Journey Through Christmases Past - Christmas 1918

 

Welcome to our newest feature, Journey through Christmases Past. This series is a nostalgic celebration of the holidays we all remember...

• The history and traditions of the holiday.
• The décor that filled our homes.
• The toys that defined each decade.
• The television and movie shows that brightened the season.
• The outfits we adored (and the ones we definitely didn’t).

Along the way, I’ll sprinkle in a few of my own Christmas memories. So settle in with a cup of your favorite hot beverage and join me on a journey through Christmases past.

My father used to say that he would rather owe you something than cheat you out of it. So, here is Sunday's post on a Friday. Hopefully, I will have the bandwidth to give you another post this coming weekend. 

In honor of Women's History Month, today's journey will take us back to the year 1918. World War I had been raging since July 1914, significantly affecting homes and economies as women showed they were more than homemakers or domestic servants. With men away fighting, women replaced them in the workforce, including in factories, shipyards, and steel mills. They served as nurses near the front lines and assisted war efforts by taking on the roles of drivers, translators, and administrative staff. 

While battles were waged on distant shores, in the United States, the military identified the Spanish Flu in the spring of 1918. The Flu Pandemic of 1918 spread across the globe, killing at least 50,000 people worldwide. A second wave of the flu emerged at Camp Devens outside Boston and at a Boston naval facility in September. Another wave came in November 1918, as people celebrated the Armistice that ended the war. 

Barracks Decorated for Christmas

Photo credit: Oak Bay History Facebook Page 

Contributor: Jim Wolf

Christmas 1918, often referred to as "Peace Christmas," was a time for people to grieve and reflect. Families observed quiet memorials for lost loved ones. Christmas trees were smaller, if they were put up at all. Church services honored those who would never come home. Many service members spent Christmas 1918 overseas, as they awaited transportation home. Because of the pandemic, gatherings were smaller, and hospitals were full of patients and weary staff. 

Bismarck Daily Tribune (Bismarck, ND, Dec 24, 1918)

Photo credit: Library of Congress

Despite all this, "Peace Christmas" gave people hope. Newspapers featured pictures of returning troops, they printed President Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points," and they spoke of how determined people were to mark the holiday memorably. President Wilson traveled to France to have dinner with troops before the beginning of the Paris Peace Conference. 

As men arrived home, they expected to return to the jobs women willingly filled while they were away. But the women were no longer the same. They knew what they could accomplish. They returned to their domestic lives forever changed, while the rest of the world wanted to return to the way things used to be. As a result, women propelled the suffrage movement forward. The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified in 1920. After WWI, schools admitted more women, and women entered male-dominated fields like medicine and engineering. 

"Peace Christmas" reminds us that when the world finally grew quiet again, women were standing at a crossroads. Not only did women know what they were capable of, but their daughters grew up watching them help the war effort while tending the fires at home, and once it was all over, they witnessed their mothers help to rebuild a world with expanded opportunities for women.