The Great Christmas Tree: $500 in Gifts and a River Crossing
Snohomish residents gathered for a massive holiday celebration on the evening of December 23rd, distributing an estimated $5,000 worth of presents from the 'Christmas tree' before crossing the swollen river to join neighbors in Lone Tree.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Christmas has come and gone; bringing joy to young hearts, but reminding the grey-haired that time is ever fleetily fleeting. On the evening of the 23rd nearly every resident of the place, with their little ones, turned out to the hall to receive their gifts from the Christmas tree. Ample provision had been made by the managers, so that nearly every one was duly remembered. Some of these gifts were superb. It was estimated that $500.00 was distributed from the tree during the evening. The ladies are entitled to much praise for the taste displayed in trimming the tree.
On the afternoon of the 24th over thirty of our citizens went to Lone Tree to the hall on Christmas Eve. The hall was tastefully hung with evergreen, and otherwise decorated with appropriate mottoes. The music was perfect and the hall did not break up till four o'clock in the morning, which indicates better than anything else that perfect harmony and good feeling prevailed during the entire night. The river was remarkably high, and too many coming from a distance had to pull against the current, either in routing or going. It was fortunate for all that the hull passed on so pleasantly. There was no hull here, but we are informed the young folks intend having one on New Years Eve. We wish them a good time.
This 1876 account of a community-funded 'Christmas tree' event highlights how Snohomish residents relied on shared civic spaces and local generosity to create holiday traditions, even when infrastructure like river crossings was precarious. The mention of the 'remarkably high' river serves as a reminder that the natural environment has always dictated the logistics of community gathering in this region.
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