Christmas in Baltimore, 1867
Christmas festivities had begun; every ten minutes or oftener a gun or a
squib was fired off, giving one the idea that the war had not ended yet
at Ellicott's Mills. Christmas is not properly observed unless you brew
"egg-nog" for all comers; everybody calls upon everybody else; and each
call is celebrated by a solemn egg-nogging. Egg-nog is made in this
wise: our egg-nog was made so, and was decided after a good deal of
nogging around, to be the brew in Ellicott's Mills: "Beat up the yolks
of twelve eggs with powdered sugar, then beat up with them a pint of
brandy, a quart of cream, and a quart of milk; lastly beat up the whites
of your twelve eggs, and add them as a head and crown to your
syllabub." It is made cold, and is drunk cold, and is to be commended.
We had brought a store of sugar-plums, as the children all expect
presents at this time. They hang up their stockings on Christmas Eve,
and in the morning find them filled with goodies. At New York this is
done by Criskindle (Christ kinde) and at Baltimore by Santa Claus (San
Nicolas).
Henry Latham,
Black & White: A Journal of Three Months' Tour in the United States
