Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

We have something in common with early Texans.

Christmas, and the month of December—in large part—was the time when Texans gathered.

Cynthia Brandimarte is program director for Texas historic sites. Unlike today when a short trip by car or plane gets us to our holiday destinations, travel was difficult for early Texans.

And so when you traveled, you tended to stay. People had time at Christmas to do that—to travel and spend weeks.

Which makes the few days that most of us get off at Christmas seem like a rip off. Early Texans made good use of this block of time.

It was then that they celebrated not only Christmas, but other special events, and planned weddings for the month of December.

Since Texas was mostly rural in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, and there wasn’t a lot of farming that could happen in December…

It almost gave 19th Century and early 20th Century rural Texans an excuse not to work. And thus to play a bit more, and socialize a bit more, than they had time to do during many other months of the year.

How will you spend your Holiday? Tell us at passporttotexas.org.

From all of us at Passport to Texas, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Texas Traditions: Time off at Holidays Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Education, Historic Sites, Podcasts, Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.