Old Fashioned Christmas For Hawley Students

By Tanjua Damon

The smoke from the chimney at Eleven The Boulevard could be seen from a distance. Inside the 1760 house, the story of an old fashioned Christmas was being told.

Ken and Heather Law entertained second graders from their son Carter’s class, under the direction of Tracy Fanelli at Hawley School, Tuesday to allow the children to see a historical home and the traditions of an old fashioned Christmas.

Mrs Law explained to the students that Christmas trees were not found in homes until the 1850s. The decorations on the tree in the kitchen where a fire was blazing were homemade and fit with an earlier time period. Dried oranges and apples were strung as well as a popcorn and cranberry garland. There were also baked ornaments shaped like gingerbread men.

The students were also able to see a British cannonball that has been traced to the Revolutionary War that the Laws found in their backyard.

After viewing the kitchen, the students were taken to the warming room, where a little fire would have been lit. In the olden days, women would give birth to their babies in the warming room, according to Mrs Law. Or it was a place for people who were ill to keep warm. During the spring and summer, families would also hang their salted meat there, since there were no refrigerators; or they would keep food in their spring houses, which were built underground.

Mr Law explained to the school children how the homes were made of little boxes.

“The framing and structure of the house is why they lasted so long,” he said.

The upstairs of the house proved to be different than the ones that are built today. The students noticed the difference in size, how the floor is slanted, and how narrow the halls are.

The second graders also saw an old fashioned iron, many questioning what it was as Mrs Law showed it to them.

After receiving their lesson on the 1760 home, the students enjoyed homemade bread with whipped butter and maple syrup from the Boulevard along with gingerbread cookies. Mr Law showed the students old letters from Charles Peck, who owned the home years before, as well as a Christmas party list from 1930.