“I can remember when we could only buy one thing for the kids for Christmas, and that was usually mittens, stockings or a sweater,” she said. “Today the kids, in many cases, have too much.”
“The first couple of years there weren’t many presents under the tree for the children. What they received had to come from their grandparents,” she added.
Jacobson recalls one Thanksgiving when the kids came home for the holiday, they wanted to do something, but were told not until the table was cleared and the dishes were done. “I could have died laughing at the way they cleared the table so fast. The speed they cleared the table was very precarious. It was a wonder they didn’t break anything,” she said.
A Christmas Eve tradition at the Jacobson house, when the kids were young, was a program in the basement. Their youngest daughter always pretended they were presenting a Christmas program. “Recently, one daughter mentioned Christmas wasn’t Christmas without Mary’s programs,” she said.
“There was always a lot to eat on Christmas Eve,” she recalls. For the last 20 years, she has spent Christmas at her daughter’s house in Paynesville, Audrey Schramel. “One tradition still remains the same; nobody opens their presents until the table is cleared and the dishes are clean.”
“Love is the most important gift a person can give their children. A person can’t tell their children often enough how much they love them,” she stressed. “Along with love, comes discipline. Kids need to be disciplined. It is the best thing there is...a rap on the seat never kills anyone.”
Jacobson has eight daughters and also raised a boy whose mother died when he was nine. His dad worked in the Twin Cities and he would return home every other week and stay with the Jacobsons so he could spend time with his son.
Jacobson doesn’t let her age stop her from baking Christmas cookies or holiday breads for friends and family. Once a week she cooks a rice dish for seven of the ladies at Evergreen Court. “I like to bake and share things around the neighborhood,” she added.