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| Small town traditions | |||||||||||||||||||
| Small Midwestern towns celebrate their heritage during the holidays with an array of festivals | |||||||||||||||||||
| Published: Nov/Dec 2002 |
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| By Mike Michaelson | |||||||||||||||||||
Lindsborg, Kan. Tucked into a fertile valley amid the prairie of north-central Kansas, Lindsborg was settled by Swedish immigrants in 1869. It wears its ethnic heritage proudly, with a clutch of Swedish inns, restaurants, cafés, bakeries, and shops selling crafts and Scandinavian imports ranging from clogs, crystal and candelabra to trolls, tiles and tapes/CDs. Lucia has been a symbol of light and hope to Swedish people since the Middle Ages when she brought food to the hungry during the great famine. Each Dec. 13, she returns to herald the good news of Christmas. Lindsborg crowns its Lucia on Dec. 14 with church ceremonies, caroling, performances by Swedish dancers and a baked goods sale. Getting the season off to a bright start is the Lighting of the Iron Bridge–built in 1914 and one of the oldest actively used in Kansas. About 10,000 lights create a beautiful glow, and the evening continues with a candlelight procession downtown where trees are illuminated. Other holiday events include parades, merchant previews of holiday merchandise, home tours, Swedish-language church services and sights and sounds of an 1880s Christmas-on-the-Prairie. There’s a performance of “The Nutcracker” by the Wichita Metropolitan Ballet Company and an open chess tournament with Anatoly Karpov, the Russian who was world champion for 12 years. Wander around the pretty, scrubbed-clean town and you’ll spot many Dala (daw-la) horses traditionally painted red-orange with a white flower motif for saddle and reins. They are popularly used as name/number plates and signs identifying homes and businesses. They originated in the Dalarna province in central Sweden where generations of craft-people have carved and painted the small wooden horses. At the woodcrafting studio/shop of Hemslöjd, have a hand-carved, hand-painted Dala customized with your name. Galena, Ill. Nestled among the rolling hills of northwest Illinois, historic Galena is at its prettiest during the holidays. After a snowfall, it could have inspired a Currier & Ives scene. Real greens decorate lampposts, inns glow with candlelight, more than 150 shops and galleries beckon with warmth and good cheer and church bells ring out over the white countryside. It’s the perfect setting for Country Christmas, a festival that begins Friday after Thanksgiving and continues until Christmas. Galena, a time-warp town that grew from a lead-mining boomtown, has a mother lode of arts, crafts, antiques, stylish bistros, and charming bed-and-breakfast inns. Don’t miss the Ulysses S. Grant home which, on selected weekends over the holidays, opens for tours by the light of oil lamps. In 1865, the handsome, furnished, two-story Italianate brick mansion was a gift from the proud citizens of Galena to their returning Civil War hero. It has been restored to the way it appeared in drawings published in the Nov. 14, 1868 edition of “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.” Throughout the holiday season Galena showcases carolers (including a caroling competition), visits to Santa’s house and a display of lighted, decorated Christmas trees. Folk don period costume and dance to a 10-piece orchestra at the Victorian-style Mistletoe Ball, while Night of the Luminaria features the lighting of more than 5,000 luminaria tracing the riverfront levee, steps, hillsides and park. Taste of Christmas tours the parlors of four bed-and-breakfast inns, with live music, innkeepers in period costume and baked goods for sale. Find pottery demonstrations, food and wine tasting and a fine art auction. The Main Street Theater Company performs the classic tale, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” Hermann, Mo. Hermann is as German as knackwurst. Drive 90 minutes west of St. Louis and you’ll find the town perched along a stretch of the Missouri River resembling the Rhine Valley. Hermann has white-steepled churches and streets named for Goethe and Schiller. Vineyards climb steep limestone bluffs, restaurants serve heaping platters of sausage and red cabbage, sturdy brick houses crowd sidewalks. German is taught at the local high school and gemütlichkeit flows during holiday celebrations that include a Kristkindl Markt. Reminiscent of Christmas markets in Germany, booths brim with holiday merchandise and food ranging from delicate glass ornaments to local wines and sausages. Carolers serenade shoppers and the food stand serves steaming bowls of soup, homemade cookies and mugs of mulled cider. Stone Hill Winery is Missouri’s oldest and largest. It was established in 1847, and by the turn of the century was the nation’s second-largest winery. Take a tour and sample wines. A restaurant, Vintage, features German specialties, including wiener schnitzel. Other wineries in and around Hermann include Hermannhof, Adam Puchta, OakGlenn, Röbbler and Bias. Weihnachtsfest is an open house the first weekend of December at Deutschheim State Historic Site, which offers guided tours of two restored homes and interpretive exhibits of 19th-century life for German settlers. The event features craft demonstrations, 19th-century Christmas trees, vintage toys and German cookies, as well as a visit from Santa. Members of the German Settlement Society of Philadelphia, appalled at the loss of native customs and language among German settlers, migrated west and founded Hermann in the 1830s. They made Market Street 10 feet wider than its Philadelphia namesake, confident that Hermann was destined to become a bigger city. Today, more than 100 buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. A candlelight tour of Hermann’s beautiful historic homes in their holiday finery evokes an era when their original owners, wealthy riverboat captains and wine merchants, dispensed Yuletide hospitality. Madison, Ind.
This quaint river town in southeast Indiana packs into its leafy streets an appealing mix of quaint inns, bed-and-breakfasts, shops, eateries, and wineries, as well as a bounty of history and architecture. The largest historic district in Indiana incorporates 133 blocks listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Enjoy it with carriage rides that clip clop along beautifully decorated Main Street and candlelight tours of historic homes not usually open to the public. Celebrations include a parade and Festival of Christmas, a joyful celebration featuring area choirs performing at St. Michael the Archangel Church. One of Madison’s most popular holiday sights is illuminations along the riverfront. Festival of Lights begins in late November and continues through Christmas, with Santa visiting on weekends. Making wine has been part of the local heritage since 1802 when a group of Swiss immigrants established a winery about 20 miles east of Madison. By the middle of the 19th century, viticulture so flourished in the region that the stretch of the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Louisville became known as “The Rhineland of America.” Enjoy tours, tastings and holiday celebrations at the Thomas Family Winery, occupying a rehabbed 1850s stable and carriage house. In addition to wines that include Zinfandel, Riesling and Michigan cherry, the family-owned vineyard also produces a strong, dry cider. Madison Vineyards also celebrates the holidays. It produces a range of dry, off-dry and sparkling wines. Make a visit to one of these small Midwestern towns part of your holiday preparation. You’ll not only find gifts, you’ll make memories. |
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| Mike Michaelson is a contributor from Chicago, Ill. |
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