December 12, 1971
Lucille Ball, in conversation with Helen Dorsey for Family Weekly, a Sunday supplement.
“Christmas Is for children, and it’s not quite as much fun now that the children are grown up. We still enjoy Christmas though – it’s always been very important in our family.”
“We all patterned ourselves from my grandmother Hunt [Flora Belle Orchutt Hunt. Lucille’s maternal grandmother.] She was something special because she did everything: made all the presents, decorations for the tree and did all the cooking. There were always 16, 18 or 25 for Christmas dinner. It was real New England!”
“Grandmother Hunt was a real pioneer lady. She cooked everything, especially rhubarb pie, my grandfather’s favorite. My grandparents raised and butchered their own hogs and raised chickens. We had a huge truck garden, and my grandmother canned everything from that garden.”
"Traditionally, our Christmas feast was a big turkey with sage-pork dressing, cranberry sauce, two or three kinds of pie, puddings, biscuits, gravy, and maple syrup from our end of the country. (Lucille Ball spent much of her childhood in Celoron Village near Jamestown, N.Y.) I particularly remember her strawberry shortcake, hot biscuits with melted butter, strawberries canned fresh from the garden and real whipped cream. There were always walnuts grown on our trees.”
“I lived with my grandparents as a child, my father was dead and my mother was working, my Granddaddy was our father. He was a very lighthearted, cute man, funny but very strict. He was a disciplinarian, but he loved vaudeville and loved to take us places. He taught us things like looking for mushrooms (which, incidentally, has to be taught), and fishing, swimming and tobogganing. He was a wood turner and would make all those things by hand–our doll furniture, playhouses and slides. He’d make sure we went roller skating and ice skating in the winter. We even fished through the ice in Chautauqua Lake for muskie, bass and perch.”
"My mother’s getting ready for Christmas now. She and my aunt Helen have been making persimmon cake at Christmas for years. I don’t know where they got recipe – it’s been in the family years. My mother gets the persimmons and lets them ripen, then starts baking the cakes early, wraps them, and gives them away as Christmas gifts. Mother also makes cranberry sauce. She makes it as many times a year she can get cranberries. We might have as many as 16 cans going around the family every year!”
"My main role at Christmas is being Santa Claus. I usually start shopping early in September. I’ve got a lot of good help, too, from Wanda, my secretary. If I see something I like, she gets all the information, and we put in the orders early and try and get a head start. [Traditionally, Lucille sends out about 600 gifts to friends and crew who have worked with her over the years.]”
"I don’t know where we’ll spending Christmas this year – maybe in Snowmass [her mountain ski retreat in Colorado] or little Lucy’s new house. Her house is so adorable. I haven’t heard her say what she plans cook for Christmas, but she’s such a marvelous cook. She may try doing a turkey.”
"I do most of my cooking Snowmass: New England boiled dinner: chicken, steaks, chops, brisket, or fresh fish we get up there. I cook big breakfasts, pancakes, ham and eggs or bacon. Altitude’s supposed to make some difference in cooking if you go according to the book, but I found out that you don’t have to make adjustments in recipes.”
“A lot of funny things happen to me in the kitchen! Because I don’t cook that often these days, it’s very difficult for me to time a dinner so everything gets out of the oven, off the stove and on the able at just the correct time. Or I’ll prepare a salad, fix the rest of the dinner and go back and find he salad still in the refrigerator. I’ve gone even farther than that. I once gave a dinner party for eight people and forgot to ask the people!“
LUCILLE BALL’S CHRISTMAS PERSIMMON CAKE
- 3 tbsps. butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups persimmon pulp
- 2 cups chopped walnuts
- 1 cup seedless raisins
- 1 cup chopped dates
- 1 tbsp. grate orange peel
- 4 cups sifted cake flour t
- 4 tsps. baking soda
- 3 tsps. baking powder
- 2 tsps. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. ground cloves
- ½ tsp. ground allspice
- ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tsps. pure vanilla extract
In a large mixing bowl cream butter with sugar. Add persimmon pulp, nuts, raisins, dates and orange peel; mix well. Sift flour with baking soda, baking powder and spices. Add flour mixture alternately with milk beginning and ending with flour. Stir in vanilla extract. Turn batter into 2 well-greased 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans. Bake in a preheated 300° F. oven 1% hrs. (or until a cake tester inserted into center comes out dean.) Turn out onto wire rack and cool. Garnish, if desired, with glace fruits and nuts arranged in a row down the center of the cake. Yield: 2 loaf cakes
FRESH CRANBERRY SAUCE
- 1 Ib. fresh cranberries
- 1 medium orange
- 2 cups sugar
Wash, remove stems from cranberries; dry well. Grind cranberries in food chopper set on medium setting. Quarter orange, remove seeds and grind peel and all with medium setting. Add the sugar. Mix all ingredients together well, chill in refrigerator 3 hrs.
Papermoon Loves Lucy 
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