The Pioneer Doll's Christmas Tree

Left, these simple decorations fashioned from oven bake clay, paper, cotton and toothpicks are easy to make for
our pioneer, Ingle's family dolls. Right, Ma Ingle's stands next to an unadorned, faux fir tree. This Christmas tree
comes with red berry tipped branches and it's trunk is wrapped with burlap fabric and a red velvet bow. Ma will
 be trimming her tree the night before Christmas while her children sleep at our house. This is because - many
early settlers in America believed that Santa brought their Christmas trees! So the parents had to be prepared
to spend Christmas Eve lending a hand to that dear old elf.

       Even though pioneer Christmas trees did not have electric lights or fancy glass baubles, their simply adorned branches exuded an unsophisticated charm. 

       The little ones gathered about these rustic decorated trees felt no fewer pangs of anticipation for Christmas morning than children do today. The little gifts of candy and homemade toys that Santa brought the humble pioneers were just as magical to them as are the complicated factory toys given to modern children in 2019!

Left, colorful paper was expensive in Laura's time. People did not toss it out when it could be recycled into
something else, like paper chain garlands. Right, Did you know that pioneers had popcorn?
The Native Americans first introduced popcorn to American settlers. But it was the pioneers that
 first decided to string it into garlands and wrap it around the branches of their Christmas trees!

       In order to make the faux popcorn garland: roll tiny balls of clay and stick a few together. Then string these popcorn shapes with a needle and white thread before baking the popcorn garland in a 270 degree oven for four to five minutes.

The tiny the paper chains, the cuter these look on the doll's Christmas tree.

       To make the paper chains: simply cut long narrow strips of colorful papers in red, green and white. Cut these in regular lengths and curl their ends together until these meet. Add a tiny drop of white school glue to one end and tack it onto the other end to make one link. Then take the next strip of paper and stick it through that link and repeat the process, over and over again. 

       You may need to hold the ends together temporarily with a small pair of tweezers, before the glue dries. Then proceed as described.

Above is a miniature manger and baby Jesus made to mount on top of our doll's pioneer Christmas tree. 

       The miniature creche above was made using toothpicks, tacky white glue, a wooden bead for the baby Jesus' head, some cotton ball fluff for his body and a tiny piece of wired tinsel stem for his halo. I mounted the toothpick manger onto a larger skewer so that the tree topper could be easily poked down through the tree's branches. The faux hay was made from wood shavings. 

       Some pioneers were quite talented at working with wood. They often had to build their own cabins and if they wanted to furnish these, they also needed to build their own furniture. 

       Laura talks about her father's carpentry skills in many of the Little House books. Therefore, it is fairly believable that pioneers might carve or craft small wooden ornaments for the tree and for the toys beneath the Christmas tree.

Left, tiny clay gingerbread men are outlined in white puff paints to make them look like they are decorated
with real icing. They also have tiny candy-like trims glued on their chests to mimic buttons. Right, this faux
tree has it's trunk wrapped temporarily with burlap. Perhaps, Ma and Pa plan to replant it next to their cabin
in the woods after Christmas day?

       Folks who lived prior to the Ingles family decorated their Christmas trees using gingerbread or sugar cookies. In fact, these were some of the earliest decorations (along with bows) ever used to trim Christmas trees.

More About a Pioneer's Christmas:

• A Pioneer Christmas
• Getting Christmas Dinner On a Ranch by Theodore Roosevelt
• Frontier Christmas at Fort Sisseton
• Find puzzles, cut paper-chains, learn rhymes