"Christmas seems to have been always with us. It is that time of
year when we expect good cheer and goodwill, a moment's respite
from the year's vicissitudes, solace during difficult times,"
writes James Ballowe in his introduction to Christmas in Illinois.
This book is about the holiday as remembered by Illinoisans. Some
are widely familiar--John W. Allen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sandra
Cisneros, Mike Royko, Carl Sandburg, Joseph Smith--but most are
known only in their close-knit communities that together represent
the very best of the Prairie State. We learn here about the customs
of Christmas from Chicago to Cairo, Belleville to Danville, before
statehood to the present day, through hard times and good. Tales,
poems, news reports, memoirs, recipes, and images are arranged in
sections on Christmas in Illinois history, living traditions, songs
and symbols, Christmas outdoors, eating merrily, and memories. We
see how bright an occasion Christmas has been, and sometimes
amusing, raucous, or even dark. The collection's highlights include
Chicago's Christmas tree ship, Peoria's Santa Parade, Rockford's
Julotta service, a Victorian holiday in Bloomington, and Audubon's
1810 Christmas on the Cache River. Nature writers detail holiday
bird-watching expeditions along the North Shore and in deepest
southern Illinois. A letter from a member of the 130th Illinois
Infantry captures Christmas Day 1863, and Jack McReynolds recalls
West Frankfort's 1951 Orient Number Two mine disaster that
thereafter haunted the holiday for him and many others. The holiday
table is not neglected, with traditional recipes for wild game,
pickled herring, and all manner of Christmas cookies. A wide array
of illustrations includes images of Chicago's grand State Street
parade, the Santa Lucia celebration at Bishop Hill, Belleville's
Santa Claus House, Millikin University's Vespers tradition, the
University of Illinois madrigal singers, Studs Terkel singing songs
of good cheer, and the holiday art of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Heat up
some cider, put a log on the fire, and curl up with Christmas in
Illinois to share the holiday with friends both old and new.
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