On Dec. 21, 1924, the Portland Sunday Telegram published a festive spread about how children were celebrating the season. Click on the image to go to the full page on newspapers.com
There was a lot happening in Maine in December 1924: Christmas pageants, Hanukkah festivals, caroling through the streets and visits with Santa Claus.
Shops were decorated for the season and stocked with everything from silk scarves to mechanical toys and fancy ribbon candy. Schoolchildren adorned their classrooms with tinsel and ornaments and rehearsed songs to perform for their parents.
It was the middle of the Roaring Twenties and Mainers were in the mood to celebrate.
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With a world war and deadly global influenza epidemic firmly in the rearview mirror, the nation’s economy was surging and people had money to spend on household appliances, cars and clothing. Radios were becoming increasingly popular, with people tuning in to listen to news and entertainment from around the world. A host of new consumer products hit the market: Wheaties cereal, Bit-O-Honey candy bars, Dum Dums, iodized table salt and Kleenex facial tissues.
Popular children’s toys included Raggedy Ann dolls, teddy bears, Crayola crayons, chemistry sets, Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys and yo-yos. The holiday season kicked off with the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
A look through the archives of Maine newspapers provides an enticing glimpse at the holiday merriment 100 years ago.
PARTY TIME
The elementary schools around Portland went all in on their holiday celebrations.
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A full page of the Dec. 21 Portland Sunday Telegram was devoted to describing the festivities. The spread was topped with photos of local children under the banner headline “Jolly Old St. Nicholas We’re Sure You Can’t Resist Us.”
The Morrill School held a Christmas party in every classroom “with games and stories and Christmas stories and Christmas songs and best of all ice cream for all.” Fifth-graders watched stereopticon slides illustrating Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and the kindergarten room was “especially attractive.”
“The tree is ablaze with crystal and silver trimmings. After greetings to the parents and guests, the children told the real Christmas story and sang their songs about the Little Christ Child,” the newspaper reported. “Gifts that the children had made to give away, and gifts that they contributed for some needy families, were then distributed and after a meal with ice cream and animal crackers all went home most happy.”
At the West School, students put on a Christmas program featuring poems, songs and readings. There were piano solos and an instrumental performance of “The Desert Caravan” featuring students playing mandolins, violins and the piano. Two sixth-grade classes banded together to put on a Christmas play titled “Santa and the Dragon,” with a Santa, a woodcutter, witches and fairies, dolls for various countries and a knight named St. George.
Santa Claus visited six schools across the city – his arrival was “a gala occasion” everywhere he went.
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“The very most elaborate party given for Santa was at the Oakdale School where hosts of parents came in, and where Santa’s arrival was heralded by loud honkings of automobile horns which sent the children rushing to the window. When he drove up in state with his pack just crammed with good things for small boys and girls pandemonium broke loose, albeit a teacher-regulated pandemonium,” the paper reported. “Here and at every other school which Santa Claus visited he distributed rolls of life-savers, one for each child, and the munching and crunching of these goodies accompanied the farewells to the Christmas saint.”
LETTERS TO SANTA
Hazel Fillmore asked her letter to Santa to be read on the radio in 1924. Click on the image to go to the full page on newspapers.com
A young Portland girl’s attempt to get her letter to Santa drew the attention of the Sun-Journal. In a story published on Dec. 18, the newspaper detailed how a letter by Hazel Fillmore of Hanover Street was read by Mr. Messter, the WCBR Portland Radio Exposition announcer.
“The up-to-date child no longer depends on the slowness and the uncertainty of mail. He establishes direct communication to the Saint of Christmas thru radio,” the newspaper wrote.
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Hazel used the letter to introduce Santa to her new baby brother, Philip Calvin Fillmore (“we love him very much”), and detail the Christmas wishes of her other siblings. Everett, 2, and Helen, 3, both wanted rocking horses, while 5-year-old Millard and 7-year-old Warren wanted horns and drums. Iona, 8, asked Santa for a sewing box and a sleeping doll.
“As for me, I want a pair of bedroom slippers and a Bible, and if it is not asking too much, a sleeping doll,” she wrote. “Dear Santa Claus, Mamma is in bed sick but I want you to please answer over the radio tomorrow night. My papa will tune in for me.”
FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
The Jewish communities in Portland and Biddeford celebrated Hanukkah starting on Dec. 21.
In Portland, the YWHAA Intermediates and Juniors prepared an evening of musical numbers and refreshments for the first night of Hanukkah, the Portland Sunday Telegram reported.
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“One of the most important features of the evening will be the Chanukah pageant, written by Miss Alice Modes, in which about 10 girls take part and which will prove very interesting. The pageant is a sketch of the history of Chanukah and the scenes will be very pretty, the girls in their flowing white gowns, each carrying one of the letters that form the word Chanukah. Musical numbers will follow and refreshments will be served.”
