Probably the most unusual thing new this year is the replica of Laura Ingalls Wilder engagement ring from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. (scroll down linked page) I think it is probably out of better material than Laura’s original that was ordered out of the Montgomery Ward catalog. On that same page find plenty of Laura jewelery and, if you have your own Jack, I highly recommend Jack’s Puppy Treats (my dog Blue pops them like candy). I also saw a couple of ornaments I want for my Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas Tree. They’ve even put out a special online newsletter about what they are selling this year. They are also proud of their cloth dolls and flannel child sized PJs which are locally made.

Although the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Spring Valley, Minnesota is a smaller site they always have interesting and unusual pieces. This year they’ve introduced a glass ornament of their site. They sell one of my favorite Laura dolls, a cloth Almanzo doll. They also have 3 specially designed Playing Laura dresses for 18 inch fashion dolls.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa is also a smaller site with unique items. For stocking stuffers, they have laminated wooden bookmarks featuring a Burr Oak tree (I love mine) and slates and slate pencils.

The Ingalls Homestead of De Smet, South Dakota is offering free standard shipping on purchases over $50. They were surprised by how well Basic Country Skills, a new book they’ve stocked, is selling. It’s a how-to of pioneer skills. Another big seller is the hardcover set of Laura’s books in a wooden crate. They’ve introduced high quality tin cups produced by Jacob Bromwell which has been making tin cups since the 1830s, still handmade in the United States. Also, along with several of the other sites they are selling the Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura DVD which is a great companion for both a trip to Malone and the book Farmer Boy. It is of course also available from Malone.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum of Mansfield, Missouri has put together a special page of Christmas related items in their giftshop, including their awesome laser-cut ornaments of the Sewell cover illustrations, plus Rocky Ridge. They also are still promoting their DVD Laura Ingalls Wilder: Stories of Pioneer Girl.  It won’t let me link to sections within the giftshop. The DVD is under Collectibles and Gifts and the Christmas stuff is under Christmas.

The following Laura Ingalls Wilder sites are still open and allowing you to order for Christmas. I’m listing the cut off date for Christmas orders to reach you before Christmas as given to me by the homesites. The Walnut Grove museum is especially counting on mail orders this year because they normally get walk in traffic at the gift shop all winter, but they have construction going on right now so they are mail-order only this year.

Walnut Grove MN

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

Phone 1-800-528-7280

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 16th

De Smet SD

Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, Click on Gift Shop

Phone 1-800-880-3383

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 16th

Ingalls Homestead

Phone: 1-800-776-3594

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 21st (16th for regular mail), call if questions

Mansfield MO

Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum

Phone 1-877-924-7126 (Toll free)

Last Day for Priority Mail – Sometime between December 12th and the 16th

Malone NY

Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder Farm

Phone (518) 483-1207

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 1^4th

Malone also says for their set up, online ordering has a quicker response.

Spring Valley MN

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum (Store not online)

Phone (507) 346-7659

Last Day for Priority – December 10th

Burr Oak IA

Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum

Phone (563) 735-5916

Last Day for Priority – Not giving a last day, it’s up to the customer

And Don’t forget you can also get your Laura fan memories of Laurapalooza 2010 and gift memberships.

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube.

Almanzo Wilder Doll

The Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum have released the following event schedule for 2011. Although the mailing address is Malone and it is the bigger town, the farm itself is closer to the small town of Burke, New York and locals will refer to it being near Burke. The farm has quite a few events scheduled for this fall.

Open for the Season May 28-September 30

August 21
Adult Oil Painting Class with noted artist Wilson Bickford Limit 8-20 students; $55 including all materials and optional tour, registration required with non-refundable deposit of $25.
11:30 am Optional Tour of Wilder Farm
1:00-5:00 pm Art Class begins at 1:00 pm Call for more information.

