[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Christmas Memories

[GVLESS at aol.com]

Thank you, Linda Pauling, for sharing the Christmas memories from Sierpc,  
RusPoland.  I had given up hope for some to be sent to our listserv after  my 
request before Christmas.  I did get a couple at my e-mail address that  told 
the story of having for Christmas dinner the family pet goose, and that the  
children would not eat any of it.   Also the writer said that goose  grease was 
very important to use and especially for making pie crust.  
 
It seems goose was the meat for special days as that is something my  husband 
remembered from his childhood days growing up in Nebraska.  His  mother, 
having come from Volhynia, seemed to want to do what she was accustomed  to from 
her homeland over there.  The favorite of the family dinner was the  special 
stuffing that Mrs. Less created, something of bread crumbs, fruit and  nuts.  
After she had died the grown daughters, my husband's sisters, tried  to make the 
same stuffing but just couldn't get the right flavor as they  remembered.  I 
guess our immigrant family members always cooked with the  "little bit of 
this, and little bit of that" habit.  So how could one  really know what amount of 
spices were used, etc.  I seem to recall hearing  that geese were very 
important to the families in those years, especially for  the goose feathers that 
were used for bedding.  On our ancestral tour of  Volhynia in 1993 we saw in the 
villages lots of geese being raised by the  villagers even today.  
 
Now - if anyone has any memories that were told by your immigrant family  
members,  Christmas customs, traditions that still are carried on, I would  like 
to see more shared on this listserv.  I will collect all that I can  and 
prepare them for later use in the SGGEE Journal, probably for next holiday  season. 
 So - please send something in,either to the listserv (as I can  copy them 
for later publication) or to me directly.  We need to know more  about our 
ancestors and this will be a special time of year to share stories  with others.  
If you liked the last June SGGEE Journal with its collection  of stories about 
life over there  I'm sure a special holiday edition next  year will be just as 
well received.  So many of us do not have this  information.  You can help by 
sharing what you know.
 
Thank you (in advance) for your interest in doing this.
 
Virginia Less