Phillips County Museum News for Wednesday, December 21, 2022

One of the very best Christmas traditions in Phillips County is reading the letters to Santa in the Phillips County News, and we thought it might be fun to see what some of us “big kids” had to say to him when we were the ones leaving out the milk and cookies.

In 1977, Malta first graders were asked what Christmas meant to them. Luke Brown noted that “it is good to give presents. Christmas is love,” while Rhonda Dalby wrote, “I love Jesus. I love God. Christmas means you can play with toys, I like Santa.” Saco first grader Marty Jensen noted, “You get all kinds of stuff because you can’t go outside and sometimes you get boots”.

In 1983, the 3rd graders switched it up and instead of writing letters to Santa, they provided the ad design for local businesses, with only two notable exemptions. In addition to a beautiful illustration of Santa and his sleigh, and under a Christmas tree, 8-year-old Heidi Southwick snuck in “I want a tape recorder.” Susan Green, also age 8, used her ad space for Baeth, Inc. to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and provided a sweet portrait of a girl in a nifty hat with the very polite, “I would like a doll that looks like a princess.”

The 4th and 5th graders that year provided their favorite recipes. Brenda Moore (Koss) submitted her 2-ingredient recipe for “Christmas Trees: one bag of penutbutter chips and 2 cups of penutbutter. Stir until smooth, preheat at 250 degrees, cook for 5 minutes. Shape into a tree.” Knowing Brenda, this is probably a very real recipe and it’s probably delicious.

But the must-try recipe goes to Dallas Waters, who submitted his recipe for “Mud” in 1982: 2 c. butter, 2 eggs, gal. milk 3 eggs, 2 cup oil, 1 cup brown sugar, salt and put it in the frig for 10 hours and then try it.”

The Phillips County Museum remains open Monday-Saturday, 10 am-3 pm, from April through December.