September 18-24
“As Time Passes” – 2nd Annual Adult Juried Art Show. View juried works by local artists. Vote for ‘Best in Show.”
Gala Opening on the 18th, 4:00-6:00 pm Meet the artists and enjoy light refreshments in the Visitors’ Center

September 24
Annual Harvest Festival and Civil War Living History Encampment
10:00 am – 4:00 pm Reduced Admission: Adults $5, Children 6-16 $3, 5 and under Free. No guided tours. Family activities: pumpkin painting, scarecrow making, 19th century games, chapter reading from Farmer Boy and more.
1:00 pm Civil War Skirmish

September 25
Annual Harvest Festival and Civil War Living History Encampment
10:00 am – 4:00 pm Homestead open – Regular Admission and Guided Tours
10:00 am Church service with Civil War Re-Enactors
11:00 am Civil War Skirmish

December 3
Celebrate Christmas With Almanzo
11:00 am – 3:00 pm Free Admission
11:30 am & 1:00 pm Readings of Christmas chapter of Farmer Boy. Adult must accompany and remain with children.
Enjoy homemade cookies, mulled cider, Christmas Carols and shopping in our gift shop. Complimentary gift wrapping from purchases.

If you want to know, the Almanzo Wilder doll was purchased at the Spring Valley, Minnesota Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum gift shop.

Granted, they don’t look all that much like Mother Wilder’s donuts, but hey, they’re donuts made from scratch right on the property. What’s not to love?

And we can vouch: they were scrumptious.

Pepin, Wisconsin - May 15th

Independence, Kansas  - April 1st

Walnut Grove, Minnesota – April 1st

Burr Oak, Iowa - April 1st

Spring Valley, Minnesota - June 1st

De Smet, South Dakota - Remains open all year for limited hours but extends hours and opens Sat. starting May 2nd and is open 7 days a week starting June 1st.

Ingalls Homestead  in De Smet, South Dakota – May 28th

Mansfield, Missouri - March 1st

Malone/ Burke, New York  - May 28th

Keystone – June 1st

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube and Blog Talk Radio

Wilder Barns Burn

But don’t panic — this is no recent devastation, but rather, a headline culled from an 1851 edition of the Franklin Gazette, courtesy of the Franklin County Historical Society in New York.  The Wilder family at this time was much smaller than the family you know from Farmer Boy. Almanzo and Alice were not yet born, Eliza Jane was probably just learning her bossy ways at the age of 18 months, Royal was three, and the oldest sister Laura (not mentioned in Farmer Boy) was six years old.

Isn’t it fascinating that the buildings were insured? The questions that little tidbit raises… how much did such a policy cost? What losses would it cover? Was insurance typical for farmers in the area, or is this another sign of the Wilders’ affluence that Laura portrays in Farmer Boy? Anyone out there knowledgeable about the insurance business of the mid-1800s?

First up, do they have a complete set of the books yet? If not, a set of their own is a great place to start. The three most common editions currently available are hardback, full color illustration paperback, and pencil drawing illustration paperbacks. (Note that the full color illustrations do no have all the illustrations shown in the pencil illustration versions in the later books in the series.) They are also available as books on CD as read by Tony winning actress Cherry Jones.

Second, interest in Laura is wide spread enough to support many books about Laura and her life. Here are some suggestions.

Prairie Girl by William T. Anderson – an 80 page introduction to Laura’s life

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography by William T. Anderson – a 256 page version of Laura’s life without footnotes, written at a jr. high/high school level, but very approachable for adults as well

Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder by John E. Miller – the best scholarly biography on Laura, “choked with facts” and a treat for any devoted Laura fan

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life by Pamela Smith Hill – more of a literary analysis than biography this newest biography from the South Dakota State Historical Society provides an in depth analysis of Laura’s writing

Third, there are books that help you feel more a part of Laura’s world.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Country by William T. Anderson and Leslie Kelly – photographs of Laura Ingalls Wilder  homesites around the country

Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook by Eugenia Garson – a collection of sheet music to songs in the “Little House” books with notations where they appear in the books

Little House Cookbook by Barbara Walker – a collection of historic recipes as made in the books

Fourth, get them a replica of something out of the books.

Many young Laura fans start a Laura collection with a bonnet or apron. Although you might be able to make your own or from a local source the homesite gift shops also sell them (see list below).

In a very memorable scene in the first book of the series, Little House in the Big Woods, Laura gets her first rag doll for Christmas. In the books, she is called Charlotte. Every homesite gift shop sells their own version.

Also, in that first book, Ma receives a china shepherdess figurine. In all of the rest of the books, a house truly becomes a home once Ma puts out the china shepherdess. There are three replica versions of this figurine available. Walnut Grove, Minnesota’s looks the most like the version used on the TV show, but it is made of resin, not china. The version sold at Mansfield, Missouri is designed by children’s book author/illustrator Cheryl Harness. The version sold at De Smet Memorial Society in South Dakota was designed by a local artist.

