Sarah A. Victoria Eveline (McClellan) Shuff (1878 - 1961)

My Aunt Palmaneda Baker Smith described Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Shuff's house when she was a little girl.

There wasn't enough room in the livingroom or dining room for the Christmas tree. They put it in the little bedroom.

Grandma Shuff had a lot of German hand-blown glass ornaments, strings, (one with paper angels), and small candles all over the tree. The candles were never lit due to the danger of fire. Over all that, was shiny ice cycles. Aunt Palmaneda said it was so beautiful, that it felt like you were in fairyland.

The dining room was decorated with a large paper bell hanging in the center of the room. Paper streamers were attached at the large bell and strung across the room to each corner. At each corner hung another smaller bell.

The table centerpiece was a glass dish full of chocolates.

A lot of the time Grandpa Baker would hand out the presents. Each person recited a poem. Grandma Baker knew so many poems, she could always think of one. The children recited poems from their lessons at school.

Grandpa Baker only knew one and he recited it every year. "Once I was a little boy, playing in the sand. Now I am a great big boy, I think I am a man."

When they each opened their gifts, they held it up for all to see. It was usually some small gift like a little handkerchief. Then they all sang Christmas carols. Daddy, Challis Brown Baker said, the tree was covered in angel hair. Angel hair is spun glass or fiberglass.

There is a Christmas tradition that was probably passed down from my Great-Great Grandma Martha Smith McClellan. Everyone tries to be the first one to greet everyone on Christmas Day, by saying, "Christmas gift!" If you say it first, the person you say it to is supposed to give you a present.

Grandma McClellan was born and raised on a plantation in Scott County, Virginia. The tradition is supposed to have been started by the slaves.

The slave would greet the master or mistress on Christmas morning with the greeting, "Christmas gift!" They would then receive an extra gift.

The whites soon adopted the tradition. They made it into a game. The gifts were usually a small treat of some kind.

My aunt, Palmaneda Baker Smith, said that her Aunt Beulah would spend the night with Grandpa and Grandma Shuff, on Christmas Eve, to decorate the house.

On Christmas Day, when Grandma and Grandpa Baker would arrive with their children on the sled, Aunt Beulah would be waiting. She would run outside, yelling, "Christmas gift" before they got to the house. She won every year. Nobody won a gift anymore. They just enjoyed the tradition.

Although it has almost died out in the present generation, the older family members still call each other on Christmas day with the greeting, "Christmas gift!"

Branchland, W. Va. Route 2, Box 45 June 8, 1926

Wayne County News Wayne, W. Va.

Dear Editor:

In last week's paper I read an article by Mrs. Donald Clark, stating that she believed she had the only trundle bed in West Virginia, and naming some other rare relics, which was very interesting for me to read. At the same time, it caused my mind to reflect back to childhood days when I used to fill the bobbins for my mother to make the winter clothing for the family.

I will say there is yet another trundle bed in the home of Mr. and Mrs. E. W. McClellan near the Wayne-Lincoln line. You can see also two of the four-poster beds in this home, well corded and laden with the homemade blankets and coverlids which Mrs. McClellan made on her big old loom which she also has yet with its many belongings. She also has drafts of many designs for making coverlids and she has not forgotten how to use them.

She has a shawl that was woven on her loom, size five by seven feet. Mrs. McClellan has the cards for making rolls, also the spinning wheel used to spin the rolls into thread. This wheel has been in use for ninety years. She also has the old-time reel. Another article of interest is an old bread tray in which she has made hundreds and hundreds of pounds of bread. This tray is made of lynn timber and has been used by Mrs. McClellan for over fifty years. She also has in her kitchen a cupboard, with metal doors instead of glass, carved with flowers, which was made by "Uncle Billie" Rice of near Nestlow many years ago. The shawl which I have mentioned is woven in "Bird-Eye Twill."

Mr. and Mrs. McClellan have lived in Wayne County for forty-eight years, coming here from Scott County, Virginia. Mr. McClellan is 74 years old and Mrs. McClellan is 70.

Mrs. Sarah V. E. Shuff Wayne, W. Va. June 8, 1926