St. Lucia

In the early 90s, I went to visit my dear friend Patty in Flagstaff, AZ. She showed me a catalog of The American Girl dolls and their accessories. The American Girl doll was the brain child of Pleasant Rowland in 1986. She developed dolls and their authentic accessories to represent different periods in American history. Each doll had different outfits and books that reflected her life at that period of time.

One of the dolls was named Kirsten Larsen, a Swedish immigrant girl in 1854 Minnesota who still maintained some of the traditions from her native country. The custom on St. Lucy's Day, Luciadagen, December 13, is early in the morning, the oldest daughter takes a tray of coffee and sweet buns to her parent's bedroom. She wears a white gown with a red sash, and a crown of greens.

My daughter had outgrown her interest in dolls, and I conscipted a pretty little doll with blonde hair braided in pig tails to make my own St. Lucia doll. We were so poor at the time, all I had for material was an old, white pillow case and some left-over lace. When I moved in 1998, I packed up St. Lucia and didn't take her out of her box until this year.

Once again, almost 20 years later, in 2010, my friend Patty was the inspiration for retrieving St. Lucia from her cardboard exile. When I visited Patty in November, I saw that she had made a little Christmas vignette with some of her dolls and a tree. I came home and set up a little vignette with St. Lucia, some tiny porcelain dishes and then I bought a little tree and some tiny "cookie" ornaments for the tree which I put beside her.

As an aside, back in the early 90s when I first made the St. Lucia doll, I had attempted to make a crown of greens but it never looked right, so this year, I recalled a small wreath a friend had made for me as part of a totally different Christmas gift.  I tried it out on St. Lucia's head and it looks much better than the original.  Merry Christmas, St. Lucia, you still look great after all these years!!