Remembering Christmases past is part of many holiday traditions, often bringing happy memories of a simpler time when gifts were scarce but love was in abundance.

 

Mary Keske, Clearwater resident for 61 years, grew up in the middle of 11 kids; eight sisters and three brothers. Born on a farm in St. Joseph, the family moved to St. Cloud and then Clear Lake.

 

“At Christmas, we would go out in the woods and cut down a cedar tree,” said Keske. “We kids made ornaments and strung popcorn for garland, although we’d eat more of it than made it on the tree.”

 

Her parents, Barney and Alice Maleska, came to the United States from Poland, bringing with them holiday traditions such as making blood sausage, liver sausage and head cheese. The Christmas meal would include some type of wild meat like deer or turkey.

 

St. Nick would visit St. Mary’s Catholic School in St. Cloud each Dec. 5, and Keske would take part in their annual Christmas plays. The school children would also go caroling around town.

 

A neighbor would dress up as Santa and come to the house, bringing the kids peppermint candy canes and chocolates. On Christmas Eve, the kids would put out their regular socks for Santa to fill with goodies, usually small things like candy.

 

“For Christmas gifts, we’d get stockings and handkerchiefs,” said Keske. “Whatever my parents could afford. When I was around six I received a pair of metal roller skates however. Those were a favorite.”

 

The schools would give things like dolls and sleds to those who couldn’t afford presents.

 

Midnight mass at the original St. Luke’s Catholic Church in downtown Clearwater was attended each Christmas Eve. The service was in Latin. 

 

Keske has especially fond memories of the barn dances.

 

“We would take the sleigh and horses and go to different people’s barns and people would play music,” she said. “That was a lot of fun.”

 

After she and her husband, Harold, were married in 1957 they moved to Clearwater and raised two children; a third child passed away.

 

Along with decorating an indoor Christmas tree during the holidays, they’d also decorate the two large trees that stood in front of their rural home.

 

Baking, which Keske still does, was an important part of the season. Gingerbread men and butter cookies were their favorite.

 

Merte Gohman grew up in Clearwater one of 12 children born to Edward and Margret “Ma” Mooney. She remembers the Nativity plays the students would perform in the Masonic Hall.

 

“The old backdrop would shake and sometimes fall down,” she said.

 

Gohman’s family also attended midnight mass at St. Luke’s. After the service, they would come home and eat the ham and beans her mom had been cooking all day.

 

Presents weren’t opened until Christmas morning. As they didn’t have much money, her mom would borrow from relatives to buy presents. They always got bags filled with hard candy, nuts and apples; many of their toys were homemade. 

 

Gohman’s teacher would bring her clothes.

 

Downtown Clearwater was always decorated with Christmas lights and carols would be playing outside from music hooked up in Kniss’s store. The family got their Christmas trees from the Ellis store at the end of the season for 50 cents; all that would be left were the “Charlie Browns.”

 

One of Gohman’s favorite Christmas memories was the year her sister was working in the Twin Cities and bought all the sisters white figure skates. They’d only had black boys’ skates before, so they were thrilled.

 

Born in the middle of the depression in 1934, Regina (Van Havermaet) Coehn grew up in a family of eight siblings. On Christmas Eve, the children would hear hoof beats on the roof and in the morning, there would be sleigh and hoof prints in the yard.

 

They would place their regular socks under the tree and wake up to find them filled with apples, oranges, nuts and candy. A little plate of candy would be sitting by each child’s breakfast plate. They would usually receive things they needed, like clothes.

 

A favorite Christmas gift one year was a doll that could open and close her eyes.

 

“I was so excited,” said Coehn. “It wasn’t a new doll, but it was new to me.”

 

She remembers singing carols in school, sleeping through midnight mass and going into town to visit Santa, who would give them bags of candy.

 

When she was in first grade, her teacher brought her uptown and bought her a complete outfit, including shoes and underwear. Coehn left the store skipping and holding her hand.

 

“We had a good life,” said Coehn. “I look back and don’t think we missed out on anything. I think we learned a lot from not having a lot.”