Our community has enjoyed the gigantic Christmas tree, thought to be the largest “real” Christmas tree in the state, in the Great Hall of the Purdue Memorial Union since the 1930s.  Early trees were brought in from Wisconsin by flatbed rail car and later trucked in from northern Indiana.  Then in 1975, a local man donated a tree and area residents have been providing them ever since.  When it is decorated, it is truly an awe inspiring sight and watching it being brought in is truly amazing.  The tree is pulled in through the entrance doors, trunk first by a group of men and hoisted into place by pulleys and a power winch.  It takes about 10 hours more or less to get it in the custom-made stand and anchored to a permanent hook in the ceiling.  Maintenance people decorate the top half from a scaffold, while students decorate the lower half.

Traditionally, the tree has been decorated with hundreds of lights, ball-shaped ornaments and icicles.  In 1982, while a group of school children were visiting, a pink baby mitten was suddenly discovered high in the tree.  The children were fascinated by the mitten and wanted to know where it came from.  No one knew the answer, but it has become a tradition to include a small pink mitten with the tree decorations ever since!  See if you can find it this year while the tree is up



More Christmas Traditions
A favorite local tradition is getting the candy canes that are handmade in McCord’s third floor candy kitchen.  Each year thousands ( a reputed 23,000 last year) are hand-rolled and shipped all over the world including Singapore, California, New York, Maine, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Vermont, and Hawaii. Here are some other traditions you may have been curious about: how did Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer get started.  I found out that it started with a staff copywriter named Robert L. May, who created him in 1939 as part of a Christmas sales promotion for Montgomery Ward. President Calvin Coolidge lighted the first national Christmas tree on the White House lawn in 1923.  Christmas cards evolved from a tradition in English boarding schools of sending a “Christmas Piece” home to show how well the student’s penmanship had progressed.  The first “real” Christmas card was sent in the early 1840s to raise money for a charity.  Mistletoe was hung in entrances or doorways because it was thought to frighten away evil spirits and lightning.  Holly was used to protect against witches and was thought to be symbolic of Christ’s crown of thorns.  Christmas was not a legal holiday in Indiana until 1875.  Mr. William Digby bought the land for his town of Lafayette at the Christmas Eve Land Sale held in Crawfordsville in 1824.  He paid the government price of $1.25 an acre.



Caroling!
Do you hear what I hear?  Music and caroling is very much a part of the holiday season in Lafayette-West Lafayette.  One of the more popular carols mentions “here we go a-wassailing”…have you ever wondered what this meant? A wassail bowl consisted of cooked apples, brown sugar, ale, sherry, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, eggs, and cognac—with buttered toast floating on the top.  A modern recipe from Williamsburg suggest you make it with 1/2 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 2 sticks cinnamon, 3 slices of lemon…boil these together for 5 minutes, and strain.  Heat, but do not boil, 1 pint cranberry juice with 1 pint lemon juice and 1 quart red wine.  Add the hot strained syrup and serve with lemon slices to serve about 20.  The original Wassail was offered when some of the less fortunate citizens traveled from door to door with their own bowls for refills of “a cup of good cheer”.  The tradition was that if you were lucky enough to get a piece of the toast, it would bring you good wishes and good fortune in the next year—thus came the tradition of offering a “toast”!  The Lafayette – West Lafayette Convention & Visitors Bureau’s toast to you is for the happiest of holiday seasons!