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HOMEgrown Virginiana To unravel the rest of this mistletoed mystery, however, we must look back to 1902 and—here’s a surprise—the offices of the Chicago Tribune. That December, the paper published an appeal “to the ‘Good Fellows’ of Chicago” to rectify a tragic wrong: “Last Christmas morning over 5,000 children woke to an empty stocking—and the bitter pain of disappointment that Santa Claus had forgotten them.” But if the city’s Good Fellows would “address Santa Claus” in care of the Tribune, they would be supplied the names and addresses of one or more needy children to whom they might deliver gifts on Christmas Eve. The anonymous proposer of this scheme, the paper assured its readers, was an ordinary fellow who “takes a drink, cusses a bit, and even goes out at night with the boys for a mild good time”— not exactly 1902’s idea of matron material—but who each year took it upon himself to deliver gifts to 15 or 20 children, as he hoped other Chicago good fellows would do. And apparently they did, in droves. The Tribune needed a staff of 12 just to handle the volume of requests from Good Fellows looking to help. That first Christmas, the stockings of some 15,000 children were filled.
A MOTHER IS BORN
Soon, Good Fellow clubs began springing up around the country, often sponsored by a newspaper, and in December of 1914, the Richmond Times-Dispatch received its own anonymous letter to the editor—signed “Anxious”— that called for the formation of a Good Fellow Club “for the needy of this city.” By 1924, the wish of “Anxious” appears to have been fully realized; a December appeal in the Times-Dispatch called on the Good Fellows of Richmond to assure “every unfortunate child in the city a great Christmas.”
Yes, Virginia...
The Christmas Mother tradition is all ours. The suprising story of how it started. B y C A R O L I N E K E T T L E W E L L | I l l u s t r a t i o n b y VA N S A I Y A N
photo courtey of anne hardwick
Y
OU MIGHT GET THE impression
she is everywhere at once. Here she is smiling with the Kiwanis club president. There she is at the Rotary Club breakfast. She’s talking on local morning television and quoted in the paper. She’s at the Holly Ball, the Centennial parade—and look, here comes Santa and the marching band, and there she is again. She’s the Christmas Mother and she’s the public face of a holiday tradition peculiar to Virginia. Established in 1935 by the Richmond TimesDispatch as a charitable giving campaign, the Christmas Mother tradition has, since then, been adopted by charitable organizations throughout the state. So now, instead of one, there are at least a dozen Christmas Mothers in Virginia each year. And while the specifics vary on how she is cho-
sen, when you’re tapped for this gig, it’s all Christmas all the time. When Blanche Moore stepped into the role of Henrico Christmas Mother, she recalled the advice of former Mothers: get your own Christmas shopping done during the summer. After that, you won’t have time. Because who wants to be even busier in the heat of the holiday season? The Christmas Mother, that’s who.
SEEKING GOOD FELLOWS
But where did this tradition come from? And why a Christmas Mother? Do you even have to be a mother? On that point, the answer is: not always. In 2014, when Barry Vassar was voted Christmas Mother of Crewe-Burkeville, he joked, “I’m on a committee with nine women and they nominate the man.” D EC E M B E R 2 0 2 1
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The first of the Christmas Mothers, Anne Traylor Larus, championed the opportunity for Richmond “to mother its poor at Christmas.”
VIRGINIA LIVING
10/21/21 9:12 AM