The Biddeford-Saco Journal wrote about the “impressive services” given by Rev. Lipin at the synagogue on Bacon Street in Biddeford and printed a detailed history of the holiday.
“The feast of lights as it is sometimes called was celebrated with elaborate exercises at the synagogue on Bacon Street at sunset Sunday,” the story said. “One candle was lighted and today, two, with three tomorrow, four the next day, five the next, six the following day, seven on the next day, and eight on the eighth day.”
Ads in the Biddeford-Saco Journal on Dec. 22, 1924, detailed the food and gifts offered in local shops. Click on the image to go to the full page on newspapers.com
GIFTS GALORE
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The 1920s ushered in an advertising boom and local shop owners took advantage of the trend to market their holiday season offerings.
In newspapers across southern Maine, shops advertised all manner of gifts – from slippers to kitchen appliances to custom-made suits. Toys, of course, got top billing in many ads.
The Biddeford Bargain House on Main Street had a lot of gift ideas: child’s carpet sweeper, 35 cents; little horse rocker, 35 cents; trains 50 cents to $2.50; electric toasters for $3.95; 42-piece dinner set for $7.95; dolls 10 cents to $7.50; mechanical toys 25 cents to $2.98; solid maple desks and chairs, $4.98.
Over at Mrs. S.E. Ladd on Main and Water streets in Saco, the shop offered “Interesting Christmas gift for women” – most of them involving silk. In stock were sweaters, silk underwear, silk boudoir caps, silk scarfs, underarm bags, silk bloomers, corset covers, bath robes, silk mules, silk hosiery, silk ribbons and silk blouses.
Just two days before Christmas, ads in the Evening Express targeted Westbrook shoppers looking for last-minute gifts. At the Emile Begin clothing shop, “Gifts for Him” included shirts, ties, armbands, bathrobes, umbrellas, mufflers and cuff links. Over on Bridge Street, Carr’s Shoe Store offered ladies’ and men’s Christmas slippers for 59 cents to $3.50 in “all kinds and colors.”
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LaFond & Co. invited shoppers to “come to our Toyland on the 2nd floor” for last-minute gifts, including silk hosiery, silk umbrellas, rubber aprons, muslin underwear, baby crib sheets and leather pocketbooks.
WHAT PEOPLE WERE EATING
When it came time for holiday meals, local markets were ready with everything people needed.
The Andrews & Horigan Co. grocery store on Main Street in Biddeford had Christmas turkeys, ducks, geese and chickens, “all fresh killed and fancy stock” ranging from 42 to 48 cents. There were also California and Florida oranges, jumbo pecans, cranberries, squash and all the vegetables needed for dinner. For dessert, 2-pound boxes of ribbon candy were just 43 cents.
“We have everything to complete your Christmas dinner,” read the ads for Bibeau Bros., The Pure Food Market, at the corner of Alfred and Jefferson Streets in Biddeford. Their offerings included extra fancy turkeys direct from the farm, native geese, ducks, grapefruit, apples and nuts.
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The grocers encouraged people to “shop early and avoid disappointment.”
To help readers expand their holiday menus, the Biddeford-Saco Journal published a cooking column called “The Kitchen Cabinet” that offered recipes for yuletide goodies, including butterscotch Spanish cream and snowballs made out of sponge cake.
In Portland, ads for Spear Folks Candy at 495 Congress St. – famous for Needhams and caramels – highlighted its “splendid gift packages for $1. There were also candy-filled cedar chests, ribbon candy, novelties, hard candies and stocking fillers ready to be packaged for shoppers.
BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – Good morning and Happy Sunday everyone. Skies are cloudy with fog across much of Maine this morning. Rain has entered locations along the interstate and to the northwest. Temperatures vary from the upper 30s to mid 40s. Winds are out of the SE between about 5-15 mph.
Today will be a wet and impactful day with rain and even snow anticipated as a large cold front passes through Maine. Skies will be cloudy with plenty of fog lasting through the morning. Rain will expand across the interstate by the late morning hours, reaching Downeast locations by midday/the early afternoon.
By the early to midafternoon, temperatures will start to drop across northwestern locations as the cold front passes through Maine. This will result in rain turning over to mixed precipitation and eventually snow across the Western Mountains, Moosehead region, and Northern Maine. Rain will continue steadily and at times heavily across the foothills, Interstate, Coast, and Downeast. A few thunderstorms are even possible closer to the coast.
