Christmas is a time for cherished traditions; chestnuts roasting on an open fire, sleigh bells ringing in the frosty air, trimming the tree and going to grandmother’s house over the river and through the woods, and–watching fireworks in the yard with your family?

On Christmas Day 1883, Lawrenceburg residents were treated to a downtown fireworks display. As local court official W.T. Nixon wrote in his diary, “‘Old Santa’ came to our house last night and made us all happy. As usual the children’s stockings were well filled with goodies and small presents…and all of us happy and glad Christmas is here. We were up betimes to see some fire works in our front yard.”

Nixon and his family watched the Yuletide fireworks show from their front yard on Pulaski Street in Lawrenceburg, where The Hidden Garden is today. Although fireworks are now most associated with Independence Day and New Year’s Eve, they once served as an all-purpose outlet of celebration.

In 1879, Nixon wrote, “the holidays draw on apace and soon the festive Juvenile will glory in the noise and sulphrous smoke of that heathenish invention…the fire cracker.”