Editor’s note: The writer of this story, Blue, was born in 1889 and died in 1969 and grew up in Bellflower. She wrote this story in the late 1950s about her experience with Christmas as a young child. The story was submitted by Blue’s granddaughter, Nancy Scott, who lives in Columbia.

Sixty-two years ago in Montgomery County, Missouri, there lived a dear little widow with four children, one and one-half miles from a village.

There were no telephones.

This widow and children lived off what the renters would pay her for her part of the crops that were grown on her little farm each year. Taxes had to be paid, and other expenses met, before they could expect anything much for X-mas.

The nearest neighbor lived a mile west of this humble little home. This kind neighbor and his wife had been married a number of years, but were not blessed with children. He called on this little family a few weeks before X-mas, and addressing the children, he said, “What do you want Old Santa to bring you?”

The children were timid and did not reply, but the mother said, “Old Santa’s helper is very poor this year as we were not blessed with good crops.”

These children did not do as the children of today would have done. They didn’t see the pretty toys in the show windows to make them wishful. But they were content with what they received and had this assurance they had never been forgotten. This little mother would knit each little foot a new stocking for X-mas as that was what they were called 62 years ago.

The oldest child of his home was a step-son and had left to go to the village to a union X-mas tree and program. After the work of giving each a nice soapy bath and drying each with an old flax towel as the new ones scratched the tender little bodies, the mother had cleaned up after she had given each their new stockings to hang on the big rocking chair. The seat of the chair held a plate for their homemade candies and articles they could not put in their stockings.

Then, all of the sudden, there was a loud knock at the front door and the mother called out, “Who’s There?” No reply, only a repeated knock. Her first thought was that her step-son had come back and was teasing her. She opened the door and what do you think she saw first?

A beautiful X-mas tree all trimmed and Santa carrying it. He was invited in to see the children and there he was all dressed in white from head to foot. His hat was tall and white and looked like a “giant ice cream cone turned upside down.”

He asked the mother if the children had been good. She told him they had been as good as average children. And he was pleased and said, “I will hasten on to the village as there will be lots of children waiting to see me. Be good to mother and help her a lot and I’ll be back next year, but maybe not so soon. Children, it isn’t the expensive gifts that always bring us true joy. But it’s the unexpected little gifts that bring us thrills.”

This neighbor had told Old Santa about the little widow and her four children and they would not be at the X-mas program that night. So he came by and when the “little eyes twinkled with joy,” it was worth the effort, he said. The neighbor was blessed with a son and daughter later.
This is written in remembrance of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Rickhoff of Bellflower, Missouri, who are now deceased. And may this act of kindness live on through the coming years.

Just a small “cedar tree” trimmed with a rope of stringed popcorn, a penny lead pencil apiece and a stick of peppermint candy each, sugar coated cookies in colors and Bible pictures they used in their Sunday work in colors and a handkerchief for mother and see what lasting joy it brings.

“A Wonderful X-Mas.” By one that had her name on the tree.