The staff at the Freeborn County Museum, Library and Historical Village would like to wish you all a very safe and happy holiday season.

We would like to extend a special thank you to the 30 volunteers who helped with our annual Christmas gathering Dec. 7. Whether you baked cookies, made popcorn balls, entertained us with good music, worked at the registration table, served cookies, coffee or cider or helped set up or clean up, you are all appreciated.

It was a successful day with a visit from Santa, music by Todd Utpadel and many people taking time out of their busy holiday schedules to visit with friends and enjoy the afternoon with us. If you have not had the opportunity to come by the museum grounds after dark, please make an effort to do so in the next few weeks. The guys have really outdone themselves this year. The village looks like a winter wonderland. We would like to also say thank you to the individuals that donated lights, wreaths and other Christmas decorations to make this possible.

The next few weeks will be busy as we welcome residents from several nursing homes to join us for coffee and cookies and a visit from Santa. We will also share stories from the past and how we remember Christmas as a child. The traditions are sometimes as vivid as they were when we were young, but if we no longer practice the tradition and don’t talk about them either, they will soon be lost forever.

We always ate supper early on Christmas Eve and then Mom and all of us kids went to the Christmas Eve service at the country church where we were members. The Children’s Christmas program was on Christmas Eve and then after the service all the children would get a brown paper sack that had an orange, an apple and a small box of candy inside it. The box of candy was a mix of hard tack candy and chocolate drops. When we got home, Santa had always been there and Dad would be home and we would open our Christmas presents. We never dreamed of not going to church, because Santa wouldn’t stop if we were home, that’s what mom told us and we believed. It was usually a late night for us and if we got up early on Christmas day we had better tiptoe past Mom and Dad’s room and down the stairs because that was one morning that they did not get up early. We would wait patiently for a call from our cousins that lived up the road. They had Christmas in the morning and once their family activities were over, they would call and we would go up to see what they got and they in turn came to our house and then we would spend a good bit of the day playing whatever new game we got or putting a new puzzle together or playing cards.

When I was 6, another cousin moved up the street and then we had three houses to visit. We had other relatives in the neighborhood, but these were the two that we were closest to and that had children about the same age as my younger sister and I. I have so many wonderful memories of spending time with my cousins and the fun we had entertaining ourselves. We didn’t have a lot of money, and we didn’t get a lot of presents, but we were blessed with a family that loved us and we were surrounded by a community that cared for each other.

As we enter this most precious time of the year, please remember those that are less fortunate than you. Helping someone else will bring more joy than money can ever buy.

The museum will be open Tuesday of this week and then closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 5. We will open again at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 6. Smile and have a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Pat Mulso is the executive director of the Freeborn County Historical Museum in Albert Lea.