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My Antique St. Nicholas Books Surprised Me with Fun “How-To” Craft Ideas

December 23, 2021

You know how I mentioned that I’m trying to slow down and focus this Christmas? (You can read about it here.)

Well!

It just keeps paying off!

I Thought I Knew All the Important Stuff

Take a look at this arrangement I have on our sideboard…There are two antique books entitled St. Nicholas boosting one of the mercury glass trees.

I pull these two books out every Christmas and use them somewhere in my decorations.

But, guess what?

I’d never taken much time to explore them. Oh, I’ve taken cursory looks at them, but all I really knew was that they were my great-grandmother’s, they were old (1886 to be exact), and they were obviously about Christmas, hence the titles.

So, this year, in my attempt to focus on the details, I Googled the books.

Woah--Was I Surprised!

I was mistaken (which won’t be a surprise to the hubster, who excels at NOT being mistaken LOL). The books are a collection of articles from St. Nicholas Magazine, which was a popular monthly American children’s magazine. The magazine was founded by Scribner’s in 1873. The first editor was Mary Mapes Dodge, who continued until she died in 1905. Dodge published work by the country’s best writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Mark Twain. 

In the first issue, November 1873, Mary Mapes Dodge explained why she chose St. Nicholas for the name of the magazine:

“Is he not the boys’ and girls’ own Saint, the especial friend of young Americans?… And what is more, isn’t he the kindest, best, and jolliest old dear that ever was known?… He has attended so many heart-warmings in his long, long day that he glows without knowing it, and, coming as he does, at a holy time, casts a light upon the children’s faces that lasts from year to year…. Never to dim this light, young friends, by word or token, to make it even brighter, when we can, in good, pleasant helpful ways, and to clear away clouds that sometimes shut it out, is our aim and prayer.”

The magazines were chockful of stories, poems, beautiful illustrations, and puzzles. Dodge believed the magazine must not be “a milk-and-water variety of the periodicals for adults. In fact, it needs to be stronger, truer, bolder, more uncompromising than the other…. Most children…attend school. Their heads are strained and taxed with the day’s lessons. They do not want to be bothered nor amused nor petted. They just want to have their own way over their own magazine.”

At Dodge’s urging, many famous writers’ work appeared. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel Little Lord Fauntleroy first appeared as a St. Nicholas serial, beginning in the November 1885 issue. Some of the Fauntleroy stories are in the 1886 collection I have. Hodge’s novella Sara Crewe appeared in the December 1887 issue. Other novels serialized in St. Nicholas were Louisa May Alcott’s Eight Cousins and Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer Abroad. Dodge asked Rudyard Kipling to do a fiction series, and he sent her the Jungle Book stories.

Here’s What They Were Crafting…

Here are a couple of pages taken from a how-to article Ella S. Welch wrote (and illustrated!) on making Christmas gifts. In the article Welch writes,

“Everyone know that a gift that comes with the giver’s own loving care and labor wrought into it, has more real significance, and is often more appreciated than the costly presents that anyone with money can buy….All of the articles here named can be made by industrious young folk possessing taste and discrimination; and gifts, both useful and ornamental, may thus be prepared, at a very moderate expense for material, but in a way that will well express affectionate good-will.”

I wonder, does anyone make egg cozeys anymore? It’s a shame if no one does. I mean, how are we keeping our boiled eggs warm?

Exceptional Artwork & A Handy Service

The art that graces these books (originally magazines) is absolutely gorgeous. From the start, a regular team of artists and wood engravers’ work beautifully illustrated St. Nicholas.

Reginald Bathurst Birch, an English-American, did these illustrations for the 1886 novel Little Lord Fauntleroy, and they propelled him to fame. Fun fact: these drawings started a craze in juvenile fashion.

For a small fee, subscribers could send six issues off to be bound into a hard-back volume, with crimson covers and a gold-stamped title, like the three books I’ve inherited. These bound volumes are available through used book sellers.

So, What Did I Accomplish?

Yes, there were other things I could have been accomplishing when I sat down with these books, but I’m so glad I took the time to go a little deeper. (And, frankly, I’m a bit embarrassed that I never researched it before! Good grief, you can find out anything with a few taps of the keyboard. It’s not like it took me hours to dig it out.)

Over the next couple of days, since we’re having a low-key Christmastime, I plan to sit down and sip some hot homemade apple cider (see my recipe here) while I enjoy more stories and art in these amazing treasures I have.

Do you have any Christmas treasures from your ancestors? What do you think will be the treasures you’ll pass along? Please share in the comments!

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