Christmas during the early days of Okeechobee County was a much simpler holiday then that which we now celebrate. For some of the early settlers, decorations and presents were non-existent, and the emphasis was placed on family.

The late Wade Walker recalled in 1988 that the Christmas celebrations he best remembered were the parties. "We had a big frolic pretty near every night around Christmas time. There was a frolic somewhere or another. I’ve played (music) as late as three at night and would work all day. I would play at night for dances," he recalled. Mr. Walker, who was born in 1905, said that he didn’t remember anyone decorating at the holidays until after he was an adult.

Lola Upthegrove Williams said in 1988 that when her family lived in For Myers when she was a child, the family celebrated Christmas with some decorating and there were presents for the children. When John Upthegrove moved his family to the shores of Lake Okeechobee, the holiday was celebrated in a different manner. "On the lake, hat we done was have a big dinner, no decorating or trees. Just everybody came in and we had a big crowd and a big dinner. Then, we’d have a dance, not a square dance. That was our entertainment then," she recalled.

In the Lawrence Will book "Okeechobee Catfishing," he related a tale that of one of these holiday frolics that remained long in the memories of those early fishermen on the shores of Lake Okeechobee. "Now John had some girls, and naturally, these girls loved to dance. They sure hated to see that big clean floor cluttered up with fishing gear. But, John as a strict type with his girls and he didn’t approve of too much frolicking. So the girls went to work on their mother and she went to work on John, and well, you know how it is yourself. Anyway, John decided to have a big square dance. He never did things halfway. The whole lake - boats from Utopia, Tantie, Ritta and even, Moore Haven, came flocking there. That dance lasted for two days and two nights without ary a stop for breath. The women fried fish, Mart Manning butchered a yearling. Four fiddlers, with boys to beat time on strings, fiddled in shifts around the clock. Callers called till they plumb gave out. Shine jugs never stayed empty. Naturally, some scrimmages had to start, but with John Upthegrove and Sheriff Pogy Bill on hand, things would get smoothed out before anybody got hurt too much. And, of all the stomping, shouting and do-se-doing ever seed in your borned life. I recking that there was the most. John had to nail up more braces under his floor, but the frolic was a grand success, and I reckon the lake will never see another party like John Upthegroves’s holiday square dance!"

"Miss Annie" related several years ago that she recalled having a tree at Christmas time, but the decorations for it were mostly cut out of construction paper. Cables never caught on because they were too dangerous. By the time she and Hiram Raulerson married and set up housekeeping in Okeechobee in the mid to late 1920’s, trees and Christmas decorations were pretty much the standard that we are accustomed to today, she recalled.