Mary Stella Sutter Haag died in the spring of 1998. She recalls Christmas as a child.
When Mary was asked if she had any memories of Christmas when she as a child. She said: "I remember that one time when we were little, when Christ child was our Santa Claus. That night we all had to say some extra prayers. And the next morning we couldn't get up (until they were called). Of course, that was different then, we just had one stove downstairs and no heat upstairs, so we had to stay in bed until 6:00. And then mother had started a fire so it was warm, so then, I know one morning we sat on the steps for maybe 15 minutes before we could go down. And it was cold, but we were so happy when we saw what we got.
It was just little things -- a little doll or something. We got a little plate that had our candy in it -- that was nice Christmas. Then when we got older it wasn't so much fun anymore. But that's all we could afford at the time. Nobody could afford big things like they do now. We had one or two. Now they got a roomful, they get tired of it and then they want something else."
She was especially close to Rose, although she remembers a Christmas that brought on a little jealousy. When it came time to open presents, Rose received an album (to be used as a scrapbook or for photos) and Mary thought that was a much better gift then the handkerchief that was given to her.