At Manatee Village Historical Park, visitors get a taste of Old Florida Christmas

BRADENTON — Close your eyes. What does a Florida Christmas look like?

Lights draped from palm trees, illuminated boat parades, surfing Santas, maybe another year of explaining to the little ones how Old Saint Nick gets in when you don’t have a chimney.

How about orange pomanders, those citrus decorations from the Victorian period stuffed with cloves and shipped to Northern relatives? How about donning a pair of gloves, snatching up a long stick and hoisting yourself onto a horse for a good-natured community joust?

“Yeah, you heard me right. You can add jousting to the host of awesome Florida holiday traditions,” said Bridget Donahue-Farrell, the curator at Manatee Village Historical Park. “In some ways, it was a chance for young men to impress the ladies.”

Get the idea of chivalric knights charging head-on and wielding lances out of your head. These sunburned, mosquito-bitten forefathers trotted in large fields on horseback, collecting metal or wooden rings as family, friends and others watched.

The game, Donahue-Farrell said, was unique to Florida and was played by some church communities throughout the state. Locally, the Stephens family, whose Cracker Gothic house is a feature of Manatee Village Historical Park, participated in that Christmas tradition in the early 1900s, she said.

Although you’re unlikely to find jousting the centerpiece of Christmas Day entertainment today, many other rich, old Florida traditions were on display Saturday during the annual Old Florida Christmas Festival at Manatee Village Historical Park.

In the early half of the 19th century, many Americans did not exchange Christmas gifts and it was a common belief that presents were only for servants. But by the turn of the 20th century, that view changed and homemade gifts were exchanged. In Florida, adults would get palmetto scrubbers, pens or other things small enough to fit inside stockings. Children often received books, wooden toys or games.

“In those days, you had to sing or dance for your supper, if you were invited over for a feast,” said Terry Ragennitter, 78, of Wauchula, a longtime Florida craftsman who makes 19th and 20th century tools and toys.

“So if you’re like me, and have the voice of an out-of-tune Manatee, these trinkets were the perfect stocking stuffer in old, rural Florida,” said Ragennitter, who began learning about early Florida trinkets decades ago.

Also on his table was an assortment of wooden trinkets. There was a wooden, accordion-like clapper to scare away alligators, a whistle to call turkeys and a few palmetto scrubbers to keep your teeth “Florida fresh.”

But the ultimate old Florida Christmas gift, according to Ragennitter, was the buzz saw — a collection of small pieces of wood and rope that makes a loud whooshing noise when pulled. Set against glass windows, the toy mimicked the sound of a round sawmill blade.

The purpose, Ragennitter said, was to “scare the crap out of your friends.”

“Halloween and Christmas in Old Florida was a time to terrorize people with a good bang, bam and pop,” he said. 

On Christmas and New Year’s Eve, for example, many Florida families shot off fireworks, fired their guns or blew air into pig bladders and then popped it, Donahue-Farrell said.

As people began to flood into Florida after the Civil War, so did Christmas traditions. Christmas trees were decorated with small lit candles, gifts were placed beneath the tree instead of on a branch, and Santa Claus began to play a more prominent role.

Sporting a leafy green robe, white gown and an oak staff, Father Christmas would write letters to children instead of the other way around. Long before his naughty and nice list, he’d encourage good behavior. He’d even leave gifts near a fireplace decorated with sabal palm frond swags.

Nowadays, Floridians try to make the best of holiday traditions in flip-flops and shorts. Some head to the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade. Others hike up to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park for the holiday-themed mermaid performance.

But buried beneath all of that, Donahue-Farrell said, the soul of Florida’s old Christmas is still thriving.

“We’re still making loud noises, we’re still pinning cloves into oranges and sending them off to our northern relatives, and we’re still coming up with ways that make the holiday more Florida,” Donahue-Farrell said. “I mean, the other day, I saw someone hanging ornaments on a Christmas tree underwater. If that isn’t Florida, I don’t know what is.”