Ella Rassbach: childhood Christmases

By Cara L. Dempski

GLENWOOD CITY — Ella Rassbach grew up just four miles south of the village of Ridgeland, near what are now highways 64 and 25. 

While her father, Nels Delegard, was of Swedish ancestry, he grew up and lived in a Norwegian community in that area, and married a woman named Hannah who was of Norwegian descent. Many of the Christmas practices that made up Rassbach’s childhood were brought with the family from Norway.

For instance, Rassbach’s family did not put up a tree until the day before Christmas. 

“My father would go out with a sled, cut a tree, and bring it in,” Rassbach said. “We would decorate it.”

She recalls many different ornaments for the tree, but has the clearest memory of small clips that held candles to the tree’s branches. Rassbach said her family would light the candles on the tree, even though they were aware of the danger of fire.

Her family lived in one of the first homes in the area to have electric lights. Because the house was so far from a village or city, the electricity was generated by a series of batteries in the basement of the home. It produced just enough energy to light the home.

The batteries in the basement also produced enough electricity to power a string of electric lights to illuminate the Christmas tree. Rassbach said she does not remember her initial impression of the lights, but did say she found the colors pretty against the tree.

The family tree always stood in a section of the house between the dining room and the parlor. Rassbach said her maternal grandmother and uncle would come to the house for dinner after all the farm work was done for the day. Her mother would have meatballs and lutefisk prepared for the meal.

After everyone had eaten their fill and the dishes were cleared from the table, washed, and put away, the family gathered around the Christmas tree, joined hands, and sang “Silent Night, Holy Night.”

Then it was time to open presents.

“We never got a lot of Christmas presents,” Rassbach said.

One year, her grandmother knit socks for all the children. Inside one sock of each pair, Rassbach’s grandmother placed a miniature wine glass.

“We couldn’t have any wine,” she said, “but she gave us such pretty little glasses.”

Rassbach also recalls having two dolls to play with while growing up, Molly and Mae. She was not certain if both dolls were gifts given in the same year, but said she and her six siblings played with them all through their childhood.

Another gift Rassbach had fond memories of was a small, red wheelbarrow she could push around.

“We had great fun with it,” she recalled. “We would fill it and wheel it around like we were working on the farm.”

Every year, Rassbach and her sisters and brothers received new dresses and suits to wear for school Christmas programs. She said the grade school she attended with her siblings had a program and students needed to be dressed in their finest clothes to attend and perform.

“I remember my mother making dresses just from looking at the ones we liked in the catalogs,” Rassbach explained. “She would ask us what fabric we liked in the catalog and order it for us to make our new dresses.”

Overall, Rassbach said she has always been fond of Christmas and looks forward to spending the time with her family.