December 23, 2025 Blog -- Christmas Traditions Carried On, By Sarah Koester Morrison
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHRISTMASES IN THE 1950s AND 1960s by Sarah Koester Morrison
When cousin Jane (Julia King Muller), her brother, my brothers, and I were growing up, we visited Marysville often and spent Christmas with the family there. Christmas was particularly wonderful because our grandparents, Charles J.D. and Hyacinth Koester, and our great-aunties, Tinnie K. Helvering and Jennie K. Scott, went to the same lengths to make our Christmases magical as their father, Charles F. Koester, our great-grandfather, had done for them. Many of the same traditions CFK started were carried on through the 1950s and 60s.
When we arrived for the Christmas holiday, all the doors opening to the Library and Front Parlor in today’s Koester House Museum would be locked and the transom windows above them lined with paper to prevent us from seeing what was going on in the “Christmas” room. This made for a great deal of excitement and running around to be sure! We spent whatever time between our arrival and Santa's trying to listen at the door or to take a peek to discover what was happening.
Finally, Christmas Eve would arrive, and all the family would gather in the music room for a cocktail before dinner and Coca-Colas or Shirley Temples for the children. The music box often would be played, and I remember marveling at the sound and tunes which came forth from the cylinder!
Soon, dinner would be served in the dining room, and we'd all be sitting around the table with anticipation building as to what would next be coming. The grown-ups would talk about their Christmas stories which usually included the reminder of how once Aunt Julia (Jane’s mother) had run too close to Santa when chasing him, and he had turned, picked her up, put her in his large sack, and taken her for a sleigh ride!
Then, suddenly, sleigh bells would ring wildly; someone would leap up from the table and look from the Sitting Room and exclaim the doors were open! We children would make a mad dash for the Sitting Room door and into the Library. The Library and Front Parlor would be lighted by the beautiful glow of what seemed to be hundreds of candles! A freshly cut cedar tree decorated with the family's old Christmas ornaments, including the paper rose buds, was placed in the northwest corner of the Front Parlor. The smell of the cedar together with the many lighted candles was so intense, it had an intoxicating effect which only added to the thrill of the moment.
Surrounding the base of the tree was the Christmas Garden with the white picket fence used in our great-grandfather’s time. There would be all sorts of small toys inside and outside the fence which we played with... I believe some of the toys, such as wheelbarrows or sleds, would have candies in them.
Gifts were passed around and opened and then Grandfather (Charles JD) would go over to his house (today’s Marysville Mercantile) to check and see if Santa had been there. Large sliding pocket doors to the Library (the shop area today) had also been locked like the Christmas room at great-grandfather’s house. Grandfather would telephone to report that Santa had been there; the doors were open and the candles lit. As we ran over to the grandparent's house, we sometimes spotted Santa in his red robe and gave chase. However, we were careful not to get too close!
After all of that, the family went off to midnight services at the Episcopal Church, sometimes in Marysville, other times in Blue Rapids. Christmas morning, there would be stockings and play with all the new toys … truly, unforgettable times!
In the picture above, three generations of the Koester family gather in 1962 for Christmas day dinner at the home of Charles J.D. and Hyacinth Koester (today’s Marysville Mercantile). Gathered together were Charles F. Koester’s children, Jennie and Charles J.D., CFK’s grandchildren, Charles W. Koester and Julia Koester King, CFK’s great grandchildren, spouses, and other family members.