Ingalls Homestead tells me that their biggest seller is a tin cup. Laura and Mary each got a tin cup for Christmas the year they were in Independence, Kansas.

Laura’s faithful companion through the first half of the series is her faithful bulldog Jack. Most of the homesites have at least one (and in some cases many) stuffed versions of her faithful friend for you to cuddle with.

A final touch of the books might be a recording of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s voice. Laura Ingalls Wilder Speaks is a CD with the only known recording of Laura’s voice and Pa’s real fiddle playing music. Laura reads a thank-you letter to school children in California as an older woman, but it’s our Laura’s voice. There are a number of Laura music CDs brought out by different artists and groups. This is the only one with Pa’s real fiddle so that you can really hear it. Of all the Laura music CDs I own my other favorite is a Tribute to Charles “Pa” Ingalls. It also features Pa’s real fiddle accompanied by, apparently, the world’s first bluegrass symphony orchestra. Other fans prefer other recordings see them listed in the online stores.

Fifth, a gift that keeps on giving. If your Laura fan isn’t a member in the organizations that support Laura yet, each homesite has its own fan membership and the group that supports this website and the Laurapalooza conference is also offering gift memberships. (Most of the time I was growing up my mother bought me one life membership in a different Laura organization each year for Christmas.) A subscription to the Homesteader newsletter (the site independent newsletter – which I am a contributing editor for) or a set of back issues can also help her learn more.

Sources

While you can get many of these Laura based presents from multiple sources (unless otherwise noted), we urge you when possible to shop at Laura homesite museums. These museum dedicated to Laura get no regular backing from her estate and rely on admissions, donations, and gift shop sales to stay open for us to visit and preserve Laura’s legacy.

The following Laura Ingalls Wilder sites are still open and allowing you to order for Christmas. I’m listing the cut off date for Christmas orders to reach you before Christmas as given to me by the homesites.

Walnut Grove MN

Phone 1-800-528-7280

http://www.walnutgrove.org/store

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 16th

De Smet SD

Memorial Society

Phone 1-800-880-3383

http://www.liwms.com Click on Holiday Guide or Gift Shop

Last Day for Priority Mail – Aren’t listing one

Ingalls Homestead

Phone: 1-800-776-3594

http://www.ingallshomestead.com/giftshop.html

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 21st

Mansfield MO

Phone 1-877-924-7126 (Toll free)

http://www.lauraingallswilderhome.com/categories.php

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 20th

Malone NY

Phone (518) 483-1207

http://almanzowilderfarm.com/store.htm

Last Day for Priority Mail – December 15^th

Malone also says for their set up, online ordering has a quicker response.

And Don’t forget you can also get your Laura fan memories of Laurapalooza 2010

http://beyondlittlehouse.com/laurapallooza-liw-conference-in-minnesota-in-summer-2010/laurapalooza-merchandise/

Sarah S. Uthoff blogs at TrundleBed Tales; look for her on Twitter and YouTube.

Dean Butler, whom many will remember as the actor who played Almanzo Wilder on the Little House on the Prairie television series, produced a Wilder-related documentary last fall, Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura, which can be purchased exclusively at the Wilder Farm in Burke, New York. Unlike the many movie and television adaptations of Laura’s books that leave many dissatisfied due to liberties taken, Butler’s production was impressively well-researched, historically factual as well as true to Laura’s stories, and of high quality, leaving even the most finicky Wilder fans pleased and wholeheartedly satisfied.

Judging from the itinerary Butler has shared thus far on his blog, it appears his Laura documentary will be just as wonderful. After all, how many Little House movie/television producers or directors do you think have visited the Rose Wilder Lane Collection in the archives at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library?

I have a sneaking hunch that Michael Landon never did.

This weekend — September 12-13 — celebrate Laura Ingalls Wilder Days in Pepin, Wisconsin — the Little House in the Big Woods.

And next weekend — September 18-20 — is Wilder Days in Mansfield, Missouri, the final home of Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

And the following weekend — September 26 — is the annual Harvest Festival in Malone, New York, boyhood home of Almanzo Wilder and the setting for Farmer Boy.

All three events are filled with lots of good old-fashioned pioneer fun! Bring along the family or some friends and enjoy!