Dec. 3, 1885 – Gillespie’s Drug Store is reputed to have the “largest, prettiest, and finest stock of Christmas goods” that Hartselle has seen in its 15 years of existence.

Dec. 5, 1885 – A light snow fell here this morning to signal the beginning of the Christmas season.

Dec. 14, 1885 – Enquirer editor J. A. Rountree reminds his readers that, “Christmas is coming.” At this time of the year, as in all others, they should “remember the poor.”

Dec. 20, 1885 – How many days until Christmas?  Enquirer editor Rountree says there is one segment of the Hartselle population that should be consulted for the answer to this question: “Ask the little ones. They know!”

Dec. 5, 1886 – Heloise Edwina Hersey, a great admirer of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, has brought out a new edition of Mr. Browning’s Christmas Eve poems. Mr. Browning was a believing Christian, for whom “the worth and persistence of the individual soul was revealed as a certainty.”

Dec. 15, 1889 – There is a new poem out for the holiday season – Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Christmas at Sea.” The poem is autobiographical and relates the author’s birth in a coastal house many years ago. The primary emphasis, however, is on a “blessed Christmas Day.”

Dec. 21, 1891 – Many farm families are in Hartselle from the different localities in Morgan doing their Christmas trading. It seems that there are more people in town today than at any time since mid-April when heavy rains forced farmers to forsake their fields until dryer conditions prevailed once again.

Dec. 5, 1893 – S. Weir Mitchell has come out with a new book in time for Christmas giving. It’s entitled Mr. Kris Kringle: A Christmas Tale. Mitchell is a physician and is donating all of his profits from the book to the Home of the Merciful Saviour for Crippled Children in Philadelphia.

Dec. 12, 1897 – Several area residents have been fortunate enough this year to receive Christmas cards illustrated by famed artist Aubrey Beardsley. One of the most beautiful shows the Madonna standing in front of a Renaissance creche and surrounded by saints. Another shows two angels.

 Dec. 12, 1907 – A Hartselle newspaper correspondent notes that, “Christmas will soon be here with Santa Claus and all of his beautiful presents.”

Dec. 15, 1907 – Concerned that celebration of the birth of Christ might somehow get lost during the rush of shopping and baking, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has published a book entitled The Poets on Christmas. The first poet presented is John Milton, “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.” Other reverential works are Martin Luther, “Christmas Eve”; Charles Wesley, “Hark! The Herald-Angels Sing”; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Virgin’s Cradle-Hymn”; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Virgin Mary to the Child Jesus”; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Christmas Bells”; and James Russell Lowell, “The Prince of Peace.”

Dec. 16, 1909 – The Auburn football team of 1909 was entertained very delightfully by Coach Mr. and Mrs. Donahue at dinner last evening. Games were played and refreshments served. Decorations throughout the lovely Donahue home featured the Christmas motif.

Dec. 6, 1915 – The sale of Christmas seals is now well underway here under the auspices of the Morgan County Anti-Tuberculosis Movement, the purpose being for the organization to employ a trained nurse after the first of the year to assist in the eradication of the Great White Plague in the county. Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death in Alabama as well as in the rest of the country. While more affluent areas have been able to establish sanatoria to care for the victims of this dread disease such has not been possible in Alabama.