North Dakotan Christmas Traditions
Christmas and holidays in general mean a gathering time for families. In our North Dakotan region, holidays are a time for a melding of the three main ancestries on the dinner table and even in the Christmastime activities.
North Dakota is up to 9% Swedish, 29% Norwegian, and 45% German, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey in September of 2017.
Those three ancestral groups blend seamlessly in the holiday season.
Often found at the end of Thanksgiving, advent calendars with little chocolate figures of bells, stars, and other assorted Christmastime symbols behind little doors that are opened and the chocolates eaten each day of December. That practice can trace its roots all the way back to early 1900. Dwight D. Eisenhower is famous for his practice of opening an advent calendar with his grandchildren during his presidency. Advent calendar sales in the United States spiked after the press caught the historical photo of Susan, David, and Barbara Eisenhower with their advent calendar.
Another edible German Christmastime tradition is called Christmas Stollen, or ‘Christstollen.’ According to German native Kimberly Killebrew, this dessert can trace its roots back to the 1300s and Dresden, Germany. Christstollen is a heavy yeast bread studded throughout with candied fruits and nuts soaked in rum, which is said to give it its rich flavor. It wasn’t always that way, though. Until 1650, Christstollen was a hard, plain pastry because the use of butter and milk were forbidden during the season. After Prince Ernst Von Sachsen acted on the request of the bakers in Dresden and petitioned the pope to lift the ‘butter ban’ in 1329, things didn’t change for about 160 years. Five popes
later, the ban was lifted in 1490 with the famous ‘butterbrief.’ Since then, the stollen recipe and other sweet breads began to change for the sweeter.
Not only is the stollen of today a delicious dish to share with the whole family, as most recipes make two large loaves, but it also looks like a swaddled baby reminiscent of the baby Jesus; after the bread is baked, it is layered with melted butter and powdered sugar, and appears to be swaddled in a clean white blanket. It tastes good, feeds many people, and looks like the reason for the seasonChristmas food can’t get much better than that.
While it’s not edible, a yearly North Dakota Christmastime tradition like the Medora Christmas Tour is the Santa Village at the Rheault Farm in Fargo, owned and operated by the Fargo Parks district. At the Santa Village, you can “Meet Santa, decorate a cookie with Mrs. Claus, see the model train displays and live reindeer, enjoy the holiday light displays, make a craft project, write a letter to Santa, ride a horsedrawn carriage and make memories together as a family,” according to the Fargo Parks District.
‘Fargo’s version of the North Pole’ begins the end of November until just before Christmas Eve, and this event raises money for the Giving Tree of Hope and Children’s Miracle Network of Fargo’s Sanford’s Children Hospital. In addition to the money, Santa Village also encourages guests to bring donations of canned food items, which are donated to the Great Plains Food Bank. Furthermore, new or gently used toys are given to the YMCA 21st Century Community Learning Center.
Those letters to Santa are delivered to Macy’s, who then donates $1 per letter to the North Dakota Make A Wish Foundation.
The Village takes place on a farm called ‘Rheault Farm,’ which is a 15-acre enclosed farm site. “The house and barn were originally built in 1919 by owner Sanford Johnson with brick from Fargo Brick Co. Ernest Rheault bought the farm in 1949 and his son George continued to farm the land until 1979 when it was acquired by the Fargo Park District,” according to the Fargo Parks District. See their website for exact hours as they vary between week days and weekends.
The remaining large portion of North Dakota residents have either Norwegian or Swedish ancestry, and while both regions have their own special Christmastime desserts, like Krumkake and lefse for the Norwegian side and Pepparkakor or gingerbread cookies for the Swedish side, there is one recipe that they both lay claim to, and it’s no wonder. Kringalas or Kringlas are a delicious sweet bread that are a Christmastime staple in our house.
They’re shaped traditionally into a figure-8, but a fun thing to do (if you make Kringala out of season like me) is shape them into your family’s brand or any other shapes that you or your child can dream up. Since their origin is hotly debated among the Norwegians and Swedes, we can safely say that many North Dakotans can claim kringala-baking ancestry from either the Norwegian or Swedish sides - perhaps even both!
A large part of all our region, no matter the ancestry, can claim near or distant farming relatives. Since the most efficient way to transport grain is by railroad, we see a lot of trains. Most of those belong to the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was the result of a campaign promise. In 1867, four of the six Canadian provinces joined together to create the country of Canada: Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec. A few years later, Manitoba and the huge region of the Northwest Territories joined the new country. The one province left was British Columbia, and Canada’s prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald promised that within ten years of their joining, a railroad would be built to join the provinces together.
The result was the Canadian Pacific Railway, although sailing was not as smooth as it sounds. The long journey to a railroad and a railway company ended on November 7, 1885, when company director Donald A. Smith drove the last spike into the tracks at Craigellachie, British Columbia.
The CPR, as the Canadian Pacific Railway is known, has contributed to numerous different efforts, including settling Canada with readymade farms, a military unit called “Strathcona’s Horse,” ‘school cars’ that were an education by rail, mining explorations, manufacturing, telecommunications, oil and gas explorations, and finally assisting the fight against hunger since 1999.
Fighting hunger for the CPR means decorating a train with bright lights and a fancy car with a ‘stage door’ that lowers to reveal a band! The band plays songs for about half an hour, and during that time, people can walk around the brightly decorated car and drop off the canned goods that are the admission fee, and even enjoy Christmas goodies while the band sings and plays.
Between the unique North Dakotan holiday activities like the Santa Village, Medora Christmas tour, and the Holiday Train, and those shared between the three major ancestral groups in our state, we North Dakotans enjoy a Christmas richly overlaid with a flavorful layer of traditions.
Whatever your tradition, may it find you with family, friends and faith.