This is some very funny commentary (warning: some rude language) about the Little House on the Prairie television series.

Dwanollah - BLATHER!: PAGE ONE

I did watch this show, although I was rather convulsed over many of the same things Dwanollah comments about; enjoyed it while taking it with lots of grains of salt, although the last seasons were pretty painful. (Can anyone forget Almanzo going through 1970s angst over being confined to a wheelchair and suddenly getting inspiration from Laura's geranium? I always referred to that scene as "And a little plant shall lead them.")

One of my favorite Christmas stories is Little House's "Christmas at Plum Creek," although I was amused by the Ingalls family having a Christmas tree. The real Laura Ingalls didn't see a Christmas tree until she was a teenager, and then it was at a church function; only German people and the wealthy followed the Christmas tree tradition in their homes at that time—and then only tabletop trees; the floor-to-ceiling household Christmas tree was an American convention from the turn of the century and the Little House episode took place in 1876.

At least they got the gifts correct: wrapped in brown paper and tied with string when wrapped at all. A few years later, Ingalls time (1880s), in two different Christmas episodes, "A Christmas They Never Forgot" and "Bless All the Dear Children," people are shown giving Christmas gifts with modern printed wrapping paper designs and modern bows. (Er...where'd the "Scotch tape" to fasten the paper come from?) Worse, several of these gift scenes were flashbacks to the 1850s and 1860s, like the one from Caroline's childhood! Patterned wrapping paper was first used post-1900 by this fellow from Kansas City named Joyce Hall...remember him—made greeting cards, too? Most gifts, which were for children, were left in stockings; Laura and Mary Ingalls always had stockings as children. When gifts were involved in a tree setting, they were usually not wrapped, but hung on the tree branches (hence the line in the song "I'll Be Home for Christmas": "Please have snow and mistletoe and presents on the tree") or placed under the tree. Wrapped gifts were usually in white or brown paper tied up with red or white string.

Heck, wrapping paper and cellophane tape were costly for many years; well into the 1940s people still wrapped Christmas presents in white or red tissue paper held closed with gummed, colorful stickers (made by Dennison, who became famous for their Christmas stickers and wraps) and tied with string.

Did the set decorators figure viewers wouldn't know they were Christmas gifts if they didn't have Santa-Claus-patterned paper and bows? Or did they just not do their homework?

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:54:00 AM

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