Snow will expand across areas to the northwest of the interstate this evening, reaching all the way down to Interior Midcoast communities, the Bangor region, and Interior Downeast areas by sunset and into the start of the night. Precipitation will taper off across Western Maine shortly after sunset, before exiting the entire state around midnight tonight. High temps today will vary from the low 40s to low 50s with SSE to NW gusts reaching 20-25 mph.
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WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
Snowfall totals will vary under 2 inches across Western, Northern, and Interior Downeast locations. However, a few pockets of 2-4 inches are possible, mostly in higher elevations across the mountains. Rainfall totals will accumulate around a half inch to three quarters of an inch when all is said and done.
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
Precipitation will be out of Maine by midnight tonight, with cloudy conditions giving way to mostly clear skies by sunrise. Lows overnight will dip back below freezing across much of the state, from the low 20s to mid 30s tonight, so cover up any plants or flowers outside. WNW gusts will reach 20-25 mph. A Small Craft Advisory is expected offshore.
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
Skies will be partly to mostly sunny across the interstate and coast on Monday morning. However, by the late morning to midday hours, clouds will build with a few scattered rain and snow showers in spots. Conditions will remain on the cloudier side in the afternoon before clearing up around sunset into the start of Monday night. Highs will be chilly on Monday, from the low 30s to upper 40s. WNW to SW gusts will be a bit breezy, reaching 20-25 mph, which will add to the wind chill factor.
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
High pressure will build on Monday night, remaining overhead on Tuesday. Skies will be sunny in the morning, becoming partly to mostly sunny in the afternoon. Highs will remain cool, in the 40s across the board with North to SW gusts only reaching 15-20 mph.
A weaker low-pressure system could bring showers across Maine on Wednesday and Thursday. There is a bit of model uncertainty on exactly when it will impact Maine. The GFS has impacts on Wednesday, while the EURO, GRAF, and GDPS models have most of the impacts on Thursday. We will continue to monitor this system and potential impacts. All it looks to provide as of now are cloudier skies and rain showers, with some snow shower chances farther to the North.
By Friday and Saturday, conditions are trending on the drier side with sunshine and average temperatures returning to the forecast.
WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)
SUNDAY: Highs from low 40s to low 50s. Cloudy with AM fog. Rain becoming widespread throughout the day, turning over to snow to the north & west during PM. SSE to NW gusts reach 20-25 mph.
MONDAY: Highs from low 30s to upper 40s. Partly to mostly sunny early. Developing clouds with scattered rain/snow showers by midday/afternoon. WNW to SW gusts reach 20-25 mph.
TUESDAY: Highs throughout the 40s. Sunnier AM. Partly to mostly sunny PM. North to SW gusts reach 15-20 mph.
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WEDNESDAY: Highs from low 40s to low 50s. Mostly cloudy with a few rain showers. Few AM snow showers possible North. SSE to SSW gusts reach 20-25 mph.
THURSDAY: Highs from mid 40s to mid 50s. Cloudier skies with rain showers possible. Some AM snow showers possible North. NW gusts reach 20-25 mph.
FRIDAY: Highs from upper 40s to mid 50s. Partly cloudy. NNW gusts reach 20 mph.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in September 2022.
When it comes to Maine hiking, summiting Katahdin is the ultimate achievement.
Maine’s tallest mountain stands at 5,269 feet, and there are a number of different trails hikers can take to get up and down Katahdin. And while some are harder than others, none are easy.
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But the views are incredible.
Whether it’s the rugged terrain of the Knife Edge or the vast landscape of the 200,000 acres that compose Baxter State Park below, here’s a look at what it’s like to climb Katahdin.
