SEASON'S READINGS

The holidays can be beautiful on the Seacoast, and they can be tough. December, historically, has been a season of fire and revolution in these parts. We’ve gathered together our most-visited links for those seeking seasonal stories from New Hampshire’s home base.

Christmas, New Year and Winter Weather
from the SeacoastNH.com archives

How Santa Stole Christmas
Commercialism turns a NH holiday into a shopping spree

Celia Thaxter’s Christmas Letter
12-year old poet-to-be plans an 1847 island holiday

The Secret Room of Uncle Em
Holidays are about building traditions that never change

The Great Ice Storm of 1886
Portsmouth was hit hard that January and Victorian photographers were there to capture the event

Christmas Poems by Celia Thaxter
Four holiday verses by Portsmouth’s Island poet

The Three Fires of Christmas
Three times the city center burned during cold December

To the Unhappy Sufferers of Portsmouth
An anonymous poem on the event of the 1813 holiday fire

The Locomotive and the Snowflake
Poet Charles Brewster imagines a mighty train defeated by many flakes

Blood on the Snow in Portsmouth 
Historic snowball fights and sled races from two 19^th century "boy" books

Death of George Washington
Portsmouth’s own Tobias Lear recorded the historic event on December 14, 1799

Raid on Fort William and Mary
Lots of articles and photos here about the December 14, 1774 raid sparked by Seacoast citizens before the official American Revolution

The Other Ride of Paul Revere 
History according to New Hampshire, plus click to read the original poem by Nancy Grossman

Winter out of Fall 
Seasonal transition photos by Marianne Pernold-Young

Don’t Feed the Snowplow
Teams of oxen flatten the snow in Victorian Portsmouth

The Day the Piscataqua Froze 
Historic photo from the 1918 ice jam