Nome citizens remember Christmases gone by
The ghost of Christmas past has come to Nome! We collected some long-term Nomeites’ favorite Christmas memories for a glimpse of Nome Christmases through the ages.
Kay McIver Hansen, a former librarian at the Northwest Campus remembered a variety of Christmas festivities that stretched back into decades long past. In her words, here are her memories: “I’ve seen many changes. When lights and decorations were very scarce in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s you may have seen one or two lights in people’s windows.
We had a very large family and lots of relatives in Nome. McIvers , Doyles, Towners and Osts were about 30+ people.
We had wonderful family dinners and get togethers. Usually the Handelands, Nerlands and Amundsens were part of family times.
Every year our youth group or the Covenant church ladies would go around town caroling.
Before the Council Road was improved in the 60’s and 70’s we got our Christmas tree from the Covenant Children’s Home in White Mountain. Juhl Mattson or Ken Anderson cut, tied and sent trees to Nome families by plane.
Our Covenant Church had Swedish traditions and programs. One being Julotta an early Christmas morning service. Roald Amundsen and Paul Carlson were early pastors. The church gave a bag of hard candy and large, delicious apples to each person.
The toyland at the Nome Hardware was special. Larry Galvin owned the store and it was about the only time people could shop for toys. Cavota’s Arctic Trading Post had some gifts, Dorothy’s and Polar Curio also had upscale
gifts. Mainly gifts were ordered from the Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Wards catalog.
Every year the kids in Nome would line up downtown near the US Merc to see Santa and get a red net candy stocking.
The entire school had a Christmas program, play and choir in the gym.
Every family came. All of our community events were held in the gym.
We didn’t have a TV, snow machines, cell phone or computer. Most kids my age had to work and anytime we had spare time we loved to play outdoors.
My mother, Lois McIver, was an excellent cook and baker. She was very careful never to burn a batch of Swedish cookies. She would bake many, many varieties of cookies and we would take boxes to friends’ homes for Christmas.
Mother cooked at Bluff when she was a girl of 18 and also had cooking classes for young women of Nome in the 50’s and 60’s besides cooking for her large family of nine.
In my family there were seven girls so just to have any left-over cookies for us she had to hide them out in the greenhouse in large KLIM or Spry cans.
Later in the 60’s when Jim [Hansen] and I were married, we got to share Christmas with our children Erin, Heidi and Peter and their families.
We love the downtown street lights the city of Nome has provided for many, many years. Downtown Nome is the prettiest Christmas street in Alaska.
Merry Christmas to the town we love! Wishing good health and happiness in 2024.”
Sandi Keller, the recently retired cultural teacher at the Elementary school remembered Christmases that took her through the Bering Strait region. “My favorite Christmas memory from childhood would have to be going to Tin City Air Force base,” she said, “A lot of us would go by snowmachine and sled from Wales to Tin City by traveling around the mountains. I remember being all bundled up in the sled singing on the way. During the winter we were welcome to go to the base to go bowling, a movie theater, gym (Wales did not have one yet), make ceramic figurines, have soft serve ice cream cones and drink fountain drinks. What a special treat and so much fun! Christmas was even more special with a visit from Santa and presents for each child. The service men and women would always be so nice and friendly. Now that I am older I realize, with them being away from their families at Christmas time, we probably gave as much joy to them as they did to us!
It was such a highlight of my childhood to go there at Christmas time. Such a heartfelt, ‘make you sigh’, type of memory.”
Christina Perrigo, retired NomeBeltz secretary, remembered the contrast between a Christmas in the Lower 48 and Christmas in Nome. “I grew up in a little town in New Hampshire,” she said. “Our town had many trees, oaks, maples, elms, spruce but mostly pines that I remember. The pine trees grew very tall and when the wind blew, the pine needles gave a different song than the waving and rustling of the leaved trees. It was a soothing sound. A spruce from our property was easily cut down for our Christmas tree.
When I moved to Nome as an eighteen-year-old, I left those trees. The family I lived with had a different tradition for their Christmas tree. About 2-3 weeks before Christmas day, a willow was cut down and brought into the house and placed into a container of water. Simple decorations and tiny lights were hung around the stark, bare branches. Soon, the water and the warmth of the house caused new leaves to begin to grow and they joined the trees ornamentation. I loved everything about my new life in Nome and easily fit into the life of this new family. They called it “The Resurrection Tree.” It truly seemed like a miraculous resurrection from the frozen, lifeless looking tree cut from the snow-drifted tundra to the bright, light green leaves and furry catkins on Christmas Day. With the Nativity scene reminding us of the miraculous birth of Jesus, “The Resurrection Tree” was in unspoiled harmony with the reason for the season.
Finally, Nome-grown Rosa Wright, a math teacher at NomeBeltz Middle/High School, recalled a Nome Christmas Eve. “Every year, I would beg my parents to take us to Midnight Mass so we could get to stay up past our bedtime,” she said, “I loved the late night ambiance. Usually music would start before mass, so there would be Christmas songs and the King Island Choir would sing. After church, we would walk home and look at all the stars. Most years the sky happened to be clear. I don’t really remember there ever being a big storm on Christmas. It also marked around the time we were going to start gaining daylight, so there was also extra excitement for more outside time in the light.”