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November 26, 2007
Christmas Past on the Prairie
National Ranching Heritage Center brings history, holidays to life with two-day event.
Written by John Davis
Lights illuminate CLT Barton House at National Ranching Heritage Center as part of the annual "Candlelight at the Ranch."See more photos
She doesn’t mind the faces that press against the glass of her window.
Though the December wind can make the kitchen of the XIT Ranch headquarters cold, Donna Wright keeps warm by the wood-burning stove as she breaks into a waltz with her husband or pulls a pan of ginger cookies from the oven. She knows it’s not really 1886, but she does her best to make it a reality for her visitors.
Holiday tradition has given way to thoroughly modern madness at malls and discount stores. However, the National Ranching Heritage Center hopes to give South Plains residents a chance to see Christmas Past with the 29th Annual Candlelight at the Ranch.
The free event ran Friday (Dec. 7) and Saturday (Dec. 8) at the Ranching Heritage Center, 3121 Fourth Street.
“It’s not Christmas unless we do Candlelight,” said the 14-year veteran volunteer and native of West Texas. “Every time I go, I get a feeling that this could have been what my grandmother or my great-grandmother could have been doing. It can get bitterly cold, but you find out the warmth comes from the family, not from central heating. It’s great to hear young kids say ‘How cool is that,’ or hear some of the older people reminisce and talk about getting ready for Christmas used-to-be.”
Perhaps in the 1860s, Christmas on the plains meant stories and a cup of hot coffee around a blazing campfire for the cowboys or a decorated tumbleweed in the dirt-floored cabin of a farmer. By the turn of the 20th century, families gathered in the parlors of their homesteads to trim a freshly-cut pine tree that arrived by train. These scenes come to life through the volunteers' work, said Christy Lemons, manager of the center’s educational programs and coordinator for the event.
“This is our living Christmas card to the public,” Lemons said. “This year, our theme is the ‘12 Days of Christmas.’”
More than 8,600 feet of electric luminarias will light the way to 13 structures. Each night, 150 volunteers will participate in the reenactment of how Christmas might have looked from the birth of Texas’ statehood to the early 1900s.
“Depending on the date the structure was built, volunteers will portray what people would be doing at Christmas at that time,” she said.
Also at the event, attendees can donate new toys for the Toys For Tots program, children can meet Santa Claus and write letters to him, and parents can do holiday shopping in the museum’s store.
Visitors also can catch a sneak-peek at the newly-remodeled first floor of the Barton House, which the museum has restored in honor of the homestead’s 100th birthday next year.
Lemons said the event has become a holiday custom for many on the South Plains. More than 4,000 people attended last year.
“We get a lot of families who brought their kids and now bring their grandkids,” she said. “It’s become a real tradition for the area.”
For more information about the National Ranching Heritage Center, call (806) 742-0498.
Story produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing, 806-742-2136.