A Soldier's Christmas

Peace on Earth. It’s such a central message of the Christmas season, but wars don’t stop for Christmas. Nor do they prevent Christmas from being celebrated by soldiers far from home fighting for that peace. In fact, many of our beloved Christmas traditions came out of wartime celebrations. Prior to the Revolutionary War, Christmas in America was a quiet religious occasion and not celebrated with a lot of outward festivities. Many historians credit the Hessian soldiers from Germany, who fought in America alongside the British, with introducing Christmas trees to the United States.

Decorated trees were just starting to catch on when the Civil War broke out, and at least one account records Civil War soldiers as decorating their tree with “hard tack and pork” – materials they had on hand, just as they would have used popcorn, dried fruit, pine cones, and homemade paper decorations had they been celebrating at home. Our modern vision of Santa Claus also comes out of the Civil War. Cartoonist Thomas Nast used his editorial drawings to express his political opinions and his image of Santa as a jolly fat man with a white beard in a fur-trimmed suit delivering gifts to the Union soldiers is the image that caught on and remains with us today, although Santa's suit has changed from the stars and stripes of the Nast version to the red velvet we know today.

Later generations of soldiers did their best to maintain established traditions that reminded them of home, with visits from Santa, wrapped gifts arriving from loved ones, decorations, and if possible a special Christmas meal.

On Saturday, November 24, 2012 the grounds and first floor of the Keith House at Graeme Park will be open for free tours from 3:00-8:00 p.m. with soldiers representing different wars encamped on the property demonstrating how Christmas was celebrated on the battlefront during different eras throughout our history. Crafts and refreshments will be available for purchase.

Call 215-343-0965 for details. Directions are available on our website at www.graemepark.org.

Reparations

Last weekend and yesterday Graeme Park and the HPHA hosted a student film crew from Drexel University working on a short film called Reparations, which is set in the south just after the Civil War. They shot their exteriors around the Penrose-Strawbridge House and used the dining room in the Keith House for an interior scene. In the film, former Confederate Colonel Henry Gibbs must deal with the repercussions of his actions during the war when his ex-lover and former slave Amos arrives at his doorstep demanding that Henry keep his promise to him in order to spare the lives of his wife and son.



Editor and Script Supervisor Lauren Ott putting the finishing touches on the actor playing Amos.



Director Gerard Nocco with the actors playing Henry and his wife.

The interior scene was shot in the Dining Room of the Keith House.

While filming was taking place in the Dining Room, the Director and crew could keep an eye on the action via a laptop set up in the Keith House Office.

Of course we had one of our busiest tour days in awhile on Saturday, with volunteer Jack Washington taking three tour groups of seven, five, and eight people through the house and around all of the equipment. Perhaps they saw the action going on at the house and thought they'd see Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford and quickly signed up to take the tour, but most likely it was just Murphy's Law at work. Despite the interuptions they were able to wrap up their interior filming in just one day and have now moved on to the editing process.We'll keep you updated if they share the finished product with us.

More information.