We are deep in the Holiday spirit, having celebrated as a town with holiday hot chocolate, games, and lighting of the big round cedar tree. There were trailer rides around the block, or to the singing at the Presbyterian church. The Fergusons helped found this church in 1903 and the Ferguson Home in 1901. In this time of reflection, we print words penned some 40 years after the first Watonga Christmas by Mrs. Ferguson about a Blue Christmas on the Frontier. They Carried the Torch: The Story of Oklahoma’s Pioneer Newspapers.

Blue Christmas

“I cannot resist the impulse to write of our first Christmas among our new surroundings.  You have often heard of a “White Christmas” and if you were an Oklahoma pioneer you have no doubt also heard of a “blue Christmas.”

Always lived in Kansas and had never seen a saloon

Less than three months after our arrival, Christmas morning dawned cold and blue.  Watonga certainly was a funny little place on the Christmas morning forty years ago – a strange town full of strange people – a little pioneer tow. The mudhole in the middle of the street and seven saloons was not calculated to cheer the homesick feeling of a woman with boys who had always lived in Kansas and had never seen a saloon.

Just old enough to believe in Santa

One of these boys was a baby of only a few months (Tom, Jr. “Trad”). The other (Walter Scott) was a wide-awake boy just old enough to believe in and expect a visit from Santa Claus.  The outlook was gloomy for such a visit, and not particularly promising for anything resembling a real Christmas dinner.  If there is a time in history of a new country when a woman has a right to be homesick, it is on Christmas while thinking of the folks back home who are all together to celebrate that day.  However, those who have the courage to pioneering, usually have the courage to meet and cope with almost any situation. It now affords me considerable satisfaction to look back at those pioneering days and think that I had the courage to stay with it.”

Giving thanks at the holidays

At this time, we buy gifts at the H.C.E. Holiday Bazaar, visit Santa at the “Breakfast with Santa” at the Noble House and at the Ferguson Home Museum. We appreciate those prepare to serve at the Christmas Dinner at the Fair Grounds, City Employees who decorate the streets with holiday lights, and our neighbors who decorate their houses or yards. We remember Watonga’s first Christmas, December 1892, and give thanks for those early pioneers.

Originally published in The Watonga Republican Dec. 17, 2025 See part 2 published Dec. 24, 2025 https://fergusonhomemuseum.org/the-first-watonga-christmas/ https://fergusonhomemuseum.org/the-first-watonga-christmas/