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by Jane Stahl
The Boyertown Area Historical Society holds the final day of its 2022 Belsnickel Craft Show Saturday, November 26; this year the festival is being held at the New Hanover UMC on North Campus, 3065 Charlotte Street, Gilbertsville, PA, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Der Belsnickel is a Juried Craft Show that started in 1970 to preserve and promote historic crafts.
It has been recognized nationally for its emphasis on high quality traditional and modern crafts. The 2022 Belsnickel features 72 crafters showcasing a wide range of mediums: glass, baskets, photography, wood working, quilted and weaving and crochet items, sea glass art, jewelry, hand-painted beeswax.
And painting and reproduction animals, purses, totes, accessories, clay, Santas and snowmen, ceramics, hand-sewn wood items, redware pottery, wine stoppers, hex and painted signs, handmade primitives, doll clothes and furniture, broom making and dustpans, handspun yarn, tin ornaments.
Also homemade soap and body care products, metal artwork, goose feather trees, balsamic vinegar, nut brittle, wet felting, candy and cookies, Belsnickels, polymer clay sculptures, custom tumblers, honey and honey products, wood turning, Scherenschnittle (paper cutting), knit socks, terrain textures, German roasted nuts.
The festival takes its name from the folk tale of “Der Belsnickel” about a Christmas character who, like Santa Claus, gives presents to good children and encourages them to behave all year long. But unlike Santa, "der Belsnickel" identified the good children and the bad children and would leave switches to whip children who were bad through the year and leave small toys, socks, mittens, candies or fruits for the well-behaved children.
Belsnickel is shown as a thin, lanky person who dresses up in fur clothing, paints his face, wears a mask, and attaches bells to his costume. With his one hand, he is seen carrying a bag with gifts and treats for good children and the other hand would have a switch or a whip for bad children. He was a hero to well-behaved children; others feared him.
The idea of Belsnickel is alive and well in other countries. I learned from Ruth Smith who, like me, was waiting for Rose to make her several Belsnickels that there is a horned figure named Krampus in Central and Eastern Alpine folklore.
But one family in the Boyertown area has crafted collectible Belsnickel figures for 51 years. Rosalie Birt took over the craft after her mother Margaret Yerk retired. Each year, folks come to the Festival and add the latest versions to their collections.
Each year the Belsnickel figure is fashioned from a pine cone base and dressed differently each year using specially selected fabrics and materials.
Each year, Rosalie can be found creating Belsnickel figures during the festival. “I always think I have enough,” she shares. “But every year I’m here making more.” This year, while she worked, she shared some history and some details about her process.
Rose shares that she makes between 300-500 Belsnickels each year—often as she watches comedy shows on TV—and begins the process in September or early October. Prior to the actual start, she considers how the year’s Belsnickels will look and shops for fabric.
“I need about 20 yards of material for the season. I don’t have a definite idea how I want them to look. I just wander around the fabric store until something ‘hits’ me,” she explains, “and then I hope the store has enough of that fabric. And I need to shop ahead; fabric stores don’t stock fleece in the summer months.”
“Last year was the Festival’s 50th anniversary and I thought he should be dressed in something gold, but I knew that gold would be way too flashy,” she continues, “Fortunately I saw some yellow fabric that worked.”
“My favorite Belsnickel was my COVID one,” she says, smiling. “It was such a strange year; and so, I decided, like everyone else that year, he should wear a mask, too. That change from his traditional appearance, a change that reflected what we were facing at the time, brought him into ‘real life today.’”
This year, the Belsnickel is carrying a candy cane, not a bag; apparently Rose had the candy canes left over from another year. But perhaps unconsciously, inflation this season had Rose “downsize” his offerings unknowingly.
Rose offers that her mother considered herself an artisan, a painter. As a member of the Historical Society, she heard about the Belsnickel and knew people who were visited by the Belsnickel; it was a fairly common occurrence in her mother’s days—and even Rose’s.
Special pine cones are needed for the project that Rose collects herself or that friends bring her. “There are special cones. Some won’t work. I squeeze them to tell the difference. Those that crush in my hand or fall apart won’t work; they have to bounce back,” she adds.
“Then I bake them at about 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. Interestingly, they don’t smell like pine,” she winces. “They smell more like turpentine. Nasty.”
When I asked Rose what made her take on the project, she confides that she wanted to please her mother by continuing her legacy. “I have to,” she says. “Mom said, ‘Keep doing it’ and so I do.”
One update that Rose appreciates is the invention of the hot glue gun. “Mom used to use Elmer’s glue to attach the items he carried or to keep his mask, robe, hair, or beard in place,” she explains. “But each time she used it, she had to wait for the glue to dry.
“I also remember that to hold things in place she used straight pins. And I remember, in helping her, getting my fingers bloody. She never pricked herself, though; she had too much experience, I guess.”
Rose has no plans to retire herself, but has hope that her daughter, who currently helps her, and possibly one of her foster daughters will continue to create them after she decides to quit. “I can’t imagine a day that I will stop making them or that creating them will ever stop,” Rose admits.
And so, my friend’s collection will continue to grow. And I will continue to visit Rose and marvel at her creativity and commitment to continuing the tradition her mother began.
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This year, I watched and waited while she created a Belsnickel for me to send to a friend to add to her collection.
Tap on the photo below to scroll through additional photos from the festival.
More News from Boyertown
- April 25, 1892: John Zuber Comes to Collect, Ends in Lock-up for Safe Keeping John Zuber, former organist and renegade, finds himself in jail for safe keeping, not collecting money he thought he was owed from the sale of his wife's organ.
- Part 2: Boyertown Celebrates Small Town Life in Community Events Boyertown’s annual Citizen of the Year event ended the community’s full day and evening of celebration.
