Christmas 1900 at Staatsburgh: The First Christmas of a New Century

Christmas 1900

Christmas 1899 must have been an enjoyable occasion because the family spent Christmas 1900 at Staatsburgh as well.  Many wealthy families like the Millses left the city to spend the holiday in a quiet, country location.  Nearby Tuxedo Park was also a popular location for many families.

Wilbur and Orville Wright's Christmas Tree, 1900

Marking the beginning of a new century, 1900 brought a seven-month-long world's fair in Paris.  The 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle celebrated the achievements of the last century and the new developments moving the world forward in the next.  Over 50 million people from around the world visited the fair.  It was an election year in the United States and President William McKinley was re-elected.  He defeated William Jennings Bryan just as he had in 1896, but this time his running mate was none other than New York governor and rising star, Theodore Roosevelt.  The Poughkeepsie Eagle's Christmas day edition makes little mention of Christmas since the holiday had not yet become a mass marketing scheme.  For the Mills family, the holiday was a quiet family affair at their country home.

Christmas 1899 at Staatsburgh

Every year we decorate the mansion for the Christmas season.  We don't merely put up a tree and throw some garland on the railings.  We really deck the halls...Gilded Age style!  There are no fewer than six decorated trees, bows on every sconce, decorations in every room, and an amazing display in the dining room.  We are talking splendor x 100!  The mansion closes for three weeks for all of this work to be done by staff and a highly-skilled cadre of volunteers!  However, the Mills did not leave behind a blueprint or photos of their Christmas decorations.  The only thing we have is a quote from a neighbor who remembers boughs of holly.  Since 100% historical accuracy is out of reach, we decorate in the spirit of the holiday and the spirit of the splendor of the Gilded Age.

Christmas at Staatsburgh, 2016

We also do not have definitive knowledge that the Mills family spent Christmas here.  We know the family spent most of the autumn at Staatsburgh and we assume they did spend at least a few Christmases here over the years.  Thankfully, earlier this year, we received an amazing gift.  The Staatsburgh guestbook used from 1899-1908 was discovered and donated to the site.  The guestbook was signed by visitors when they arrived at Staatsburgh.  It has entries and therefore proof that the family was here for Christmas in both 1899 and 1900.  There are many guests all fall, during the week of Thanksgiving and even two weeks before Christmas, but Christmas, as we will discover, was mainly a family affair at Staatsburgh. Let us first take a look at Christmas 1899...

Gilded Age Christmas Gift Giving: How would you like to be on D.O. Mills' Christmas List?

Victorian Christmas Card

The tradition of gift giving at Christmas time dates back to the biblical story of the three wise men from the East who brought gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh to the newborn baby Jesus.  Christmas gift giving since then has become its own phenomenon and a huge commercial enterprise, but this has not been constant since biblical times.  Waxing and waning in different periods, gift giving became more popular during the Victorian era (1837-1901) and the tradition has continued to grow ever since.

There was a fear that the materialism of gift giving tarnished the holy day celebrating the birth of Jesus, but that idea did not temper the growth of Christmas gift giving.  While merchants in the 1820s-1840s began to notice an increasing number of gifts purchased in the Christmas season, it was not until later that shopkeepers adopted an approach that actively marketed holiday gift giving.  Yet compared to today, Christmas gifts were initially simple and often homemade items like cakes, clothes, and dolls.  Soon manufactured toys began flooding the market and gift giving gradually became more extravagant.  It has developed into an economic engine that drives advertising, marketing, and the economy for much longer than the month of December.

Adirondack Great Camps: Gilded Age Life and Leisure in the Woods

Like most upper-class women of her generation, Ruth Livingston Mills would have abhorred any suggestion of sun exposure on her skin, a sign of outdoor labor and lower social status for centuries.  Wealthy women of her day were mostly covered head-to-toe, often including veils across the face, for the sake of modesty and fashion as well as sun protection.  Parasols were frequently used.  A surviving photograph of Ruth from 1900, shows her in just such attire.  The clothing of Gilded Age women did not lend itself well to outdoor activity or wilderness adventure.  Ruth would not be a likely candidate to spend time roughing it at a wilderness camp in the Adirondacks.  Yet plenty of the Gilded Age elite in her social set owned and visited these large camps during the summer months.  The most popular summer destination was Newport, Rhode Island and Ruth and Ogden were among the many who owned a home there, but many families also owned Adirondack camps to spend some time "roughing it" outdoors.  While Ruth and Ogden did not own a camp, Ogden's sister Elisabeth Mills Reid and her husband, Ambassador Whitelaw Reid, did.  Ruth and Ogden visited their relatives, but as we'll see, "roughing it" at an Adirondack camp was really not that different than spending time at a country house like Staatsburgh.

Ruth protects herself from the sun with both a hat and a parasol with Ogden by her side.