OPINION: Christmas In North Idaho through time

One hundred years ago, the Coeur d’Alene Evening Press recorded the quiet rhythm of Christmas in Kootenai County — not through headlines, but through its society pages. Those brief notes, published in December 1925, reveal a community woven together by gatherings, music, hospitality, and a shared understanding that neighbors mattered.

A choir of twenty-five voices at the Christian Church prepared a Christmas program that included “Angels from the Realms of Glory.” Nearly fifty people crowded into the Edmonds’ home at 810 Sherman Avenue for a musical evening of violin, piano, and carols. Mrs. Le A. Hart sang “Ilone Marie,” accompanied by local pianist Mr. W. B. McFarland, whose steady playing helped fill the home with Christmas music.

Across town, clubs met in living rooms along Sherman, Boise, Foster, Third, and Seventh Street. The Ladies of Equality gathered at Eagles Hall for their annual Christmas party, where pinochle was played, prizes awarded, and gifts exchanged. The Royal Embroidery Club hosted a one-o’clock luncheon on Third Street, with miniature Santas at each place and handmade handkerchiefs for every guest.

The Triangle Club exchanged gifts after roll call. The Congenial Bridge Club celebrated at 1111 Sherman Avenue. The Women’s Relief Corps Sewing Club gathered for a Christmas party attended by twenty-five members, where “a Christmas tree was a feature of the decorations.” On Garden Avenue, the Ixega Camp Fire Girls also held a festive holiday gathering.

Everywhere in those pages, you find people opening their homes and creating community — tables pulled close, food shared, gifts exchanged, and time freely given. These weren’t grand affairs. They were the everyday acts of connection that held a winter community together.

Churches prepared their own celebrations: the Nativity Play at St. Luke’s Episcopal, the “White Christmas” program at the Baptist Church, and young people planning to meet at five o’clock in the morning to sing carols. Faith, music, and service were woven naturally into the season, not set apart from daily life.

Children, too, were at the center of Christmas. A sixth-birthday party on A Street brought together Marjorie Wescott’s friends for games and cake. At the Hotel Idaho, Miss Thelma Bouley prepared a Christmas tree and party for her junior dance class, complete with performances by her pupils.

Nothing in those notes was dramatic. Nothing was divisive. But everything reflected who we were — a community that valued presence, hospitality, and the strength of gathering together in winter.

A century later, Christmas in Coeur d’Alene looks different, but the spirit is unchanged. We now have a community college, modern hospitals, and an interstate connecting us to the wider world. We have more lights, more visitors, and more ways to celebrate — but we still rely on each other in the ways that matter. Neighbors still check on those who live alone. Volunteers deliver meals and warm clothing. The quiet Idaho Way of caring for our own continues to thread through every gesture.

Modern Coeur d’Alene may be bigger, but the heart of Christmas still feels wonderfully familiar: a community choosing generosity over isolation, connection over convenience, and responsibility over assumption. Just as in 1925, we mark the season not by what we have, but by how we show up for one another.

The society pages of 1925 remind us of a simple truth: Community is not something we inherit. It’s something we build — one gathering, one kindness, one act of care at a time.

So this Christmas, may we remember what our predecessors knew so well: that the smallest acts can hold a town together, that generosity outlasts hardship, and that the light we offer each other matters more than anything purchased or performed.

Merry Christmas, North Idaho. May the same quiet, steady spirit that warmed this community a century ago continue to guide us today