November 2024
Anna Louise Bates, Church Historian
Reading reports of how New Paltz Methodists celebrated Christmas in past decades reminds us how times have changed. Methodism was, at one time, a thriving Protestant denomination in the United States. Local churches boasted a large attendance every Sunday.
According to the December 15, 1950, New Paltz Methodist News,planned activities to celebrate Christmas that year included a Christmas pageant on Christmas eve, wherein “… thirty persons in costume will be our cast.” The musical program would include choral singing, and noted with pride almost palpable today that “Miss Helen Schoonmaker will be our soprano soloist. Our guest musicians will be Miss Joyce Rosenfeld with her harp and Mr. Parry Berago with his violin.”
In addition to the main celebration, a special party called “Mother Goose’s Christmas Party” was planned for the church’s children. And, for added enjoyment, “… since it is snowing that day, we expect Santa Claus also will arrive at our party.”
Everyone, adults and children alike, brought “White Gifts,” being small gifts wrapped in white paper, that went to selected charities. In 1950 the gifts went to “a Methodist settlement house in Boston.” Suggested gifts included toys, games, dolls, picture books, or articles of clothing for children and babies.” Donations were solicited from everyone, including the church’s children, who filled “dime stockings” for the cause. Surely, this is Methodism at is best!
The Newsletter that detailed plans for Christmas ended with a hopeful prayer: “Surely we should reflect upon the half-century that is ending, marked by a world depression, a world revolution, and two world wars. … We need to face our uncertain future in the Christian faith with a prayer that we may “Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.” All readers were invited to spend the closing days of 1950 “in prayer in meditation, and in the Service of Communion.”
Here we are, approaching Christmas in 2024. We lament our shrinking churches and church membership, and the desperately low number of children in our remaining congregations. Church closures and mergers abound. And all this is happening during a time when many of us fear the near future. We worry about the plights of immigrants, climate change, wars that could at any moment engage our own citizens. Perhaps, rather than fear, we should draw strength from our church’s history. We have a strong heritage, and we should remember our beautiful past Christmas celebrations with an eye of hope, and not despair that we don’t have as many members now. The words of Pastor Lee H. Ball bring tears, but also reminds us who we are: “Again the Christmas Candles will glow upon thousands of altars, and in millions of homes, shining symbols of our faith that the Light still shines in the Darkness, and that the Darkness can never put it out.” Smaller in numbers, yes, but also strong in faith. Let our past inspire us to rebuild our church and celebrate the new light Christ brought to our world.
