Christmas memories from the Germans from Russia

By Michael Miller

As the holiday season approaches, I extend Yuletide Best Wishes and a special “Weihnachten” greeting to you and your family. I would like to share with you Christmas memories from our Germans from Russia community. Please email me your Christmas memories at michael.miller@ndsu.edu. 

Fargo resident Sister Collette Werlinger, born in 1931 on a farm near Napoleon, North Dakota, writes, “I fondly remember Santa coming, but never before dark, the cows were milked, and we were finished with supper. There would be a big knock on the door, and there was Santa with sleigh bells on his shoulders. In the bag were gifts with our names. We liked Santa, but we were afraid. He would tell us not to be afraid as he would not hurt us, and we were good. He also left peanuts and hard candy. As he walked, he rang the sleigh bells and kept on ringing them until he was outside where the horses and sleigh were waiting to take him to the neighbors. Then we would open our gifts.”

Greg Cossette of Post Falls, Idaho writes, “I was a small child with two sisters in Maxbass, N.D. in the early 1950s. We lived in a two-story home. During the winter, the snow had drifted across the front of the house. As my parents prepared the trip to visit my Schmidt grandparents (both who had immigrated from Russia) at Fessenden in Wells County, for Christmas. They suited us up with snowsuits, caps, boots, and gloves and sent us out the front door to tunnel out through the drift. All I remember, other than pictures, was that it was great fun, and a wonderful prelude to Christmas dinner with the grandparents. I didn’t understand any of the German that flowed within the Schmidt house, but the love, joy, and comfort remain in my heart to this day.” Greg’s Schmidt ancestral German villages are Helenthal, Black Sea, and Zurichtal, Crimea.

Marie (Eberle) Reid, who grew up in Vibank, Saskatchewan, shares, “We looked forward to having halva and nuts at Christmas. My parents always made root beer. This was served and, if neighbors visited us during the Christmas holidays, sometimes a bit of schnapps. We had turkey and cabbage rolls for supper with all the trimmings. My mother made two fruit cakes. We had one for Christmas, and she carefully wrapped the smaller one, and we had that for Easter. We also had gingerbread cookies, jams, different shapes of sugar cookies with frosting, matrimonial cake and my favorite date-filled oatmeal cookies for Christmas. Vibank in southern Saskatchewan was a predominantly German Catholic village. The sermon was in German. When I was little, I remember sleeping on the bench during the sermon. Church service was 1.5 to 2 hours.”

Fr. Leonard Eckroth, native of Mandan, North Dakota writes, “As a Catholic, we would follow the day of fasting before the feast. On Christmas Day in our home, we ate fish or a German dish like Rahmnoodla. As a family, we went to confession before Christmas. Our dad put the first ornament on the tree, starting with the star on the top. Us juniors put the tinsel on after the older brothers and sisters hung the lights and other decorations. My mother did a lot of baking like fruitcakes, cookies and special German-Swiss bread. Our folks and older siblings attended Midnight Mass while us youngsters were in bed, though we wanted to play with our Christmas gifts.”

Brother Placid Gross, of Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota, and a native of Napoleon, North Dakota comments, “The whole family of 13 children and my parents went to church for Midnight Mass at St. Anthony Church, 14 miles south of Napoleon. The church was decorated with a great big Christmas tree, and a large manger scene. The choir had practiced, so the music was fresh and loud. Then Christmas Day and many days following, there were many visits back and forth with the relatives and all the special food.”

Br. Placid specializes in folklore studies of the Germans from Russia. He has authored a new book, “Prairie Wisdom: Folklore of the Germans from Russia” and he was a member of the Journey to the Homeland tours to Germany and Odessa, Ukraine in 1996 and 2019.

Gerald Wagner, of St. Paul, Minnesota comments, “Our Christmas was very simple with our parents, brothers, and sisters as we did not travel or have visitors because at Christmas, we were usually snowbound. We were nearly two miles of hilly section line trail to the nearest graded road, so horses and bobsled were needed. We were seven miles south of Fredonia, N.D., in 1937, as the crow flies. We had canned meats, both pork and chicken, smoked hams, bacon, and homemade sausage my father made. We had plenty of potatoes and home baked bread. Everything was grown. We had no radio, telephone or newspaper. We played many board games and cards for entertainment.”

Mary Ebach of Rugby, North Dakota writes, “We would eat a meatless meal, usually dried fish, since we could only eat meat on Christmas Eve, open our presents, and get ready to go to Midnight Mass. After Mass, we went home with a meal of ham our mother had made, wrapped in dough to keep it moist and then baked, her vinegar and oil potato salad, goladetz, head cheese, and kucha. Our Mother passed around some homemade brewed Schnapps. Those fantastic memories are as vivid and happy as if it were yesterday, and we are grateful we came from a family that built those memories.”

Michael Miller is the man behind the Germans from Russia Heritage CollectionNorth Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo. For more information about the 24th Journey to the Homeland Tour to Germany and Ukraine (May 2022), donating a family history and/or photographs, or how to financially support the GRHC, contact Michael M. Miller, NDSU Libraries, Dept. 2080, PO Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, 701-231-8416.