Photo Caption: Tante Amalie’s Weihnachts Store by Henne’s.

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Photo Caption: Tante Amalie Henne.

Ah … the Christ­mas hol­i­days are near­ing their end and I am feel­ing the peace and joy of the sea­son. I am sit­ting back and rem­i­nisc­ing Christ­mases past. I tell my­self that I should write some of this down; or maybe some­day I will be recorded for all to re­mem­ber!

The Re­flec­tions Oral His­tory pro­gram of the So­phien­burg Mu­seum cap­tures such mem­o­ries and sto­ries of the lives of peo­ple who have lived in New Braun­fels and Co­mal County. Many sub­jects have been cov­ered that re­flect events and mo­ments of the late 19th and 20th cen­turies.

And we con­tinue to col­lect and record the sto­ries to­day.

Thumb­ing through the oral his­tory in­dex, I found a record­ing from 1980 by Erna Hei­de­meyer Ro­hde (1896-1993) and Emma Roth Wille (1895-1986). Their tales of early 20th cen­tury hol­i­day mem­o­ries re­flect a pre­cious, slower time full of close-knit fam­i­lies and time-hon­ored tra­di­tions. You can lis­ten to their en­tire record­ing, #202, at the Mu­seum or NB Pub­lic Li­brary, but I will give you a tiny taste of what they shared. I be­gin with Erna Ro­hde:

The store I remember best and probably have the fondest memories of was the Henne Weihnachts store … a Christmas store that was a very popular place once a year when we children were allowed to go and look at the presents and the toys and so forth that they had for sale in it. It was only opened from the evening of St. Nikolaus night and closed again right after Christmas … it stayed closed until the next St. Nikolaus night. Everybody went to view the toys and try to influence Mama and Papa to buy such presents for us for Christmas.

Sister to Louis Henne, Tante Amalie Henne ordered toys from New York and set up the Christmas store in the building next to Henne’s across the alley. She would cover the store windows so that no one saw the dolls, stuffed horses, wagons, marbles and other lovely, desired playthings until the St. Nikolaus’ Eve grand opening. In the photo, you can see that some toys were then put out on the porch and sidewalk to entice customers. Erna continues her story:

There was no other place in town where you could buy Christmas presents … toys and dolls … of course it was a great anticipation for us kids to wait for that night [Dec. 5] to come, and we were fortunately living right in town just a block away from there. Our father and mother took us younger ones to the store.

We would try to get there first … sometimes stood in line with 20-30 people ahead of you. That was a lot of people at that time since our town had approximately 5000 inhabitants. As you walked in, there was a counter to the left … and above it on the walls were shelves. That is where they had their dolls, all kinds of dolls, all sizes, all prices. Each doll was in a cardboard box, and then it was stood up against the wall so that the doll would be standing up inside the box.

We would go there with our mamas and papas and look at them and wish we could have one and beg for them and so forth; and then finally when I guess the parents had decided that they ought to get together and see what they could buy for us, we kids were sent on down in the little store. We could look at the other presents and gifts, but it was really impressed upon us that we were not allowed to touch anything and we didn’t. If I child would forget, which was rare, Tante Amalie was always standing by to gently tell them to look and not touch. And then, once we wandered off into another part of the store, our parents would go over and whisper to Tante Amalie to put that particular doll or toy aside until they could get back to pick it up.

When Christmas came, and we saw the doll or toy in our pile underneath the tree, the one we had seen and hoped for in the Weihnachts store, we were very, very happy. Our gifts were never wrapped and if there was more than one child in the family, everyone had a little corner or space. We did not see the Christmas tree until the night of Christmas Eve. The door would be closed or a sheet was hung up so we couldn’t look through and see the presents and tree until Christmas Eve.

Tante Amalie never married and was always referred to as a spinster. Photos of Tante Amalie show a rather stern-looking, serious woman, not someone children would hold dear and run up and hug. But, the children were not afraid of her — they loved her and their respect for her made them behave in her store.

Mrs. Emma Wille also shared beautiful rich memories of Christmas in her family on this recording. She, too, remembered Tante Amalie’s store and Christmas Eve:

I don’t know of any other town in the area where they had a similar occasion to open a toy store right before Christmas. It was very unusual. When we knew the store was open then there was no rest until we were there. And it was St. Nikolaus night! We hung up stockings and we got fruit and cake and cookies and maybe a nickel, no presents at that time. And people would dress up and come to the door and bring us fruit and candies and things like that. It was usually older children or people.

We also got our presents on Christmas Eve, that was the style, and then we went to Midnight Mass at the church. Papa would hitch up the horse and buggy and took the whole family to church. The Protestants were there too since their church did not have services at midnight. The Catholic church was the only one that had a nativity scene at that time.

And then there was second Christmas day, the day after Christmas, 26th of December, and we would go visiting our friends. We would see what they got for Christmas and look at their Christmas tree and see if their cookies were as good as ours. We usually got cookies and ginger ale at the different houses. Ginger ale was a special holiday thing. Sometime in December, Mr. Weidner would come around. He had a soda factory, a bottling works, and he would take orders for us and bring it for the holidays. Also, oranges and apples. They came by the boxes.

I just love how Christmas was such a very special time. Its wonder, its decorations and its surprise gifts were not taken for granted back in the days when Erna and Emma were children. Imagine waiting all year for the toy store to open!

Hearing about their anticipation and happiness has warmed my heart.

Have a Happy and blessed New Year!

Sources: Reflections oral history program #202; New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, December 18, 1980.

“Around the Sophienburg” is published every other weekend in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.