shop for presents in the historic newspapers. Choose an era and location (or let them choose) and turn them loose to explore the advertisements. I usually suggest they buy something for themselves and something for an important adult in their life. The Montana Historical Society Library has digitized almost three million pages from over 250 Montana newspapers published between 1864 and 2018. Chronicling America makes millions pages from newspapers published between 1756 and 1963 in nearly every state and US territory.
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