A ‘merry’ historic holiday happening

Serving up yuletide cheer from days long ago, the Manorville Historical Society held its Old Time Christmas event at the West Manor Schoolhouse. The event, held Saturday, Dec. 11, featured music, crafts, cookies, and an appearance by Santa Claus.

Eventgoers were able to browse through holiday-themed thrift shop items, including ceramic Santas, vintage reindeer, snowman trinkets, ornaments, wreaths and stockings. According to Agnes Pearo, president of the Manorville Historical Society, the thrift shop items aren’t normally part of the annual Christmastime event, but were added this year because of popular demand. The historical society operates a thrift shop in its basement.

“Every year people ask, ‘Is your thrift shop going to be open?’, and so we decided it would be a good idea to put some holiday stuff out. They love the thrift shop,” she said of community members.

In addition to the thrift shop trinkets, the historical society sold baked goods, including cookies and bread. A selection of homemade jams was also offered. All attendees were invited to a free hot chocolate.

A musical performance was hosted in one of two old classrooms, once used to teach local children reading, writing and arithmetic. Eventgoers sat in little desks (the desks original to the school) and listened to festive holiday tunes performed by Bad Santa, a local band. The band also played a few oldies, including “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies and “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher.

According to Pearo, the historical society worked hard to get the upstairs space ready for guests.

“We worked hard to get the schoolhouse in shape. We had to sort through everything that was coming in from the thrift shop because we had a lot of new donations,” she said.

Pearo explained holding the Old Time Christmas event is in part about showing children what the world was like long ago. The West Manor Schoolhouse was built in 1929 and in operation until the 1940s. Pearo said that when children and their families walk through the schoolhouse, they’re walking through a piece of history. In order to illustrate that history, the historical society keeps a number of items on display.

They have a collection of old workbooks that were donated by community members who were once pupils in the school. They also kept the old pull-down world maps on display. These maps are original to the school and were once used in the classroom. When someone visits the schoolhouse, they’re given the opportunity to look through the old workbooks and see what it was like for students nearly 100 years ago.

“Kids don’t know today what a school was like back then. They don’t know that they [the pupils] had a desk and they had to learn script and all of that,” she said.

But the event was about more than showing families the classrooms; the event was meant to highlight what Christmas was like long ago. In the classroom across from where Bad Santa was playing, attendees were invited to make old-time Christmas crafts with members of the historical society, including Susan Scalice.

Scalice showed her crafty flair by wearing a handmade “crazy” Christmas cowboy hat that day. Scalice glued holiday bits and baubles to the top of the cowboy hat—knickknacks like ornaments and nutcracker figurines. Though “crazy” cowboy hats weren’t on the crafting agenda for that day, Scalice’s hat set a creative tone in the room. Children worked on a variety of different projects, including coloring. In past years, children made popcorn and cranberry garland, an old European tradition that dates back to the early 1800s.

Down the hall, Santa Claus (Matthew Pearo, vice president of the historical society) sat near the front door and greeted families. When children came in, he asked them what they’d like for Christmas and then gave each child a special gift.