REMEMBRANCES OF CHRISTMASES PAST – Margaret Wheeler recalls Norwegian treats and recipes from her youth
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MARGARET WHEELER
By Missy Klatt
Margaret Wheeler is currently a resident of Havenwood but grew up in Chippewa Falls. As she puts it “I was born in Chippewa, baptized, went to school in Chippewa, confirmed, graduated, married and when I die, I’ll go back to Chippewa.” Margaret was the middle child of Elnora and Howard Hall. Margaret states that her middle name was Mae, “and how I hated that middle name. You don’t even know how to spell May, it should be ‘y’ not ‘e’.” She has one older sister, Marcella, and one younger brother, James.
Margaret noted that her dad was a cook at Krause’s Cafe and he worked really hard but they never had a lot of money. However, she goes on to say that Santa always came.
Margaret recalls one gift that she received: “I was at the age where I was a little too big for dolls. But there was one in this hardware store, I absolutely loved her and Santa did bring her to me.” She goes on to describe the doll as a little girl with a pink lace dress with a straw hat that had a pink ribbon around it with a big bow. Margaret smiles and enthuses; “I love big bows!”
When Margaret was young she was a tomboy stating that she would much rather be outside than in the house (something that is still true today). So she never really helped her mom make Christmas treats when she was young but her mother made gingerbread boys, sugar cookies with sour cream in them, ice box cookies (a vanilla cookie with nuts that are made in to a long roll and left in the refrigerator all night long, when you take them out, you slice them up and bake them), lefse, krumkake, rosettes, fattigman, sandbakkels, and sod suppe (fruit soup).
As Margaret reads out the ingredients for the fruit soup, she let out a hardy laugh when she got to one of the later ingredients; amaretto liquor.
Margaret recalls when she was about 12 years old, she asked her dad if she and him could go pick up the Christmas tree one day after school. So they paid 50 cents for the tree and Margaret insisted on carrying the tree home.
“Now can you imagine people thinking that poor little girl, her dad’s making her carry the Christmas tree home. But I carried it home all by myself that day.” When asked if the tree was bigger than her, Margaret quips, “everything is bigger than me.” [Margaret is a petite woman].
Margaret goes on to say that they always put the tree up 15 days before Christmas and took it down 15 days after Christmas. This was her mom’s “rule”. “When she spoke, everyone listened, even my dad.” Margaret comments.
They would decorate the tree with lights, Christmas balls, homemade paper ornaments she made when she was younger and tinsel.
Margaret remembers Sunday School programs at Christmas time where she always got a new dress and black patent leather shoes that always had to have a buckle on them.
Besides getting a gift from Santa they always had stockings as well. “I think what I did, I took the longest sock I could find.” Margaret chuckles, “I don’t know if it was mother’s nylons.”
Nativity — Margaret proudly displays thsi nativity set that was given to her by her late daughter, Mary.
Margaret talks about the time when she was at the age (probably between 10 and 12) where she had doubts about whether Santa was real or not and she had to find out.
“I loved to snoop. We had a dresser and it was empty. I don’t know why I happened to open it one time around Christmas time and there were three apples and three oranges in there. Now my parents were very poor. They never bought these great big apples and great big oranges. They never bought those because they couldn’t afford them. And I thought I’ll just wait and see. If I get this apple and orange in my stocking, then I’ll know that it’s mom and dad and they are the Santa Clause. Sure enough it was my apple and orange.”
Margaret would also get a pair of new pajamas for Christmas. “Even after I was married, I got a pair of new pajamas for Christmas every year.” remarks Margaret
After they got married and moved out the whole family still had to get together at her mom and dad’s house. “That was mother’s thing, nobody had no excuse for not coming.”
When she was young they would have homemade chicken dumpling soup on Christmas day. “Mom made beautiful soup, oh that was good.” remembers Margaret. After her dad retired and everyone was coming on Christmas eve, her dad made spaghetti and meatballs, “It was good too!”
Margaret was first married to William (Bill) MacDonald in September of 1960. Sadly he died in 1971. In 1975, Margaret married Kipling (Kip) Wheeler. Between the two marriages, Margaret had six children; Mary, Linda, Deborah, John, Dale, and Robert.
When she was first married she would go to her mom’s house before Christmas and make krumkake, fattigman, and rosettes. Her mom helped her make all of those. They would do that every Christmas until her mom passed.
Bill was a fire fighter and he had to work every other Christmas Eve. So the Christmas Eve that he would have to work, they would spend with her parents and when he didn’t have to work they would spend Christmas Eve at his parents house.
Then on Christmas Day, Margaret’s mom and dad would come to her house for breakfast and then go to her sisters’ for dinner and to her brothers’ for supper.
Margaret recalls getting the kids ready for their Christmas programs. Talking about her son John, Margaret sighs and said,
“We’d dress him up so nice when he left the house, a white shirt and a little tie and pants and all. He would get on stage and his shirt would be hanging out in the back and his tie was crooked.”
Her kids would also get stockings every year for Christmas.
Another memory of Christmas that Margaret tells; after her father died, her daughter, Mary, would go to see her mother on Christmas Eve and set the table for Christmas Eve making it look really nice and she would go and sit down and come back and grandma would have it all messed up. Her daughter would say “grandma, don’t do that, leave it alone’ she never did,” Margaret chuckles.
Now a days Margaret still likes to decorate for Christmas. She said her nativity always goes up on the first day of Advent and put away after the 12 days of Christmas. She thinks it’s sad when people don’t have a nativity as part of their decorating.