On this date in 1923, it was not exactly looking a lot like Christmas in North Dakota. In fact, the Bismarck Tribune noted that it would NOT be a white Christmas – although "the spirit was there." In other words, the weather was nice. Communities around the state boasted temperatures in the 20s to 30s with just a trace of snow. So, with the weather cooperating, what else was there to do, but play multiple types of outdoor sports?
In Bismarck, Christmas Day hit 35 degrees. A golf tournament was planned at the Country Club links, and a tennis tournament was held. A football game between the Little Big Four League and the high school third team took place at 2pm. At 3, a baseball game was put on by teams from the State Training School at Mandan and a team in Bismarck. They played five innings and ended with a score of three to three, calling the game because it had gotten so dark. It was proposed that another game be played in Mandan on New Year's Day.
The Bismarck Tribune called it a "unique sports program in the history of North Dakota – and one which those in charge will believe worth writing about to friends in California, Florida, and elsewhere."
Since 1874, when weather started being recorded in Bismarck, no Christmas day like this one had occurred. Only in 1919 had it gotten warmer, when Christmas day reached 44 degrees, but there was also two inches of snow on the ground, quite different from the lack of white in 1923. The lowest recorded temperature on Christmas day had been 1914, when the temperature hit 18 below.
All of the normal holiday traditions were also ongoing, if a little changed. Santa Claus arrived in Bismarck on Christmas Eve, though the Bismarck Tribune wrote that he would not be with his reindeer due to the "balmy weather." Instead, he arrived "from the west on a truck," where he went to the Northern Pacific Park and handed out candy to children.
However, this weather did not last forever. By the day after Christmas, snow was in the forecast, and communities around North Dakota experienced their first "real" snow of the year just before the new year.
The Bismarck Tribune reported, "If the weather man has his way, the entire Northwest will be blanketed with an adequate blanket of snow today and the mild temperature prevalent in many cities will be replaced by a brisk cold."
Dakota Datebook by Sarah Walker
Sources:
Bismarck Tribune, December 27, 1923, p1
Bismarck Tribune, December 20, 1923, p1, p6
Bismarck Tribune, December 24, 1923, p1
Bismarck Tribune, Dember 26, 1923, p1