Hunt Trail
Hunt Trail traces the edge of a ridge on the west side of Katahdin known as Hunt Spur. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDNSara Clark (front) navigates a steep section of Katahdin’s Hunt Trail, while Sam Schipani takes a break on a boulder. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDNKatahdin Stream Falls is one of the many scenic highlights of Katahdin’s Hunt Trail. It’s located about a mile from the trailhead at Katahdin Stream Campground. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Abol Trail
A group of friends and family hiking down Abol Trail, Katahdin. (From top to bottom) Jeff McBurnie, Janet Jordan, Eve Jordan, Kerry Jordan (far right), Bruce Jordan, Joyce Sarnacki, Aislinn Sarnacki (far left), and Gary Robinson, in 2010. Credit: Photo courtesy of Derek RunnellsHikers climb and enjoy the open views along the Abol Trail on Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine, on Sept. 10, 2016, in Baxter State Park. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Chimney Pond Trail
Bright fall foliage surrounds Derek Runnells of Dedham as he walks along a boardwalk on the Chimney Pond Trail in Baxter State Park. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Cathedral Trail
A rock formation on Katahdin called the Second Cathedral is seen from above on the Cathedral Trail on Sept. 27, 2014, in Baxter State Park. Peaking out behind the Cathedral is Chimney Pond, a pristine tarn at 2, 914 feet above sea level. The closest ridge on the right leads to Pamola Peak and is traversed via Dudley Trail. And the mountain range at the center of the view is South Turner, North Turner and East Turner mountains. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDNHikers approach the first Cathedral on the Cathedral Trail on Katahdin. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Saddle Trail
Members of the 2015 Beyond Limits Katahdin Expedition make their way down the Saddle Trail after reaching the summit of Katahdin. Six men took 10-minute turns carrying Jacquelyn Lowman ,63, — who is paraplegic — to the summit, assisting each other along the way. The expedition took a year of planning and involved the help of about 20 people, who helped with the planning, carrying food, equipment and cooking. Eleven members of the group reached the summit with Lowman. Credit: Gabor Degre / BDNClouds settle over the upper reaches of the Saddle Trail, a route the leads to the peak of Katahdin, on Aug. 10, 2012. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Northwest Basin Trail
BDN reporter Aislinn Sarnacki walks toward Hamlin Peak on Katahdin on the Northwest Basin Trail in Baxter State Park. Credit: Courtesy of Derek Runnells
Knife Edge
From Baxter Peak of Katahdin, hikers can enjoy a stunning view of Pamola Peak and a mile-long ridge known as Knife Edge. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDNBDN reporter Aislinn Sarnacki hikes over Knife Edge of Katahdin on July 13, 2013. The ridge becomes just a few feet wide at some points, and the mountain drops away for thousands of feet on both sides. The trail should only be hiked in good weather. Credit: Courtesy of Derek RunnellsHikers on the Knife Edge of Katahdin have few options for getting off trail to relieve themselves of human waste. Above treeline, Leave No Trace principles recommend planning ahead to avoid the necessity of going to the bathroom in fragile alpine areas, or getting off trail as far as possible to relieve themselves on rock or gravel. Credit: Courtesy of Brad Viles
Tablelands
A hiking trail winds through delicate alpine vegetation on the tablelands of Katahdin in Baxter State Park. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
The Tablelands of Katahdin, a relatively flat area between Baxter and Hamlin peaks, is visible from Cathedral Trail on Sept. 27, 2014, in Baxter State Park. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
South Peak
Hikers descend from South Peak on Katahdin in 2016. Credit: Courtesy of Brad Viles
Hamlin Peak
The rocky Hamlin Peak extends to the east, and beyond it are the Basin Ponds, South Turner Mountain, Katahdin Lake and the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Credit: Aislinn Sarnacki / BDN
Maine Township residents vote in support of purchasing building for the relocation of the township food pantry.
A proposal for Maine Township to purchase a building at 9850 Milwaukee Ave. in Glenview to move its popular and growing food pantry received strong approval at the township’s Annual Meeting held last week at the Town Hall on Ballard Road. More than 100 residents attended the meeting where they approved buying the property for $1,429,000. The 3,000 sq. ft. building, which is located within the township, had been the home of a local restaurant. It is currently vacant. In March, Supervisor Kim Jones explained that the food pantry needs more space for food and to accommodate clients who need food. “We’ve totally outgrown it,” said Jones at the time. “We’ve been looking for more than a year.” Following last week’s meeting, Jones said about the vote, “That magical moment really encapsulated the strong support system that’s been built from neighbors helping neighbors throughout our community. The food pantry has grown in leaps and bounds throughout the last five years thanks to the dedicated work of its staff, volunteers and the public.” Des Plaines City Clerk Dominik Bronakowski served as ceremonial moderator for the event. Jones also recognized a number of employees and officials who currently serve the township. They included Assessor Susan Moylan-Krey and MaineStay Youth and Family Services Director Richard Lyon for their 20 years of service to Maine. Assistant Director of MaineStreamers, Therese Tully was recognized for her 25 years of service. The meeting also recognized former Des Plaines Self-Help Closet and Pantry Director Debbie Walusiak who was presented the Sgt. Karen Lader Good Citizen Award for her more than 20 years of service to the Des Plaines community. “Debbie is an exceptional community leader and volunteer,” said township Clerk Pete Gialamas whose office runs the annual award program. “Her work with the Des Plaines community, particularly her leadership navigating the Self-Help Closet and Pantry’s 2020 move to a larger location in the midst of the COVID pandemic really shows the depth and resolve of that leadership and dedication to service.” In 2011, the clerk’s office instituted the award in honor of Lader, a resident of Des Plaines and a 15-year veteran of the Cook County Sheriff’s Police who lost her battle with cancer in 2010. She was deeply involved with the township’s Neighborhood Watch program and active in Maine’s National Night Out Against Crime event held each August. She also worked on Special Olympics and animal rescue.
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