The American Red Cross played a significant role providing services to military men and their families during World War I.

In December 1916, the Letcher and Son store in Grants Pass, Ore., advertised, “Christmas gifts that will last,” among them a solid gold, 14-caret, jeweled-movement watch with a dustproof case for $85, the equivalent of $1,972 in today’s currency.

In December 1917, members of the isolated hamlet Agness, Ore., gathered for a potluck lunch and social time at their community hall.

Many of the beautiful hills and rivers in Oregon have devilish names, among them “Hellgate Canyon” on the Rogue River and the “Devil’s Backbone” at Crater Lake. The idea proved upsetting to one early Oregon minister, the Right Rev. William H. Gross, Archbishop of Oregon from 1885-1898.

During Christmas Week 1912, the Oregon Agricultural College Cadet Band played concerts in Southern Oregon towns. On Christmas day it was in Cottage Grove, the next night in Grants Pass, and then Medford.

In 1880, inclement weather took a toll on the expected attendance at Miss Anna Geisel’s Christmas Eve Ball, held in her newly opened dance hall in Ellensburg, present-day Gold Beach, Ore.

Early Siskiyou County doctors traveled mostly by horseback or horse and buggy as far as 100 miles to their patients, sometimes at night or through winter storms on barely passable mountain roads.

The start of flu season this fall and winter recalls the deadly influenza pandemic that swept the world a century ago. Known as “Spanish Flu” or “La Grippe,” the pandemic killed between 20 and 40 million people between 1918 and 1919, including nearly 700,000 Americans.

Sugar was scarce and expensive in the pioneer West, arriving overland or being brought on ships and then freighted on pack animals or wagons to small towns. There was wild honey to be found, but not enough for everyone.

On a snowy wintery day in 1984, three friends were enjoying coffee at a Klamath Falls coffee shop and chatting about televised Christmas parades held around the United States. One asked, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a parade like that in Klamath Falls?”