MDI Has No Shortage of Holiday Elves
Locals take care of visiting families and each other year after year
THE NORTH POLE AND MOUNT DESERT—Back in 1937, the Bangor Daily News’ Oscar Shepard asked, “Everybody knows about it. But how many elsewhere are aware that this famous Maine town has a community Santa?”
That was almost a 100 years ago. And Santa was a selectman and a dentist. He gave out thousands of toys and meals.
One hundred years is a long time ago. Communities grow and change. But the cool thing is that Santa is still here.
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
This weekend on Facebook the people of Bar Harbor proved once again that they know what the holiday spirit is all about.
Social media is often decried as a place of controversy, but this year on Facebook a woman posted on a private group about a family of four. The kids are four, nine, and thirteen. The mom came up and is staying at a seasonal rental to avoid a domestic abuse situation. The poster asked if anyone could help with a last minute Christmas tree and some lights, maybe a couple of meal deliveries.
She wanted a little help giving the family a cozy Christmas.
Help came.
And it kept coming.
Frost Farms donated and delivered a tree, lights, and stand this morning. Ornaments, decorations, foods, sweets, gifts, gift cards. In one day, the community gathered and gave and embodied exactly what kindness and community are supposed to be.
And now this family has support, bits of light in a difficult time; options when sometimes it feels like there will never be options again.
Selfless giving. Kindness. Support. Empathy. Encouragement. And most likely a cookie or two. That’s what the holiday season is about. It’s also what community is about.
In big ways and small, Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island still hold this community spirit; it’s just not quite as lauded or it doesn’t create as much news as so many other things. The MDI YWCA still hosts a Christmas event where tons of MDI kids go out and “buy” their family members presents. The Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce hosts a Village Christmas event, supported by the MDI YMCA and the Jesup Memorial Library.
Churches send carols into the darkness and have hosted services and living nativity scenes. The library has a solstice celebration full of warmth, food, games, and music. Local businesses and restaurants keep their doors open, often at a financial loss.
It’s even smaller than that, too. Last year, one local man, who wished to remain anonymous, heard an adult with an intellectual disability as he was walking down the road a couple weeks before Christmas, happily talking to himself about his Christmas list and Santa and what he really wanted for Christmas. With no fanfare, with no hoopla, the man bought that present, wrapped it, and brought it to the man’s group home. He checked with staff first to make sure that it was okay.
That’s community. That’s Mount Desert Island. And it’s right here, always, when you’re willing to see it.
CHRISTMAS PAST
The spirit of Santa has been here a long time.
In 1920, Dr. John B. Ells came home from World War I and he returned to Bar Harbor and one of his first greeters was a 15-year-old boy, Roland Moon, who had been paralyzed.
While the doctor was away at war, he became Roland’s hero. And while the doctor was away at war, the boy’s family became overwhelmed with doctors’ bills because of his condition.
Santa wouldn’t be visiting that year. And the boy was more worried about other kids in Bar Harbor who might not have Christmas. Because of the war, many of Bar Harbor’s wealthy summer visitors stayed home. Nonprofits didn’t receive as much support. Local workers who relied on the industry that those summer visitors created also didn’t make as much money.
Roland convinced Lester Moon to help him get some more presents for kids. That plight impacted Dr. Ells, who wanted children to have a Christmas no matter what. He decided to do something about it with Roland and Lester.
Dr. Ells began to work in secret. He sent toys and gifts to local kids year after year. And then it grew bigger. Roland died. Lester moved on to other things eventually, but the dentist kept at it.
Dr. Ells was born on what he and others called Peanut Row. Others called it “The Back Yard,” homes between West Street and Cottage Street, homes where people sometimes went without. Ells pier, Bar Harbor’s municipal pier at the end of West Street is named for him. He was instrumental in allowing the pier to be used by the military during war. Fascinated by ships, he’d greet captains with bouquets of red, white, and blue flowers.
But this is about Christmas, not war or flowers, and Dr. Ells was determined that the kids on this island didn’t go without Christmas.
After eleven years, according to a 1931 Bangor Daily News article,
“520 boys and girls and Bar Harbor know that there is a Santa Claus. They know he lives. They know he answers their letters and sends them just what they ask for. They know that when Santa Claus comes, he brings them nice new things, new coats, new suits, new dresses, new underclothes, boots, shoes, overshoes, rubbers, and brand new toys.…”
Dr. Ells didn’t work alone. Teams of knitters would make mittens. The Red Cross would help. The YMCA would transform into Santa’s exhibition hall with tables piled with gifts. The American Legion and its auxiliary would help, too. Local merchants would donate thousands of dollars in gifts and money to purchase gifts.
By 1937, he had a Christmas workshop at 10 Cottage Street full of 2,000 books, 640 pounds of candy, 125 stuffed animals, 7,000 oranges and 7,000 apples, 60 sleds, clothing, miniature play appliances, toys of all kinds totaling 7,000 not counting the fruit. The Bangor Daily News reporter described it as similar to walking into a store. It was a linen company during the summer season. The owners donated the space for Ells and his elves for Christmas.
Children would write letters to a special someone known as a jolly old elf. The letters would arrive. Requests would be written into a “big, loose-leafed ledger,” by the town clerk W. B. Wadleigh according to the old reports. The 152nd Field Artillery Unit as well as the Bar Harbor CC and Southwest Harbor CC and Lawrence Hall donated trucks to help Santa deliver the presents around the island.
It seems a fantastical tale, nostalgic, from a time of good will toward humans, young and old.
CHRISTMAS FUTURE
Santa can be Santa, hanging out at the North Pole most of the year, but he can also be something that lives inside us, no matter whether we have beards or not. He can be an organization or a community member, an act of kindness or a bit of hug. He can be a hope, a wish, a present, and a thought. He can be people responding to a Facebook post. He can be Dr. Ells bringing flowers to ship captains and presents to children.
That is what Bar Harbor is about: human kindness.
It’s what Christmas is about, too.
If you’re looking to find the real Santa Claus and his exact location. You can check out the official NORAD site.
Newspapers.com link for BDN story #1
Newspapers.com link for BDN story #2
Photos unless otherwise specified: Carrie Jones.
We celebrate Christmas and Boxing Day and Little Christmas and all sorts of things (complicated family), so the Bar Harbor Story is going to be a bit thin on news for the next few days as we try to find a work/life/family/Bar Harbor Story balance. Don’t worry! There are no town meetings scheduled this week.
If you celebrate, I hope you have an amazing holiday.