Christmas

Christmas card. Printed Text: Happy days this Christmas bring to you.  I cannot see your darling face My hands and lips are far away And go my posies dainty grace Must tell you all I fain would say Of loving hope and wishes warm That as you youthful years fleet by, No storm may break their golden calm Or dim for you the summers sky.  Copyright HM Burnside.  Written Text: Ada from Aunt Annie DJ066-3

Ada Schramm was a daughter of Max Schramm and Kate Pickering
Annie is probably , wife of Ada's uncle, Frederick Pickering.
"Aunty Annie" was Annie Hislop, the daughter of George Hislop who had married Kate Schramm's Brother, Fred Pickering. When Schramm's Cottage was being refurnished the cards were put back on the mantlepiece.

1993 12 DTHS Newsletter


Christmas Card: Written text: Rhale alias Rahel with much love from Ada Xmas /87 Printed Text: May all Joys be thine this Christmas. DJ0066-1

Ada Schramm was a daughter of Max Schramm and Kate Pickering. Rachel was Ada's older sister.
Rachel was always called Rahel. 

At Christmas, the year she was twenty-one, Rachel received a Christmas card from her favourite cousin. With bantering affection, Ada had written on it, "Dearest Rachel alias Rahel". Rachel put it on the mantelpiece in the drawing room of Schramm's Cottage. Later she looked for the card, but it had disappeared. In 1981, we found the card where it had slipped behind the mantelpiece.

1981 05 DTHS Newsletter


Joan Ray after seeing these newly found Christmas Cards hidden for 104 years was inspired to  twrite this poem:

God Rest You Merry---"
"Easy does it! ---Gently now;
A little more your end ---"
The carpenter was prising off
The mantel, with a friend.
Painstakingly, and piece by piece,
The old house would be moved
Before the road came where it stood ñ
This way it could be saved.
So, with a firm and gentle pressure eased,
The mantle piece gave way,
And papers lost so long ago
Were revealed to light of day.
Cards written with love by hands long dead
Bringing joy to hearts long gone,
And saved, behind the mantlepiece,
For us to look upon.
Reverently they picked them up,
 With silent awe they gazed
At Christmas scenes entwined in flowers ñ
Old fashioned children, all amazed 
Gathered round a Christmas tree,
Or skating on the pond ñ
Whilst ink scarce faded o'er the years
Still etched each message fond:
"To dearest Hetty from Aunt May,
Yr. Cousin's home at last..."

Greetings plucked from beyond the grave
The Ghosts of Christmas past.

Joan Ray

1981 05 DTHS Newsletter



CHRISTMAS TIME

Christmas time is near,
And all the children are gay,
For mothers soon will hear
The shouts of children at play.
And Father Christmas, in his coat of red,
Soon will see the children in bed.
Two little eyes shut up so tight,
Oh! In the morning they'll see a sight,
For lovely toys of every kind,
That Father Christmas has left behind.

Star to LORRAINE PETTY (10), Main road, Doncaster

1938 'CHRISTMAS TIME', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 16 December, p. 12. , viewed 22 Feb 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12076266


CHRISTMAS

The Lutheran settlers who formed the community of Waldau brought with them traditions from their homeland.
Germany is a nation steeped in Christmas lore and much of the world's Christmas tradition is of German origin.
The Christmas tree originated when an evergreen tree was brought into a house. The tree symbolised life, and the candles, the Christ-child, as the light of the world.
Merrie Christmas was always celebrated in England with a feast where a flailing plum pudding symbolised warmth and nourishment.
At Waldau, German and English traditions met. Christmas time at Schramm's Cottage will bring back these traditions.

1984 12 DTHS Newsletter






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