Helen Best: the spirit of Christmas lives all year

By Cara L. Dempski

GLENWOOD CITY — Helen Best, at the age of 92, still takes pride in making Christmas gifts for her family.

The Glenwood City resident proudly showed off a photograph of one of her great-granddaughters wearing a hat Best made for Christmas nine years ago.

“Her mother said she didn’t take it off all day,” Best said of the smiling girl in the picture. “She wore it for many years.”

 Even though she still likes to “keep her family in hats, mittens, and socks,” Best uses her talent with knitting needles, yarn, and crochet hooks to spread warmth and care to others in Glenwood City and the surrounding area. She participates in the Glen Hills Parish United Methodist Church’s knitting and crocheting group, which meets in Downing every Sunday evening at 6 p.m.

She is just as willing to teach others how to make gifts for others as she is to make things she knows her family will love. The items she makes? Well, those are given to family and friends or donated for use by anyone who really needs warmth. They are donated to charity groups or put into mission shipments from the church.

You could say she keeps the spirit of Christmas all year round.

Growing up

Helen Best grew up in Glenwood City in the house she still lives in. She and her late husband purchased the home and moved back to the community after her father died in 1983. Best explained that she and her husband expanded the kitchen area of the home when they moved in, but otherwise the house is the same as it was in her childhood.

Best recalls the Christmas trees her family had being too large to fit into the main room of the home, so they were put in the kitchen. Santa Claus left gifts under the tree, just like he would if the tree had been in the living area.

“We never had much, but we always had Christmas gifts,” Best stated. “My mother made almost everything we got.”

She said her mother worked hard to make sure she and her siblings had hats, mittens, and socks to keep them warm, but that did not mean that there were not a few “fun” gifts under the Christmas tree. 

Best also grew up watching her mother make gloves and mittens and hats for people in Glenwood City, and keeps a pair of gloves her mother made before her 1976 death.

“There were quite a few people around town who had a pair like these,” Best said as she touched the detailed cable stitching that adorn the back of the gloves.

The Glenwood woman said her mother taught her how to knit and crochet when she was still a child. Best stated she has enjoyed the work every since.

Christmas favorites

Christmas is one of Best’s favorite holidays and always has been. She enjoys going to church and said she likes playing hand bells for Christmas carols (along with other songs throughout the year). Best also enjoys listening to Christmas carols.

As a child, she participated in annual Christmas programs, which involved singing songs, a short play about the meaning of the season, and speaking about the holiday season.

She enjoyed getting together with her family, but admits that there was sometimes too large a group of aunts, uncles and cousins for everyone to fit together in one place during the holiday season. Both her parents came from families with 10 children, which meant celebrations were often very large affairs.

Best liked spending the day with her family, which is something she still enjoys, and the treats her mother would bake for the occasion.

“We ate what she had on hand for dinner, but she always baked cookies or something as a treat,” Best explained. 

Sharing her talent

Best grew up, graduated from Glenwood City High School, and followed her older brother to the Milwaukee area. There, she met her husband, started a family, and eventually started a career with JC Penney’s mail order catalog.

One constant, though, was her continued love of making things for others. Best continued to make items for her children for Christmas. As the family prospered, there were other gifts available, but it always seemed her children, and eventually grand children and great-grandchildren, cherished the items she made with her own two hands the most.

These days, Best gives gifts to her ever-expanding family in much the same way her mother used to, by putting her time and energy into items given from the heart.

When she is not making gifts for family or working for her church group, Best likes to work on more projects for herself. She was in the process of getting items ready for Glen Hills Parish’s annual cookie walk and bake sale when she was interviewed.

She said she hopes the items fetch a good price for the annual fundraiser.

As for her Christmas celebration this year, Best is hoping to spend it with family, as she has since she was a small child.